Child Labour in Thailand: Best Practice Guide

In 1992, the Child Labour Information Centre (CLIC) was established in the Women and Child Labour Division of the MOLSW, with funding from IPEC and staff and material support from the Thai government. As well as acting as a library and resource centre, the CLIC is responsible for assembling data on child labour, which is collected from provincial officers. Using that and other data, the CLIC published Child Labour Indicators 1996, which includes a wide range of statistical tables which presenting both detailed child labour data, inspection results etcetera, and information on a wide range of other social and economic data to present an overall picture of the context affecting child labour in Thailand.

The CLIC is also responsible for coordinating networking in child labour issues, and as part of that role aims to produce a monthly newsletter on child labour issues, which began in 1993. Three thousand copies of each issue are produced and delivered to government and non-government organisations, labour unions, employers and other relevant individuals. The director of the CLIC is a former deputy director of the Department of Labour and Social Welfare and her contacts and interest have been essential in maintaining its role, as the centre has suffered from receiving only sporadic funding and delays in funding which have significantly hampered its work. Without IPEC funding the centre would have no operational budget, and this is a situation which appears likely to continue for the foreseeable future. (Operational costs are about one million baht per year.)

Additionally, Thammasart University has been developing a database on child labour, in conjunction with an IPEC project to provide technical support to other child labour development efforts discussed under section 3.4 below. It chose to develop this project as it was felt the CLIC could not meet the needs of the organisations seeking technical support for projects from Thammasart staff and it wanted to develop as a "one-stop shop" in which organisations could obtain data, advice and technical support. Unfortunately, however, there has been no coordination between these two efforts, and examination of the material being collected, particularly in the area of statistical indicators, shows very considerable duplication with other efforts known to the researchers, including those of the Women's Information Centre in the Office of the National Commission of Women's Affairs. As is common with many of these projects, there are difficulties in obtaining and retaining computer staff and funding to update data.

Thammasart University has hopes of eventually making the database self-supporting, by charging for its use and establishing a trust fund and utilising the interest to meet ongoing costs. As there is no tradition of such paid services in Thailand, or provision for such built into official budgets or project proposals, this appears likely to present some difficulties, however, and ensuring adequate income is likely to be a major obstacle.

At the provincial level, the Centres for Women and Child Labour (discussed in some detail in section 3.4) also have responsibility for collecting data. The degree to which this responsibility has been implemented appears to vary considerably between centres, from no activities to considerable activity, but even the most active appear to have encountered a number of obstacles. The most important of these appears to be lack of expertise in handling statistical data, in addition to lack of specific budget allocations for the task.

The Chiang Mai centre, a relatively active and efficient one, has made attempts to collect data through the village volunteers (See Appendix III, Case C) and by enlisting school children, with support from their teachers and Ministry of Education officials, to complete surveys. This project was conducted through a two-stage mechanism. Teachers asked each Grade Six student to complete a "survey" on their own family, and groups of five students from each class, under the supervision of the teacher, compiled this data. Chiang Mai Centre staff said they believed this was the fastest and most efficient method of gathering detailed data on children's future after they finished Grade Six.

However currently, while the data has been collected, there has been no compilation or analysis of it, which staff say is due to a lack of funding and expertise. An additional problem is that even if Chiang Mai Centre were able to effectively compile and analyse this data, it would be unlikely to be transmitted or promoted outside the province. There would be no automatic transmission of the data to the MOLSW in Bangkok, or any mechanism to utilise it there, and if each province were to pursue its own collection and analysis methods, the differences in data would make it impossible to use it in the compilation of meaningful national statistics.

3.3.2 Activities and Projects

Any effort to collect information on child labour must ultimately be reliant on many other agencies for data, and throughout the Thai system there are concerns about the reliability of much of the information collected. For example, data given by the Provincial Education Office in Chiang Rai indicates over 95 percent continuation rates between Grade Six and Seven, and between Grade Nine and Ten, a figure for which the Office received a national award. But this data is based on surveys of children's reported intentions in the earlier grades, and observers from other sources in the province express considerable doubts about these figures. Among other potential sources of error, they suggest that schools may not record drop-out rates during the school year, and these figures do not appear to include hill tribe children whose parents do not have full citizenship, a group still largely denied access to formal secondary school, despite a government decision to allow their entry.

