3071-The political economy of new slavery

166 Child Labour, Education and Child Rights Among Cocoa Producers in Ghana
remote villages with little legal infrastructure. In many cases outlawing
all child labour would only exacerbate the difficulties facing farmers
for whom it is often the best choice given the constraints they face.
Using their own children rather than a paid labourer is, in some cases,
the only way they can save enough money to pay for education for
those children. Other factors to take into consideration include whether
the local school is worth the financial sacrifices it entails. Some schools
record a zero per cent success rate in final examinations and there
is widespread dissatisfaction with schools in rural areas. One farmer
told me that he intended to use his profits from the cocoa season to
open a small provisions store. He said he refused to carry on paying
school fees and sending his children to school as they had attended
school for many years and were still almost illiterate. The difficult issue
of schools in the rural sector will be further expanded on later in the
chapter.
Reconciling culture, policy and child rights
Development and campaigning organizations stressing children’s rights
to education and freedom from abusive labour are presenting a longterm
agenda that, given the magnitude of the problem, will take time
to benefit the children in question. When assessing what is in the best
interest of a child in an immediate sense, a balance has to be struck and
local conditions have to be taken into consideration. In certain cases it
may be better for a child to be acquiring valuable experience on a farm
they will later inherit than to be pushed into a poor-quality school
where they will learn little and be taking away most of the family
income. This may leave the family unable to pay for basic things such
as health care. Often there are no jobs available even for school leavers,
as an education is by no means a passport to employment in many
struggling Third World economies with high rates of unemployment.
The country paper on India, presented at the Fourth World Conference
on Women in Beijing, states that:
Poverty cannot be stamped out so easily; it has many dimensions
to it. Low earnings and low level of skill earning ability, lack of
assets and access to training or education are accompanied by poor
health, malnutrition, absence of shelter and food insecurity. The
characteristics associated with poverty thus extend well beyond
low incomes.
Government of India, 1994