Child peddlers & loss of protection [Archives:2005/841/Business & Economy]
Yasser Mohammed Al-Mayyasi
Unemployment is considered a major cause for searching job opportunities in whatever profession. In Yemen the peddlers represent a large number and become a phenomenon with various people from different ages. All of them are having the same concern economically to escape from poverty.
Although peddlers are found in many countries and practice the work of selling and buying in different markets, however, peddlers in our country maybe the only ones practicing this work at road crossings and traffic lights. The moment any visitor to the country stops at traffic lights signals a number of peddlers rushing towards him to display their goods of various types.
Some peddlers of different ages display their goods for selling such as newspapers, sweets, handkerchiefs, decorating materials, recording audio cassettes and light spare parts for cars and a variety of goods one does not expect to be sold at traffic lights. The eye-catching thing is that such peddlers would spend long hours under the scorching heat of the sun and the cold weather.
Young children constitute the higher proportion of peddlers with the young unemployed next in line. At road crossings there are also women practicing selling as part of an effort in quest of living and in encountering the difficult economic circumstances in hope of fleeing from poverty, which is the biggest problem in Yemen as well as many undeveloped countries. Some women peddlers sell different hand-made clothes.
There are many reasons behind the spread of this phenomenon. For young children, one of the reasons may be truancy from schools. The main reason though is poverty and difficult economic conditions, as is the case with a child, Ahmed, who affirmed that he could not continue his studies because his father was dead and there was no one to bring in the income.
Contrary to that case is that of the child Adel, 12 years, who says he practices selling on the street as a means of procuring money to pay for his studying fees and costs, saying that he loves to study. He is also working to help his father who works as blacksmith with an income not enough to cover the family's expenses.
The story of the child Nasser may appear to be sad. He was forced by his father to work and provide money for his father's needs eventhough his father is an able-bodied person who refuses to work.
There are many sad stories of which small children are the victims toiling in the streets. The latest government statistics confirm that there are thousands of children of both sexes working in Yemen for different reasons and they represent the phenomenon of child labour. This phenomenon emerged in Yemen in the beginning of the nineties, especially after the Gulf war and the return of expatriates from the Gulf States.
Nowadays, most of those children are suffering from exposure to dangerous jobs due to their their small age. They also suffer because they do not get enough protection that various governmental and non-governmental sides could not provide for them. It is the protection that requires much effort to achieve.
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