A number of significant individual research projects have been conducted, primarily with ILO and IPEC funding. These can be divided into two broad groups. Early studies during the mid 1980s tended to look at the situation of children across a range of industrial employment and to be focused on welfare issues. This was relevant to the concerns of the time, and certainly was effective in raising awareness of child labour issues by pointing out the health, social, psychological and other damage child labour could cause.

More recent research has tended to be more narrowly focused, on particular industries such as the fishing industry or in small geographic areas, such as the excellent study by Chantana on child labour households in rural communities, discussed in Chapter 2. Other research, commissioned by IPEC, has charted the progress of projects it funded.

Much of the research has suffered, however, from being descriptive rather than analytical. The conditions of work of the children, their personally-stated reasons for working and general background are described, but there has been little real analysis of the reasons for their becoming child labour. Reasons why their employment fails to comply with the law, or with international standards, or an examination of the real causes pushing them to work, are frequently lacking. Similarly, data on project outcomes, expenditure, number of people trained and similar has been collected, but there has been little or no real analysis of whether or not projects have actually made a difference to the number or situation of child workers.

Also, some of the research has not been linked to projects or activities, so while it has identified particular areas of significant concern, such as the fishing industry, little or no action has flowed from them. The considerable research conducted in this area has played its part in encouraging lobbying for a new law to cover child workers in the industry (which has yet to achieve broad support), but has not produced any projects or activities to address either the serious welfare concerns in the area or the underlying cause of the child labour problems in the industry.

A further area of very considerable research is in child prostitution. Much of the published material in this area is, however, repetitive, and suffers from the same lack of analytical approaches as encountered in other areas of child labour research.

A recently-instituted IPEC project has attempted to utilise ILO expertise in developing quantitative data on child labour, as developed through methodological experiments in a number of countries. This research was originally to be conducted through the MOLSW and the National Statistic Office, with the aim of strengthening the capacity of those institutions to carry out such work. However, they felt unable to conduct the work, so it was subcontracted to the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA).

In a pilot project a survey was conducted in Kanchanburi and Ubonratchatani, trialling four methods of data collection: At the village level surveying the nature of households; interviewing the head of household; interviewing child workers at home, schools or workplaces; and, interviewing employers at workplaces that employ children. Problems have however been encountered in effectively collecting and analysing the data.

3.4 Impact of Capacity-Building Programmes in Strategic Sectors

A major capacity building project in strategic sectors, particularly key areas of the MOLSW and NGOs, has been conducted since 1994 by the Social Research Department of Thammasart University, establishing a Centre for Training, Advisory and Consulting Services on Child Labour. One Thammasart academic went to the International Training Centre of the ILO in Turin to receive information and training, include a training handbook which was translated into Thai and adapted for local circumstances. This focuses on the key areas of project design, management and evaluation, areas in which it is recognised virtually all organisations in Thailand are weak. Since 1994, groups of officers, usually three to four from each project, from organisations involved in about 18 IPEC projects have undergone four days of training in these areas. With a particular problem acknowledged in meeting ILO financial reporting requirements, a special computer programme for this purpose has been developed in the Thai language.

This project is being extended into 1997-98, with an emphasis on attempting to move towards increasing utilisation of the skills of Thammasart staff for advisory and consulting services for projects, (primarily but not solely those conducted by IPEC). This is a difficult task, as there is no tradition among NGOs or government organisations of accessing such services and particularly among NGOs, cultural constraints suggest they should not "interrupt" academics with small queries, so Thammasart currently only tends to be consulted when major difficulties have developed. It is however very valuable in dealing with these issues, and it is hoped that as personal relationships develop, closer contact will be maintained.

(a) Enforcement of Legislation

As outlined under section 3.2.3 above, there are three primary structures which have lead responsibility for initiating a legal response to cases of child labour. Within Bangkok there are two different structures, one being when cases are reported directly to the Child Protection Unit in the MOLSW, the other when they are reported to one of the 19 sector offices responsible for child labour issues in the city and surrounding region. The procedure in each case will be examined in some detail, as it demonstrates some of the successes and failures in capacity-building in relevant institutions.

