Child labor in Egypt: The Young at Work
"A man who gives his children habits of industry provides for them
better than by giving them a fortune."
-Richard Whately
Overview
In 1988 four million underage children were working in Egypt. Throughout
the country children are forced to work
in order to help with their families economic problems, sometimes
contributing from twenty-three to thirty percent of their family's total
income. Working children under the age of sixteen make-up thirty-two
percent of the total labor force. Of these children more than half work
for more than twelve hours a day, and a quarter of them spend the night in
the factories or workshops. The highest concentration of child workers
are found in the poor districts of Cairo and outlying cities. Child labor
is also found in the countryside where children work in the cotton
industries and perform hard physical labor in
unsanitary conditions. Child laborers are stripped of a childhood and
education and therefore do no have the time to make friends or play games.
Reforms to End Child Labor
Currently bills are being passed and programs are being put into effect to
end child labor in Egypt under the leadership of Suzanne Mubarak (the
first lady). The International Labor Organization (ILO) enables children
to work during the day and receive vocational training at night. The
Center For Human Rights Leagal Aid (CHRLA) is pushing the government to
create a social net that will end the need for poor families to send their
children to work. The Child Labor Law has been created to prohibit
children younger than fourteen to work. Hopefully some of these attempts
will be successful but child labor will always be cheaper and less
demanding than adult labor.
References:
Little
improvement to children's rights new legislation lacks necessary
safeguard. (1997, May 11). CHRLA. (1998, October 20).
Proctor, S. (1998, November). Minor Offense. Business Today.
http://www.businesstoday-eg.com/minor.htm (1998, October 20). (this site
no longer exists)
Waguih, A. (1997, December 21). Working
children's new hope. Middle East Times
(1998, October 20).
The purpose of this page is to inform browsers about the current status of
child labor in Egypt. This page was written in the Fall 1998 by
Nicole
Friedman, Kristi
Oppenheim, and Erica Tennenbaum and is part of The
Children of Egypt created by Nicole Friedman, Kristi
Oppenheim, Tara Russel, and Erica Tennenbaum for Tulane University's Children and Society
,a Freshman Writing Seminar taught by Professor April
Brayfield.
You can view other country
profiles created by our classmates to see how the lives of children
vary in different regions.