Text and Photo by Henrylito D. Tacio
While Filipinos celebrated Independence Day on June 12, the international community was also observing a cause to free children all over the world from working.
Every year since 2002, the World Day Against Child Labor brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child laborers and what can be done to help them.
“Children around the world are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them,” the United Nations said on its website. “However, they are classified as child laborers when they are either too young to work or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development.”
Child labor is unthinkable, but it happens. “There is no place for child labor in society,” said Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labor Organization (ILO). “It robs children of their future and keeps families in poverty.”
According to ILO, about 70% of the child laborers work in agriculture – mainly in subsistence and commercial farming and livestock herding – and almost half in occupations or situations considered hazardous to their health and lives.
The Philippine experiences
The Philippines is not an exemption. The 2011 survey done by the Philippine Statistics Authority said there are around 2.1 million child workers in the country, most of them in hazardous and exploitative work conditions.
“About 95% of (Filipino child laborers) are in hazardous work,” the ILO-Philippines reports. “Sixty-nine percent of these are aged 15 to 17 years old, beyond the minimum allowable age for work but still exposed to hazardous work.”
Most of these children work in farms and plantations, in dangerous mines, on streets, in factories, and in private homes as child domestic workers. “Agriculture remains to be the sector where most child laborers can be found at 58 percent,” ILO says.
In Davao City, for instance, most of the child laborers are working in durian and banana plantations. These children are exposed to harmful pesticides and chemicals, making them vulnerable to diseases.
But it is in the mining industry that most child laborers are in great danger. “Young boys and teenagers are often forced to descend into watery pits in a process known as compression mining,” ChildFund Philippines reports. “With only a tube to allow them to breathe underwater, they fill bags with ore before returning to the surface.
“Aside from the obvious physical dangers of this type of work,” ChildFund Philippines continues, “children and teenagers face other risks when working in the mining industry, such as exposure to mercury, which is used to leach gold from rock.”
COVID-19 pandemic
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has considerably exacerbated the situation by rendering everyone more vulnerable to exploitation, including the children. School closures have pushed millions of more children into the labor market so that they can contribute to the family income.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) called these children who are forced to work as “collateral damage from the pandemic.” ILO’s Ryder explains it this way: “As the pandemic wreak havoc on family incomes, without support, many could resort to child labor.”
If that’s bad news, there are more contained in the new report, Child Labor: Global Estimates 2020, Trends and the Road Forward. It said the progress in ending child labor has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw the number put to work fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.
The report, published by ILO and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and launched during this year’s World Day Against Child Labor, points to a significant rise of children working between the ages of 5 and 11, which accounts for just over half of the total global figure.
And those between five and 17 in hazardous work, which is likely to harm their health, safety, or moral well-being, has risen by 6.5 million since 2016, to 79 million.
Report findings
Here are more findings from the report:
· The agriculture sector accounts for 70% of children in child labor, followed by 20% in services and 10% in industry.
· Nearly 28% of 5 to 10-year-olds and 35% of those aged 12 to 14 in child labor, are out of school.
· Child labor is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age, but when 21 hours per week of household chores are taken into account, the gender gap in child labor narrows.
· Child labor in rural areas stands at 14%, nearly three times higher than the 5% in urban areas.
“The new estimates are a wake-up call,” Ryder pointed out. “We cannot stand by while a new generation of children is put at risk.”
Save the Children Philippines thinks the figure of 2.1 million child workers in the country may have gone up as well as a result of the pandemic. “The adverse impact of COVID-19 will push thousands of children into poverty, and forced labor as parents and guardians face loss of income and livelihood opportunities,” it said in a press statement.
The UN report warns that globally, nine million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labor by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic, which could rise to 46 million without access to critical social protection coverage.
“We are losing ground in the fight against child labor, and the last year has not made that fight any easier,” said Henrietta Fore, UNICEF executive director. “Now, well into a second year of global lockdowns, school closures, economic disruptions and shrinking national budgets, families are forced to make heart-breaking choices.”
Already a big problem
Even before the pandemic, child labor was already a big problem in the Philippines. “Millions of (Filipino) children are forced to work at young ages,” ChildFund Philippines states. “Child labor is one of the country’s most urgent problems and stems from a range of social factors. Unless something is done to stop child labor, the issue will continue to affect the lives of many families across the country.”
As stated earlier, most child laborers work under exploitative conditions. Wages of child laborers are often below adult rates, even if they work adult hours, usually six days a week and even doing overtime. Children do not get the benefits guaranteed by law to regular workers.
One author wrote: “Some children are hired because they can be paid a lot less than the minimum wage, they require less food intake, tire less easily and they have no need to apply for such things as medical plans, SSS (Social Security System) or retirement. Tasks like carrying heavy cement bags are assigned to these children because they are said to be stronger anyway.”
As stated earlier, most child laborers work under exploitative conditions. Wages of child laborers are often below adult rates, even if they work adult hours, usually six days a week and even doing overtime. Children do not get the benefits guaranteed by law to regular workers.
One author wrote: “Some children are hired because they can be paid a lot less than the minimum wage, they require less food intake, tire less easily and they have no need to apply for such things as medical plans, SSS (Social Security System) or retirement. Tasks like carrying heavy cement bags are assigned to these children because they are said to be stronger anyway.”
Causes
Poverty has been cited as the main culprit of child labor in the country. “As with many threats to children’s development and well-being, poverty is a root cause of child labor,” ChildFund explains. “Families struggle to make ends meet and face hard decisions when it comes to sending their children to work. Without immediate action, the problem will continue to grow.”
Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director of ILO-Philippines, thinks so, too. “We have to get the root of child labor which is linked with poverty and lack of decent and productive work,” he said. “While we strive to keep children in school and away from child labor, we need to ensure decent and productive work for parents and basic social protection for families.”
Apart from poverty, there are other contributing factors, according to UNICEF. These are increasing pattern of family breakdown and weakening of the extended family system and other support groups; high population growth and changing family values and lifestyles, which may lead to unwanted children, promiscuity, and solo parenthood; poor enforcement of laws due to ignorance of the law, corruption or apathy; socialization of children into work; and support for children’s work in formal education.
In the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 19, verse 14), Jesus rebuked his disciples for turning away a group of children. He told them, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