In line with the Cabinet recommendations of 1993, the Child Protection Unit in Bangkok operates a hotline service, advertised on radio programmes and with paid radio advertisements, pamphlets, stickers, posters, etcetera, to encourage members of the public to report cases of child labour they encounter. These indicate that in provincial areas, the police or provincial labour office should be contacted. (The pamphlets also contain a brief outline of the legal provisions controlling the employment of child labour.) The Bangkok hotline records an average of about 10 calls per month, about 50 percent of which prove to be verifiable cases of abuse of child workers.

A recent example was the case of a suburban garment factory whose neighbours reported it had foreign children working illegally. Officers from the central Child Protection Unit attended and found three children from Lao PDR aged from 15 to 17 years who had only been working there for five days, having been taken there by a middleman from their home province. The officials arranged for the children to receive the statutory minimum wage for each day they had worked, then handed them over to the Department of Public Welfare, which it was thought would then hand them to the immigration office to be deported in due course. The possible prosecution of the employer was handed to the Division of Protection of Labour and police were informed of the situation, but the Child Protection Unit was unaware if in fact anything had been done. Staff state that it is the policy of the director general of the department that cases be followed through by initiating officials, but resource limitations make this effectively impossible.

The second method of dealing with child labour inspection in Bangkok is through the 19 regional offices. A case study of one of these charting details of its operations, successes and problems is included in Appendix III (Case A). It demonstrates a broadly successful programme through which new units have been created and effectively staffed, although it would appear that this particular unit is one of the most successful ones, largely due to the quality of its staff.

The third area of child labour enforcement is in provincial areas, through the Provincial Centres for the Protection of Women and Child Labour, created through the Cabinet decree of 1993. These centres are charged with preventing abuse, protecting female and child workers and dealing with complaints. As an example, the activities of the Chiang Mai centre can be considered. It has conducted campaigns using television and radio to raise awareness of its existence and services and to raise awareness of the labour law. In the last year it also conducted inspections of 586 enterprises at which there were 21,121 workers. It also dealt with 21 complaints involving a total of 62 workers, all of which dealt with issues of compensation.

Its staff say that while its advertising may have attracted the attention of underpaid workers or those who had been denied other rights, child labour cases were not reported to the centre because the children wanted their jobs and did not want to be deprived of them, even in cases where their employment might appear abusive to outsiders. The centre also dealt informally with seven cases in which there were concerns about the welfare of children, working in circumstances such as selling flower garlands or in houses as domestic servants, not covered by labour law. But since these cases were outside the labour law, they did not technically come within the remit of the centre, and could not be recorded in its official statistics or formally regarded as part of its work.

The Chiang Mai centre, within the limitations of its legal and regulatory framework, appears to operate quite effectively, due to the high quality of its staff and strong support from the provincial governor, supported by its close ties to relevant non-government organisations and interested academics at the local university. But its officers identify many problems in their work. Chiang Mai has 24 amphoe and officers said to really reach down to the grassroots a women and child labour office would need to be established in each of those. They indicate further budget allocations would be necessary for this, although it appears it might also be possible to redirect existing resources. This would enable effective networking to the village level, including networking with village volunteers. (See Appendix III Case C for further discussion of the volunteer project.)

Training, with IPEC assistance, has been conducted for labour inspectors in both rural and urban areas, and there is no doubt the level of inspections has increased and the knowledge of inspectors of the law and labour issues has risen. They also now have access to detailed training manuals prepared under the programme. There is no doubt the capacity of the inspectors has been considerably boosted by this programme and in association with the boost in funding there has been a massive increase in the level of inspections, as shown in Table 1 (Appendix II).

Once questions of prosecution of employers of child labour through the court system emerge, in cases of repeat offenders or cases of serious abuse of children, the police must become involved (in simple cases of first offenders the matters are usually dealt with by an internal tribunal of the MOLSW which has the power to decide limited penalties), yet dealing with the issue of child labour is outside the experience of most police and not generally regarded as a central part of their work. To tackle this issue, IPEC has launched a project to mobilise police, piloting it in Police Bureau Seven Region (covering eight provinces surrounding Bangkok). This is very much an early, pioneering effort.

