Amid Calls for Social Justice, Kids Hawk Drinks

In Egypt, work is a way of life for children, even at Tahrir Square protests

CAIRO -- Mona was handing out bottles of water, collecting 1.5 Egyptian pounds apiece and placing it quickly into the small little pouch that held the money she had gathered for the day. It was hot, the July sun beating down on thousands of protestors as they staged a sit-in in Cairo’s central Tahrir Square.

Her customers were demanding greater change and social justice. However, for Mona -- age 12 and an obvious candidate to benefit from the protestors’ agenda -- the mass demonstration was nothing more than a perfect opportunity for her family to put her to work.

“They believe it’s a great chance to make extra money this summer because it’s hot and people need water,” the girl, dressed in an all-black galabeya, told The Media Line. She was one of a number of young workers’ braving the summer heat to earn a few extra pounds. “The money goes to my family, but they don’t come here to help.”

She is one of millions of young children forced into the labor market by their family or by poverty. Without social-support systems in the country, young children like Mona face long work days in order to earn extra money for their families. They don’t see much, if any, of the earnings.

“I’ve sold a lot of water, but when I get home, my father takes the money and goes out. I don’t like it, but they tell me I have to do this,” the young girl, who says she hasn’t attended school in two years and has spent the past three weeks in Tahrir selling water to local activists.

In July, Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) said that their latest national survey revealed the number of working children in the country was at 5.1 million.

The survey included children between the ages of five and 17. With Egypt’s economy in the doldrums and inflation accelerating, it is likely that more children have been joining the workforce this year.

Gen. Abou Bakr Al-Gendy, head of CAPMAS, said at a press conference to release the statistics that 46% of working children are between the ages of 15 and 17 and that 4.87 million of those give their parents the money they earn. A little more than a fifth of working children are female. He added that 120,000 of the working children do not attend school and 487,000 have dropped out completely.

Al-Gendey adds that the largest percentage of the children work in agriculture, where the rate of females is higher, although he did not give a specific number.

Egypt’s under-14 population numbers about 26.8 million, so if CAPSMAS figures are correct about 10% of the country’s children are employed.

Al-Gendey, speaking to The Media Line in late August, said the government is looking to implement a new series of strategies that will tackle the rise in young children working for their families instead of going to school.

“We are currently developing a number of ideas that will hopefully help remove young boys and girls from the streets,” he says. “One of those ways is to improve the minimum wage in Egypt. With such low wages, families often feel they have to have their children on the streets working so they can eat daily, but this can end when the parents are receiving appropriate salaries.”

Ironically, the activists in Tahrir who bought water from the young workers have been calling for greater social justice and an increase in the minimum wage. However, for many of the activists the scene was a sign that change is not going to come, either from the government or what a handful of protesters said was the “hypocrisy of the protesters themselves.”

Farah al-Ghoneim, a 22-year-old university student studying journalism, says she has been a part of the protest movement since it erupted on January 25, but became alienated from it with the anti-military stances taken by the Tahrir sit-in demonstrators in July and from the failure to give priority to Egypt’s poorest.

“I was there because I honestly believe we can have a better country based on democracy and social justice, but when we sit there and chant for democracy and social justice and don’t demand as our top priorities a better life for those who suffer greatest, it hurts and is not useful,” she says.

Mohamed, a 19-year-old carpenter in the Cairo neighborhood of Sayeda Zeinab, agrees. He knows about life on the street and child workers. He spent his teenage years working long hours to help support his parents, who couldn’t find much work for themselves apart from a few odd jobs. When he was 17 years old, he refused to work from sunrise to well past sunset, and decided to leave.

“I knew it would hurt them and they would struggle, but I spent seven years working so much and didn’t go to school. I can barely read. At least now I have work, but it isn’t right,” he explains. “When I saw the revolution start I was so excited because I believed it would help the young people who struggle in this country. But it’s done very little, and more children are on the streets. It isn’t right.”

Mohamed pulls out his hands and reveals massive scaring. He says he had to learn on the job growing up and many times the nail would miss its spot and lodge in his hand. For him, minimum wage and education are part of the battle.

“We need to know that children deserve to go to school and not be working because it is not good,” he says, pointing out that he agrees the military is not doing enough now to change the country. “But the activists aren’t thinking about the people either, they only care about being famous.”

That appears to be the crux of the matter for the younger generation forced to work on the streets for long hours in order to bring home a few extra pounds. With nearly half of Egypt’s 80 million people living on roughly $2 per day, those extra pounds do go far, but at what cost, asked Al-Gundey.

“We have a major problem with working children and it has to be solved. Higher wages and better social problems can ease this, but it takes society to demand change,” he argues.

For Mona, who has moved to the busy Qasr Al-Aini street within stones throw of the square since the military forcibly removed the protesters from Tahrir Square, life remains much as it has for the past few years. She wakes up early, takes what little money her parents give her and heads out, bucket and ice in hand.

“I do this everyday and we usually make around 15 pounds a day,” she says. Asked about friends and school, she turns her eyes to the ground. “I don’t have friends and I don’t go to school. I am very sad.”

By Joseph Mayton on Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Source: The Media Line.
Link: http://www.themedialine.org/news/print_news_detail.asp?NewsID=33178.