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