It involves conducting workshops for 350 officers and producing a handbook for police officers on both legal and social issues related to child labour. The project proposal states the Bureau "is not yet ready to deal with" the problem of child prostitution, and wished to target child labour issues "as a pilot test to develop potentials and evaluate the effectiveness of the police officers before moving on to child prostitution". The programme is now being implemented, with the support of a small number of enthusiastic and supportive officers, but it is too early to evaluate its effectiveness and ability to sustain interest in the issue after the training period.

(b) Education and Training

As should already be evident from the data presented above, strengthening the capacity of schools, training institutions and other bodies providing education and training to provide high-quality, relevant instruction is of vital importance in combatting child labour. As the majority of the instruction is conducted under the auspices of ministries other than the MOLSW however, there have been few programmes to strengthen the capacity of these institutions specifically directed towards this goal.

In Appendix III (Case G), one IPEC-supported project under the Se-Ma Pattana Chewit project is discussed, highlighting some aspects of the "best practice" for such reform efforts. However, extending such efforts to the broader school system would be very difficult, both due to the scale of the task and differing priorities within the Ministry of Education. There remains a "sense of complacency" that education is available and it is not the responsibility of officials to determine if or why children are not actually receiving it.

Over the past few years the Thai government has attempted to strengthen the capacity of the education system, and to expand it towards the goal of making nine years of schooling compulsory, as already noted above. Broadly, however, as the example cited in Appendix II(B) indicates, while the budget of the Ministry of Education has been significantly boosted, this increase has not always reached down to operational levels in an effective and appropriate manner. Improving the quality of education is a vital issue in the prevention of child labour, but as the above example indicates, sustainably and effectively improving the capacity of schools is not an easy task.

The primary government effort at re-integration of child labour is directed towards child prostitution, through the Department of Public Welfare's four residential programmes. Provisions to reform and develop these efforts are included in the newly-passed anti-prostitution legislation, but have yet to be put into effect.

Small but important NGO efforts, such as that of the Foundation for Children's Development (FCD) have aided relatively small numbers of children, often those in enormous need, but there has been little direction of capacity-building efforts in this area, in part because it still tends to be approached from a "charity" perspective.

There has been little research and analysis of the effectiveness of the services that are available in these areas. Appendix II, Case H illustrates an interesting, small-scale move in this direction. On a broader scale, the National Commission on Women's Affairs, having serious concerns about the quality and appropriateness of training for social workers and counsellors, has begun a project to examine the problem, which it is hoped will eventually develop new training modes and programmes, including particularly more practical work experience, in the area.

(d) Welfare and Income Replacement

No major capacity-building programmes directly related to these areas and child labour have been conducted.

(e) Social Mobilisation and Awareness Raising

A number of small regional efforts to raise the capacity of government and non-government organisations to develop social mobilisation and awareness-raising among the child labour and potential child labourers have been funded through IPEC and other agencies. A typical example is the IPEC programme on "Enhancing the Capability of Radio Programme Producers in Disseminating Information on Child Labour". This was also linked to the production of booklets and leaflets explaining child labour issues. What evaluation was conducted indicated seminars were held as scheduled and attended by radio announcers and they expressed satisfaction with the training and there is no doubt it was successful in ensuring the transmission of material on child labour issues.

There were, however, no studies to examine whether this programme (or any other like it ) had actually "made a difference" in children lives, by either preventing them becoming child workers or enabling them to stand up for their rights. There are two broad strands of opinion on this. Some anecdotal evidence, as discussed in the media section of Chapter 4, suggests this programme may have been successful in ensuring the dissemination of information, but not necessarily its absorption by the target audience. But other observers suggest that, with very limited penetration of print media, radio is the chief source of information and news for many villagers, who are interested in listening to discussion and debate on political and social issues.

Preferably, before further significant efforts are directed towards building the capacity of government or non-government agencies to work in these areas, some detailed research should be conducted to determine the most effective approaches and media, including consideration of which of the above two views is correct. This data could then be used to develop agencies in the most appropriate areas and ensure their use of the most effective messages and media.

