Following the civil war, internal strife, and rampant corruption, Cambodia is making strides to improve its social and economic environment, per capita income, and access to education. Yet, the majority of its citizens face limited educational and economic opportunities and a lack of basic infrastructure, especially in poverty-ridden rural areas. According to the National Strategic Development Plan for 2006-2010, 90% of Cambodians who live below the poverty line live in rural areas, which are afflicted with low agricultural productivity rates and limited access to education and basic services.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), half of the world’s workers are found in agriculture, and 40% (some 440 million workers) are found in waged employment. Many women are working in agriculture throughout the world, often in the most precarious situations. Women now account for 20-30 percent of total agricultural waged employment. The work children perform in agriculture is often invisible, because they assist their parents in task work or other forms of work organization. Because this work is not recognized, nor easily recorded in statistics, it goes largely unnoticed. This creates a cycle of poverty and affects the future of children since their access to education and training is greatly reduced. In addition, agriculture is one of the three most dangerous industries (along with mining and construction). Half of all the workplace fatalities are in agriculture alone. Children who live in poor, rural communities face the greatest risk from hazardous and exploitative agricultural labor. The risks are many. Children pick crops still dripping with pesticides or spray the chemicals themselves. For example, death from pesticides poisoning on farms and plantations is greater than from other childhood diseases such as malaria and tetanus.
Skin, eye, respiratory or nervous problems occur in children exposed to pesticides. Children harvesting tobacco experience nausea, vomiting and fainting from nicotine poisoning. Frequent awkward or heavy lifting and repetitive muscle sprains can permanently injure growing spines or limbs, especially if poorly designed equipment is being used.
Children face poisonous snakes and insects, and cut themselves on tough stems and on the tools they use. Rising early to work in the damp and cold, often barefoot and inadequately dressed, they develop chronic coughs and pneumonia.
It cannot automatically be assumed that children working on small "family farms" do not face these risks. In many countries, farms fitting this description produce much or most of the agricultural grains and/or fresh produce, and they may be mechanized with small machines and make heavy use of pesticides. Small farms are as likely as larger commercial enterprises to misuse chemicals, through lack of education and training in their handling. (Source: “Bitter Harvest” by Alec Fyfe, ILO 1997 – Revised version)
The ILO Cambodia Child Labor Survey (2001) showed that out of the total population of 12.3 million, about 4.3 million (35%) were children in the age group of 5 to 17 years. Among 5 to 14 year olds, about 1.5 million children or 44.8% were working children. Most working children live in rural areas (84.3%). The survey found that among this demographic group, 67% worked between 15 to 34 hours a week. Most of them attended school part-time. The agricultural sector (agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing) accounted for seven out of every ten of all child workers aged 5-17 years in Cambodia. There are more boys (76.1%) than girls (69.1%) who work and almost nine out of ten working children were unpaid family workers (86.6%); the rest are either paid employees or work part time.
The Royal Government of Cambodia has targeted the reduction of child Labor from 16.5% in 1999 to 13% in 2005 to 10.6% in 2010 and to 8% in 2015. Guided by this frameworks, Cambodia is now working towards achieving the overall ILO goal of ending the Worst Forms of Child Labor by the year 2016.
The RGC has also drafted a National Plan of Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor (NPA WFCL) 2006-2012 which is a prerequisite to achieving its targets in policy frameworks.
Child labor in agriculture is prevalent in the majority of the provinces in Cambodia. In Cambodia the proportion of children working in agriculture in 1996 was about 90% as compared with 65% in the Philippines. On the other hand, the level of working children in wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels was 17% in the Philippines and 7% in Cambodia. (Source: Statistics on Working Children and Hazardous Child Labor, Kebebew Ashagrie, ILO Bureau of Statistics, Geneva, October 1997)
Agricultural child laborers work on all types of undertakings, ranging from family farms to commercial plantations. A great majority of children work on their parents' or relatives small subsistence farm or holding, often on a regular basis after school, on the weekend, during school holidays or even full time when they are still not of the minimum age to work legally. Moreover, parents encourage child labor as a contribution to family survival.
According to an ILO report on child labor in agriculture, working children – irrespective of whether they work on their parents' farms, or are hired to work on the farms of others, face more serious physical and psychological risks than adults just because their minds and bodies are still developing. The harm that they suffer as children may endanger their physical and physiological development for the rest of their lives.
Agriculture is a complex and heterogeneous economic sector comprised of a number of sub-sectors. It involves agricultural production methods that differ from country to country and between developed and developing countries. It ranges from mechanized, intensive commercial to traditional small-scale, subsistence-type farming. “Agriculture” covers different types of farming activities, such as crop production, horticultural/fruit production, livestock rising, livestock-food preparation, forestry activities, fish farming, and insect populations. It also includes many other associated activities: the primary processing and packaging of agricultural and animal products, crop storage, pest management, and domestic tasks (carrying of water, fuel-wood, etc.), It can include any process, operation, transport or storage directly related to agricultural production. (Source: Tackling hazardous child Labor in agriculture: Guidance on policy and practice, ILO Geneva)
According to the recent CHES baseline survey, out of 54.2% children engaged in family income work that mainly involve rice plantation, 53.6% reported that they are required to work 8 or more hours. Similarly, children engaged in independent work that mainly involves rice plantation and collection of Non-Timber Forest Product, 15% of the children indicated that the work takes up 4-8 hour each day. In addition, out of 58.7% of children engaged in employment work that mainly involve rice plantation, 33.6% reported that they are required to work 4-8 hours and 11.5% are required to work more than 8 hours per day.
Moreover, 46% of all children reported fever, dizziness or headaches as the main health problems in their work. 11.2% of children got cuts from cutting grass and young trees and had lower back pains (6.8%). This is the third most reported health problem. It was also evident that some children face accidents with chemicals and burns.
The CHES baseline survey has also revealed that agriculture work among children effects their school attendance when they are retained at home for work. For example, the attendance rate of children taking up household work is 71.3%. Similarly, the attendance rates for children working on their family income is 63.8%, children doing independent work is 61.9% and attendance of children engaged in employed work is 65.5%.