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| COMMUNITY BASED ACTION : EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT |
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Education is the cornerstone of poverty reduction and development. Without education to enable them to realise their potential, poor people struggle against the odds to escape from the unproductive and unprotected jobs and unemployment that trap them in a cycle of poverty. Lacking even basic literacy and numeracy skills, adult workers are powerless to negotiate better terms and conditions with their employers, and to monitor whether or not their agreements on wages and advances are being respected. Children who do not go to school are at greatest risk of being drawn into child labour, and are much more likely to end up in unskilled, low-end jobs as adults. Women and girls are worst off, given deep gender inequalities in access to education. These issues lie at the heart of bonded labour problems in south Asia and elsewhere.
Provision of quality education therefore is an essential component of all action against bonded labour. It can and must take many forms -- including non-formal and bridging schools for children; mainstreaming into public schools; literacy and numeracy classes for adults; rights education; and vocational training for both youth and adults. Many large-scale government and donor-supported educational programmes exist across the sub-region; wherever possible, families vulnerable to and in bondage should be assisted to gain their due access to such schemes.
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