One notable pilot programme, funded by IPEC, was conducted in schools in the very poor Sri Sa Ket province in the north-east of Thailand. (See Appendix III Case (B)) for an account of the anti-child labour work in one school conducted under this programme.) In 22 primary schools (most of which have since extended into lower secondary) teachers were trained in 1993-94 to provide their students with information about child labour issues, and in conjunction a "child labour corner" was created in some school libraries.

This programme was an obvious success in awareness-raising in schools and among pupils and parents with whom it came in contact, but encountered some difficulties in sustainably increasing the capacity of schools to deal with child labour issues. An excellent analysis of the problems encountered concluded that while the initial stage, which included developing a handbook for teachers' use and providing them with training was successful, the project lacked a coordinator at the provincial level, together with close communication and transparent management, and consequently too heavy a burden fell upon individual teachers. Additionally, the project work was never effectively incorporated within either the government-provided budget of the Provincial Labour Welfare or Protection Office of the Ministry of Education school funding, so was totally dependent on IPEC money for its continuation.

Subsequently, IPEC has attempted to use the handbook developed in Sri Sa Ket and four other provinces as a pilot project to develop material suitable for nation-wide distribution and use, but has encountered significant difficulties. There have been delays and difficulties, but this project now may be getting back on track and the experiences of Sri Sa Ket being extended to a nationwide scale. It will be important, however, that not only are handbooks and materials printed and distributed, but that teachers are encouraged and supported in their use.

(f) Information Collection and Dissemination

Despite the efforts of the Child Labour Information Centre and Thammasart University, information collection remains incomplete and fragmented, a reflection of the overall nature of the effort against child labour. As is indicated elsewhere throughout this report, information and data compiled by individual programmes and projects conducted by both government and non-government organisations are frequently not disseminated outside the organisation or structure which generated it.

For example, the Child Protection Unit in Bangkok last October instituted a project with funding from within the Thai government budget through which parents of working children who have lost contact with their offspring or are concerned about their welfare can contact the unit, which will attempt to locate the children and check their circumstances. Until June this year about 100 cases were traced, from 300 applications. This is an obviously potentially useful programme through which data could be collected on both sources of child labour and working conditions, but there is apparently no intention within the programme to use this data source.

(g) Research, Monitoring and Evaluation

It is obvious, from difficulties encountered in attempting to conduct research projects, that in key areas there are inadequacies in the capacity of key institutions to carry out research, monitoring and evaluation. IPEC and other agencies have funded research at several institutions which, through "learning by doing," has resulted in increased capacity to handle child labour research, but as the above discussion suggests, much remains to be done in this area to ensure Thailand has the ability to effectively research child labour issues and monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of programmes. The small-scale Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights project on training in research for child abuse, discussed in Appendix III (Case G), provides an interesting model and suggestions for "best practices" for the future in this area.

3.5. Impact of Direct Action Programmes/Projects in Communities and Work Places

As there are very many direct action projects in Thailand, operating at the micro-level in communities and workplaces targeting groups such as working children, parents, employers, teachers, community leaders, etcetera, this section aims, rather than providing a comprehensive list, to identify a wide range of projects which take different approaches, some being large province-wide or national efforts, others very small-scale efforts, sometimes even working only with individuals, in an attempt to establish not only if these actually "make a difference" to those targeted, but also what broader impact they might have, and how they might act as models for larger projects, where appropriate. In the case of more complex projects, details are provided in Appendix III, while smaller projects are fully explained within this section.

This report will discuss projects rather than programmes, for it must be broadly said there are not yet any comprehensive targeted programmes, applying the definition outlined in Chapter 1, operating for a sustained period in a coordinated and comprehensive fashion. An ideal programme would address all elements of the "circle" illustrated below, but at present virtually all projects address at most only part of this circle, with some NGOs for example being involved in rescue and development of child labour, but not having the resources or ability to extend protection once children return to their village or family, at which time they may well be at risk of again becoming child labour. Conversely, an organisation involved in attempting to prevent child labour may lack the resources and skills to assist in the development and reintegration of child labour victims who return to the area in which the organisation is working. Links and coordination of efforts within organised programmes would assist in addressing these problems, but does not yet generally exist.

