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This chapter examines one aspect of child trafficking: fostering. It considers the practice of fostering in the West African context, and the extent to which fostering overlaps with the phenomenon of child domestic work, which is very extensive in many cities of West Africa. The chapter argues that current child-labour policies and interventions, which focus primarily on the nature of the work those children undertake, fail to properly take into account the nature of domestic work. This work, often undertaken under the guise of ‘fosterage’, frequently but not necessarily through kinship networks, is a common cultural phenomenon. Failure to understand how this operates and overlaps with child domestic work more generally reinforces the exclusion and exploitation faced by African child domestic workers. Traffickers can take advantage of this system to place children in exploitative situations, for example. Because children then lack supportive networks, they can be open to horrific abuse. Unlike most other forms of child slavery, there is yet no convention explicitly targeted towards child domestic labour.

The phenomenon of child labour, estimates on its magnitude, available statistics, its causes and consequences, girl child labour and domestic child labour are discussed in this chapter. The link between out-of-school children and child labour has been established and all out-of-school children must be treated as child labourers or potential child labour. The evolution of the Policy on Child Labour in India has been traced. The legal regime and the judicial response relating to Child Labour and Bonded Child Labour are analysed. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 is critically reviewed. This chapter includes a section on international legal interventions, strategies and movements on child labour and bonded children. The chapter includes non-governmental organizations, government initiatives, programmes and schemes relating to child labour and bonded labour. The chapter concludes with recommendations for law reform.

This chapter deals with child domestic labour, focusing on detailed evidence from such countries as Peru, Togo, Tanzania, and the Philippines. Many employers of child domestic workers are cruel or highly exploitative, and unlike many child labourers, child domestic workers start work at a very young age. The hidden nature of the work makes interventions difficult, and the chapter argues that many of these interventions should be targeted at employers, requiring them to improve the conditions under which children work. In particular, employers should allow children access to education, recreation, and contact with their peers. The impact of family poverty is significant in driving children into this kind of work, often serving wider family needs. The growth of the middle classes in hitherto very poor countries has led to increased demand for cheap servants. This demand is often highly gendered, with an emphasis on girls, who are seen culturally as more expendable, fulfilling roles culturally sanctioned as ‘women's work’.