Privileged children?
(CC0) Public Domain (edited)
This suggestive question is often asked by large international organisations in order to disqualify the movements of working children from the outset.
In the children's movements, children are organised who work under very different conditions: some work, for example, a few hours a day in self-determined collectives, others work on rubbish tips, in the fields or in the household. Still others have to make a living with the help of illegal business, sex work or drug trafficking and have to sleep on the streets at night. Almost all of these children live in material poverty.
However, children who work under worse conditions of course have less time, energy and (social as well as material) resources to engage in a children's movement.
The children's movements have come up with some ideas to help less privileged peers. For example, they offer income compensation for some activities in the amount of the lost income. There are also joint funds for individual emergency situations. The organised children also try to provide girls and boys suffering from exploitation with alternative employment opportunities. Furthermore, it should be emphasised that the commitment of "better-off children" also aims to help improve the situation of "worse-off" contemporaries.
Updated: 14.12.2020