(a) Protection and Prevention

To work from a grassroots level in preventing child labour, volunteer child labour monitors were appointed in 22,000 villages nationwide in 1996. (See Appendix III (Case C)). This programme, however, suffered from numerous problems which has meant it effectively ended soon after it started, and while attempts are being made to address a major problem of the lack of an annual honorarium for volunteers, for the programme to work effectively a total redesign is probably necessary.

A recently-instituted programme provides for grants of not more than 1,000 baht from the Public Welfare Department to help families keep their children in school. This relies on schools informing the district officer of children in need, but there are doubts as to how widely this programme has been publicised and utilised, and anyway the sum provided is probably not sufficient to make a real difference to family decisions about children's schooling.

Discussion of official law enforcement efforts to protect children is included above. A somewhat different approach has been taken by an NGO which works directly with child workers, who may or may not fit the definitions of child labour. They seek to work if not cooperatively then at least not in oppositional terms with employers and children, including efforts to develop children's skills and knowledge which may attract employers' support. The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) conducts a child labour club in Bangkok, catering to around 200 children who attend the club on their Sunday and other holidays, to engage in recreational and educational activities. They are encouraged to become involved in further education through the non-formal education department and provided with information about their rights and entitlements as employees.

Additionally, the club is located near Hua Lumphung Station, the main railway station in Bangkok, to which many children come on first migrating to Bangkok, and from which many are recruited into abusive conditions. The FCD also runs a programme to intercept these children, provides them with temporary shelter as necessary and assists in coordinating among government agencies and employers to ensure they obtain appropriate work.

While this is obviously a valuable programme which can be very helpful to participants, it can only cater to a relatively small number of children who live and work within a reasonable vicinity of the club, and who have employers who are at least reasonably sympathetic to it. In its rescue efforts at Hua Lumphung it can again reach some children, but by no means all. This is a valuable effort, but only highlights the importance of preventative rather than curative measures to address the most intolerable forms of child labour.

In any programmes addressing protection and prevention, it is vital that children's perspectives are considered. Associate Professor Phikul Khowsuwan from Thai Women of Tomorrow (TWT) in Chiang Mai, which among other efforts finds jobs for girls at risk of entering the commercial sex industry, told researchers she found herself frequently having to deal with girls who started work, then left suddenly and without explanation, for which supervisors held her personally responsible. She noted the need for programmes to ask: "Do they (target children) see the value of what we are trying to do for them? Do they appreciate them?" "Without that, programmes will never work," she said.

Broadly it can be said that nearly all programmes at present fail to take adequate account of the views of children, and often also parents, as a target group. Children frequently feel an enormous responsibility to support their families, either their parents or often younger siblings, and simply preventing them from working may be very harmful to their emotional well-being, and may lead to their work being pushed further "underground" and thus into conditions more likely to fit the classification of "most intolerable forms of child labour". Of course accessing children's true views, and enabling them to develop them independently, is difficult. The Se-Ma Pattana Chewit project already discussed (See Appendix III, Case G) provides a model for achieving this, although working in a long-term, protected context.

(b) Development, Education and Training

A large number of scholarship programmes as detailed above have recently been introduced, most significantly through the Ministry of Education, but also through a variety of other government organisations and NGOs primarily to enable children to continue their formal schooling. Lack of knowledge, or incorrect information, or concerns about repayment may, however, interfere with children's ability to access these loans. They also do not address the problem of children's contribution to family income, as they are generally just adequate to cover school and a child's living expenses. Generally, although no research has been carried out, it would appear that for a variety of reasons the poorest children, and those from remote areas, may find it most difficult to access these funds and the opportunities they can provide.

Additionally schools may simply be unable to cater to the needs of many of these children, and may be perceived as irrelevant by their parents, who consider children will learn more from work experience. Addressing the weakness in the education system and the lack of appreciation of education within certain social groups is vital to encouraging the continuation of these children's education.

A very wide range of government and non-government organisations provide vocational training for school-leavers to attempt to equip them with employment skills. Among the major efforts is that of the Department of Labour which offers 45-day training courses in traditional areas such as dressmaking and hairdressing for girls and auto mechanics and electrics for boys. The comments of several graduates of these courses are included in Appendix III (Case B).

