Eliminating The

ELIMINATING THE

SCOURGE THAT IS

CHILD LABOR By Nancy C. Nicolas The child labor problem in the Philippines is a serious one. According to the 2001 National Statistics Office survey, there are about 4 million working children in the country today. Of the 4 million, 2.4 million are engaged in hazardous work, which means they are exposed to physical, chemical, and biological hazards. These are the children involved in the worst forms of child labor such as prostitution, domestic work, mining and quarrying, commercial agriculture, deep-sea fishing, and pyrotechnics. The following are the more salient figures in the 2001 survey: · Four out of 25 million children, aged 5-17, are working. This means that one out of 6 children works · Mostly male, elementary grader (between 10-17 years old), usually rural-based · Region IV has the highest incidence of child labor (12.5%); next is Region VI (11.8%); and Region XI (10.2%) · Majority work as unskilled, unpaid, engaged in agriculture, on seasonal basis laborers · One of four children work during night time · 60% of working children, aged 5-17 years old are exposed to hazardous environment

· 40% are elementary graduates; 32% reached high school; 3% never attended school · 59% are unpaid, work in household-operated farm or business · 53% in agriculture/forestry/hunting Child labor is the participation of children in the creation of products like sugarcane, pineapple, sardines or firecrackers or provision of services like domestic help and sexual labor. Poverty is undoubtedly the single biggest factor why child labor is so widespread. In 1997, 4.8 million families or about 24 million Filipinos are poor. Poverty is most defined in rural areas, where economic productivity is low. It is easy to see that the way out of the problem is the improvement of agricultural productivity. However, the hard part is the implementation. Another reason is the unchecked growth of population. The Philippines’ population growth is currently 2.3 percent per year. This exerts too much pressure on the country’s resources. This leads to uneven or shortfall in the delivery of basic social services. On the micro-level, a budget of a large family is often not enough to provide food, education and other necessities for its members. Children are, therefore, forced to work even under very poor working conditions just earn a little for the family In Metro Manila and neighboring towns, most child laborers are found in factories, livestock industries like poultry farms and piggery. They often come from provinces. In many cases, they are made to live like convicts, incarcerated and without the

freedom of movement. Young workers in the farm are made to sleep inside pig pen or poultry house together with the animals. In the Visayas and Mindanao, child labor is rampant in sugarcane, pineapple, rubber, and asparagus plantations. A significant number of child laborers can also be found in sugar plantations in Tarlac. These children are directly exposed to the elements like the sun and rains. Their growth is stunted because of the heavy load they carry on their shoulders. Malnutrition is common among child laborers. According to the international labor standard, a child may only be employed after he or she has finished compulsory education or secondary education, in the case of the Philippines. Although the nation’s legal system allows a 15-year-old to be employed, he or she must not be engaged in a hazardous job. In November 2001, the Philippine Government ratified the ILO Convention No. 182 on the “Elimination of Worst Forms of Child Labor.” However, nothing has been done yet to implement it and the machinery for its enforcement needs to be strengthened. Child labor, especially the hazardous kind, is a scourge. It must be eliminated at all cost because we must save the children from misery. Their optimum growth as human beings cannot be achieved if they are forced to work and in so doing miss out on many things that healthy, wellrounded children ought to undergo.