According to ILO estimates (Global child labour trends 2000 to 2004 (Geneva, ILO), April 2006) there are some 317.4 million children aged 5 to 17 engaged in some form of economic activity in the world (2004), including 190.7 million in the age group from 5 to 14 years. “Economic activity” encompasses most productive activities of children: it includes both work that is permissible under the ILO child labour Conventions and that is not. “Child labour”, however, is a narrower concept: it excludes the activities of children 12 years and older who are working only a few hours a week in permitted light work and those of children 15 years and above whose work is not classified as “hazardous”. ILO action targets the elimination of child labour as defined in the ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), and the ILO Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), and not all economic activities of children. The same ILO-IPEC’s research identified an estimated: 217.7 million children in child labour aged 5 to 17 years, of which 165.8 million were below the age of 15 and 107.6 million below the age of 12; and 126.3 million child labourers working in hazardous situations or conditions of which 74.3 million children were below 15 years of age.

The problem of child labour is immense and its elimination requires the concerted effort of a number of key players (governments, international organizations, employers and their organizations, trade unions, NGOs, local communities, the children themselves and their parents). In the most successful instances, these “actors” collaborate together in designing and/or carrying out sustained, long-term and comprehensive approaches to combating the problem.

To combat effectively against child labour and in particular against its worst forms, a better understanding of gender issues is fundamental: in fact, the number of working girls is often underestimated by statistical surveys; however, reality says that a large proportion of children involved in child labour are girls, especially when the unregulated, informal sector such as domestic work is concerned.

There are numerous differences between boys and girls, even within child labour: levels of access to basic services such as health, education and employment services tend to differ among boys and girls and thus have a profound impact on their chances in the labour market and in their vulnerability to situations of child labour. Parents tend to have different expectations of daughters and sons. Children are socialized from an early age to copy the gender roles of their parents; for example, boys are expected to take after their father and girls after their mother. Gender discrimination for traditional or religious reasons prevents girls from having access to education and vocational training and pushes them into early marriage. The latter often compel girls to leave their home communities in search of employment in order to be able to purchase their marriage trousseau. The prevalence of gender-defined roles is a key determinant of the sector of activity of both girls and boys. Boys tend to work in the mining and agriculture sectors or to partake in cart pushing or fishing activities while girls tend to primarily be engaged in domestic work, hawking of foods and in work in local restaurants. These socially assigned roles predispose girls to working in sectors that are not regulated by law (e.g. domestic work, restaurant and entertainment) where the risks of further exploitation including sexual exploitation are significant, especially for girls that do not have legal status. These and other factors explain why, while dealing with child labour issues, it is important to wear a “gender lens”, to take into account and to promote gender equality, and to ensure that boys and girls have equal access to and control over resources and the same chances to succeed in life.

The problem of child labour also exists in Turkey: according to a survey made in 1999, the number of working children between the age of 6 and 14 amounted to 511.000, and over 1.1 million of children aged 15-17 were also working. Child labour affects urban and agricultural areas, where children endure dangerous working conditions and long working hours. Both the formal and the informal sector are affected, and young boys and girls are deprived of the opportunity to go to school because they have to work.

In spite of considerable concern as to the scale and nature of the problem, as well as significant efforts to combat it, child labour still persists as a problem facing Turkey today. This persistence must be examined in terms of the surrounding causes to which child labour is generally attributed, notably, interrelated demographic, economic, social and cultural factors.

The mainstreaming of gender equality concerns into all programme areas constitutes a critical challenge towards achieving the aims of the projects on child labour. Capacity building for gender mainstreaming needs to incorporate advocacy efforts to raise consciousness of gender issues at all levels. The ability to integrate the gender dimension into programming activities and strategy formation needs to be developed and complemented with an emphasis on institutional reform to achieve gender equity and equality. This will involve mainstreaming gender concerns into national and regional programmes related to child labour and the implementation of gender-sensitive and action-oriented policies in all relevant sectoral areas. In terms of gender equality, this will involve addressing men and the role of male dominance in existing social structures.

This component will feature a critical re-examination of child labour programmes in terms of identifying specific needs of working boys and girls and the subsequent reformulation of policies and plans and the development of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms that appropriately address this gender gap. Networking activities will permit knowledge sharing through the dissemination of gender mainstreaming manuals and other tools and their adaptation to specific settings.

While some achievements have been made in terms of generating indicators for programme monitoring and policy research for the integration of gender concerns into social policy development, much more work is needed to sustain and institutionalize these efforts. Through technical support, capacities for gender planning and programming can systematically be built to ensure substantive research, analysis and development of appropriate strategies and activities. In this context, and within the framework of the “Eradicating the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Turkey” Project, that the ILO-IPEC Ankara Office has considered timely to organize a specific training course for members of the Child Labour Unit (CLU), to strengthen their capacity to conduct their work and actions against child labour with a more gender sensitive approach. The course will provide an overview of gender sensitive strategies and tools to reach both girls and boys when combating harmful child labour practices. It will address the specific constraints of girls and young women prone to or engaged in child labour, and it will provide participants with some useful instruments to better consider gender equality at the institutional level and while working with main stakeholders involved in the fight against child labour.