Trainees are offered a subsistence payment of 50 baht per day while completing the courses, and they are operated more or less on demand, with requests for training being directed through provincial labour offices. About 3,000 children have been trained in these programmes since 1995. In many ways this training is similar in content to that offered by Huay Krai school described in Appendix III Case C, and to that offered by many NGOs in northern Thailand and it suffers from similar handicaps. The length of period of training, the skills of the trainers and the equipment used together very often do not provide trainees with adequate skills to equip them to enter the workforce as even semi-skilled workers, or to enable them to earn an adequate income as homeworkers. The training is also not targeted to areas of labour force demand, and local jobs and even migratory jobs may not be available after its completion.

One programme which has largely overcome this problem is the Rural Sri Sa Ket Women's Association for Occupational Promotion and Development (RUSWOP), which through its close links to industry and practical and high-skill training produces within only 45 days graduates who are in high demand, or who are able to make an adequate living from homeworking. (This programme is described in Appendix III, Case E.) This programme is heavily dependent on the particular skills of its founder, and any attempt at replication would require very careful selection of administrative and training personnel, but its strong commercial focus no doubt offers a strong lesson in "best practice".

In these, and in many other programmes, it is important for organisers to think beyond the obvious forms and areas of training, and to encourage their target groups, both children and their parents, to be aware of non-traditional studies and occupations which may offer better life opportunities for children than traditional areas. If asked what area of study they prefer it may be that girls will say dressmaking and hairdressing and boys mechanical skills, but providers have a responsibility to assess if these are practical and appropriate.

Two other programmes which have also taken fresh approaches are the Se-Ma Life Development Project and the UNICEF hotel skills training project. Operated by the Ministry of Education, Se-ma, targeting girls in northern Thailand at high risk of entering the commercial sex industry, has, in addition to traditional vocational training (See Appendix III, Case G), offered limited numbers of girls concessional places in two-year college nursing courses. After completing this training, it is intended these girls should return to work in or near their home villages, where their skills would be in high demand.

In the UNICEF programme a similar group of girls is offered the opportunity to undergo a specialised five-month hotel training course conducted within and in close consultation with five-star hotels in Bangkok. All of the programme's graduates have proved readily employable, and are in high demand. In the first year 10 girls entered the programme, a figure to be raised to 90 in 1997. This, however, illustrates the major difficulty of such programmes. On a per capita basis they are far more expensive than conventional, basic educational training, and would thus be difficult to implement on a large scale. Ideally it might be said that employers should be prepared to conduct this training at their own cost to obtain a skilled workforce, but with little tradition of such practices in Thailand, and a tradition of "poaching" trained employees from other companies, this appears unlikely to occur on a large scale.

The Non-Formal Education Department is also very important to addressing issues of child labour. It has recently adopted a pro-active approach, initially being pilotted in Chiang Rai, which actively seeks all individuals who drop out of the formal education system at any level to attempt to encourage them to continue studying through the non-formal system. In northern and western Thailand, it is responsible for the primary provision of education to hill tribe groups in particular. To address some particular concerns, the Department has developed a Basic Minimum Needs Kit which, among other topics, contains information on ethical moral concerns, designed particularly to prevent the selling of daughters into the commercial sex industry. This has not clearly, however, been linked to the broader effort against child labour.

These two aspects of the child labour cycle will be considered together, as most projects in this area link the two aspects.

The Public Welfare Department is primarily responsible for caring for any individuals in immediate crisis situations in Thailand, including the young, the aged and the indigent. Its funding and reach are, however, seriously limited. It may provide immediate help for rescued child labour in the form of a bus fare home, and has the responsibility for checking on the welfare of children who have been in its care, including those who have been victims of the commercial sex industry, but it does not have adequate resources to fulfill this monitoring task.

Both government and non-government agencies broadly have considerable difficulties in providing long-term follow-up of the cases of children for whom they may have cared after they were rescued from intolerable working conditions. In many cases these children may ultimately return to conditions similar or even the same as those from which they were originally rescued, and an NGO or government agency is unlikely to be aware of this. (This problem is particularly acute in the case of undocumented migrant children, such as girls working in the commercial sex industry, who frequently may be returned to the border and only a few days later be back at the same or related business from which they were rescued. )

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