Challenges to a Successful Remediation

Remediation is a complicated process involving many different parties with possible conflicting interests and, in many cases, broken families and insufficient social systems to support the child. From the auditors’ perspectives, the most common obstacles for successful remediation come from the child and his / her family, such as“ child prefers to earn more by working than participating in the remediation program”( Figure 16). This challenge seems to be much more prominent in China than in other countries( 19 % difference). It is also interesting to see that the systemic“ lack of professional child labor remediation implementation and monitoring service providers” is comparatively bigger for China, while quite negligible for other countries.

If we look at the reasons why the child or the family refuses to cooperate in remediation, we can see that it is not a problem that can be solved by simple persuasion. The amount of money that the child receives from the remediation varies depending on the brand and the factory. As far as we know, in many cases, the remediation does not pay the full wage until he / she reaches the minimum age; thus, the child and / or the family refuses to follow through with the remediation plan. When auditors were asked how they would react under such circumstances, 57 % of them said they would recommend alternative options such as vocational school. In theory, it seems to be the best solution for young people who have no interest or are not in the best position to continue high school. However, in practice, it is not without its challenges.

• If the child’ s full wage is not paid, it can become a major hurdle to a successful remediation process

Figure 16:

80 70 60 50 40 30 20

67 %

48 %

Top challenges to a successful remediation

49 %

50 %

41 %

38 %

33 %

38 %

Others China

32 %

“ The factory will only finance child laborer’ s tuition until he / she turns 16. However, most study programs in vocational schools are 2-3 years, which the child laborer‘ s family would not want or cannot afford to continue paying. So sometimes, the child laborer disappears after a factory pays a certain period.”- An auditor from China.