(RLDS) - Addis Ababa University

activists about the situation of children all over the world and goods produced in third world
countries using child labor.
3.2. Conceptualizing Child labor
3.2.1. Conceptual Frame Work
There is no simple definition of child labor as well as child work neither is there universally accepted criteria as to what constitutes child labor or
child work. On the literature there has been a semantic argument on the issue for long. The argument starts from the language usage itself since
many languages do not have words that consider child labor and child work separately. On the other hand some argued that the labour work
differentiation doesn’t involve the children themselves. As a result it is considered as ‘adult devised conceptualization’ that neglected the view of
the children themselves (Ennew 1994; Myer 1998;IWGCL 1998)
To address this confusion many suggestions have been developed. Whites have developed continuum model arguing that it is better if both child
labour and child work is dropped. He argues that the term child labour is an emotionally toned word and usually it is identified with abolitionist
approach. He developed his argument by saying the labour work distinction is too simplistic which don’t show the real face of child labour.
Further he argues that even if we are able to delineate between child work and labour. In most cases since the defining criteria are not specific the
economic activities of children will fall with the work category and it will be difficult to identify between types of work. White concludes by
saying “attempt to distinguish between labour and work will end up by being too concrete, too specific, too contradictory, too illogical and most
importantly, out of in touch with view of children” (IWGCL 1998:37).
According to Whites the intolerable form of children’s economic participation is not to be
tolerated with or without any kind of modifications. This in most cases refers to child
prostitution, child slavery, kidnapping and bonded labour. Next to the intolerable forms of
children economic participation is detrimental or hazardous form of employment. Following this
is the neutral and positive beneficial forms of employment. The first refers neither to the
detrimental nor beneficial forms of children employment while the latter one refers to the
beneficial forms of employment. He further suggests that there is a need to establish criteria to
identify the position of economic activities on the continuum. Even though the model is a
universal one when it comes to implementation it takes into considerate the cultural context in
which the economic activity is taking place.
The model is not without limitations as well. Whites acknowledge the fact that it is difficult to identify clear representative criteria’s to clearly
position the economic activity in the continuum. However its major limitation is its failure to define clearly what is beneficial or detrimental. It is
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