SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Unfortunately, informal businesses and small
shops often employ children because they are
cheaper and less likely to raise questions around
benefits or the nature of the work, among other
reasons. Poverty forces many children to work
for their families. Whatever the cause, early
involvement in child labour results in lower
educational attainment, and later a struggle
to find decent employment, 37 with a strong
risk of being trapped in a cycle of poverty and
deprivation. It also negatively impacts children’s
health in ways that can extend into adulthood,
particularly among those working in hazardous
conditions.
Since child labour is a complex phenomenon,
reducing it requires actions on multiple fronts,
including education, health, labour markets,
social security and economic policy. Income
support to vulnerable families, more accessible
and higher quality secondary education, advocacy
and awareness building to educate parents,
and legislation to prevent child labour (Box 3.6)
are all critical. 38 Without implementing laws
on compulsory education, the minimum wage
and protection of children’s rights, countries
will have a more difficult task in tackling the
phenomenon.
BOX 3.6:
An activist calls for a complete ban
on child labour
Indian child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi,
the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has demanded
a complete ban on every kind of child
labour. Through his Bachpan Bachao Andolon
(Save the Children Movement) and the Global
March against Child Labour, he has freed tens
of thousands of children from forced labour
and what he calls modern day slavery. His work
reaches out to children forced into cheap labour
in factories and menial jobs, children pledged
by their parents to work off a debt, girls sold
in abusive marriages and children who are
trafficked.
Source: UNDP 2015a.
HEALTHY EARLY YEARS
LAST A LIFETIME
The rapid biological and psychosocial changes
that take place in childhood and adolescence
affect every aspect of adult life, making this
early period unique and important in laying
the foundations for good health, both for the
current generation and those to come. Health
is an end in itself and a critical factor for human
development as well as demographic transition,
particularly as more children survive and fertility
rates fall. A 1,000-day period beginning at
conception and continuing into infancy is known
as the age of opportunity, when sound health
has a direct effect on cognitive development. 39
Throughout childhood, sound health supports
the ability to learn and flourish. Healthy
behaviours can be established, such as those
around eating the right amounts of nutritious
food. As children move into adolescence, they
should have opportunities to develop strategies
to deal with risks and conflicts, and to make
healthy choices related to sexual activity, and the
use of tobacco and alcohol. Countries working
towards universal health coverage, in the context
of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development
Goals, need to pay adequate attention to
adolescents, since their specific needs tend to
otherwise be overlooked.
As a region, Asia-Pacific has made progress
on many health issues. But overall, it still struggles
with stark inequalities in health outcomes,
which are not only high between countries, but
also within them (Table 3.11). Child mortality
rates soar in poor households, in many rural
areas and where mothers have more limited education.
In Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic
Republic and Myanmar, for example, infants in
the poorest quintile of the population are three
times more likely to die than those in the richest.
In the Philippines, the mortality difference is
six-fold between mothers with no education and
those with secondary and higher education. 40
DECLINES IN INFANT MORTALITY
Improving child survival and child health is a
trigger for demographic transition, underlining
how countries still trailing behind need
95