Uphill battle vs. worst proof of poverty

“The government is committed to reduce and finally eradicate the incidence of child labor,” Labor and Employment Secretary Marianito Roque told The Manila Times. “Most of the country’s child labor arises from poverty in the countryside. That is why we launched last year our four-year project to help indigent parents send their children to school.”

“We have to fight child labor because it is the worst proof of poverty,” Secretary Roque said. “It is unkind to our children. We have been closing companies and shops that violate our Child Labor Laws.”

And Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also has continuing programs—like the Sagip Batang Manggagawa (SBM), or Rescue Child Workers, and Kabuhayan para sa Magulang ng Batang Mang-gagawa (Kasama)—to improve the lives of families so that they need not make the children work.

The educational program has yielded good results. There has been a decline by several thousands of children laborers since the project was launched in 2008.

Secretary Roque signed an agreement with the World Vision Development Foundation (WDF) and the Christian Children’s Fund (CCF) on June 13, 2008, to celebrate World Day Against Child Labor (WDACL), by having the two foundations help the DOLE implement a project that gives child workers access to educational opportunities.

The project is named ABK2 (Pag-aaral ng mga Bata Para sa Kina-bukasan) and TEACh (Take Every Action for Children). It has been carried out with grants from the United States Department of Labor.

It was launched at the DOLE in Intramuros, Manila, in February 2008, with US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney in attendance.

Secretary Roque stresses that “Education is the right response to child labor.” This underscores the importance of education as a major strategy in preventing and eliminating child labor.

He said that child workers often find themselves forced to drop out of school in favor of working in order to supplement family income or simply support themselves.

The project is being implemented in areas where the incidence of child labor is high, such as the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu, Leyte, Davao del Sur, and Compostela Valley.

“Educating the children while providing their parents with income sources are the long-term solutions seen to break the bondage of poverty that ties child workers and their families to the cycle of child labor,” the DOLE chief said.

Hazardous situations

“When a child works under hazardous situations like in construction and prostitution, that is child labor,” said Rica Bernardes, head of the Bureau of Women and Young Workers of the DOLE.

Most child workers need to work for their families because of poverty, Bernardes said, proving indeed that the root cause of child labor is the deprivation that more than 80 percent of Filipinos are going through.

“Child labor is relatively connected to poverty,” she pointed out. “The more poverty increases, the higher the number of child laborers. It is a serious problem and it is also the worst effect of poverty.”

“Child workers are, of course, cheaper labor . . . but the long hours they have to work to do jobs supposedly adults should be doing is exploitative.”

She said domestic work is considered the worst form of child labor because house helpers below 18 years old have to work for more than 40 hours a week when the law specifically says child workers should not be working from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.

“So far this year, we have closed down 15 establishments found violating the anti-child labor act,” Bernardes told The Manila Times, adding that these are mostly nightclubs and bars where children are forced to work to help their families.

“We have very good laws but the problem lies in the implementation. We have plenty of programs but the advocacy is also lacking,” she lamented.

Banned jobs

Child labor is defined as the employment of children under legal age in hazardous and morally demeaning situations like prostitution; domestic work; production of illegal drugs and biological agents such as bacteria and fungi; pornographic performance; handling of explosives and pyrotechnic products; and work that requires a child to handle large and heavy machinery; work underwater or dangerous heights; and anything that exposes a child to physical danger and an unhealthy environment.

Child labor is divided into two categories. One is light work where children (ages five to 15 years old) are employed in right-paying jobs that only requires them to work eight hours a day with corresponding benefits and under parental consent. Meanwhile, those that require children to work for more than 40 hours a week and under dangerous situations violate the anti-child labor act.

Under Republic Act 9231, or the Anti-Child Labor Law, the wages, salaries and earnings of the working child “belong to him / her in ownership and shall be set aside primarily for his / her support, education or skills acquisition and secondarily to the collective needs of the family.”

It also provides that not more than 20 percent of the child’s income may be used for the collective needs of the family.

The law against child labor provides for the elimination of the worst forms of child labor and provides “stronger protection for the working child.”

A child under 15 years of age shall not be employed except if the child works under the sole responsibility of his/her parents. The child is also entitled to an elementary and high school education even when working in public entertainment, such as cinema, theater, radio, television or other forms of media.

Even the setting up of trust funds or preserving a part of the child worker’s salary is clearly required: the parent or legal guardian of a working child under 18 years of age shall set up a trust fund for at least 30 percent of the earnings of the child, whose wages and salaries from work and other income amount to at least P200,000 annually.

Upon reaching the age of majority, the child would have full control of the trust fund.

The law also prohibits children to appear in advertisements promoting (directly or indirectly) alcoholic beverages, intoxicating drinks, tobacco and its byproducts, gambling or any form of violence or pornography.

Although the country’s existing laws on child labor provide for the protection of almost all aspects of the working child’s life, the problem is in its implementation, Bernardes pointed out.

DOLE programs

To combat the effect of poverty on children and their families, which leads to child employment, DOLE started the Sagip Batang Mang-gagawa (SBM) program and the Kabuhayan para sa Magulang ng Batang Manggagawa (Kasama).

SBM, started in the 1990s, responds quickly to reported cases of child labor. It employs an inter-agency quick action team for detecting, monitoring and rescuing child laborers in hazardous and exploitative working situations.

Together with the departments of health, social welfare, local government, justice, the National Bureau of Investigation and the Commission on Human Rights, among others, DOLE implements the SBM program to establish community-based mechanisms, quick action teams, provide physical and psychological services and technical assistance in administrative cases, conduct rescue operations and facilitate the safe return of rescued child laborers to their families.

“Basically, we act on reports. And we also have inspection frameworks—technical assistance, self-assessment and inspectionables,” Bernardes said.

The program employs data gathering validation of cases, monitoring of establishments prone to child labor violations, inspection, search and rescue and post-rescue operations.

The Kasama, which only started last year, is a livelihood project for families of child laborers aimed to contribute to the prevention and elimination of child labor by providing families of child laborers access to decent livelihood opportunities for enhanced income.

Kasama hopes to benefit parents and guardians of child laborers as well as their elder siblings, who, are already of employable age.

DOLE partnered with non-government organizations, local governments, cooperatives, trade and workers’ groups, employer organizations, faith-based organizations and the academe.

Kasama programs include the processing of food and other consumer products, production of herbal drugs, organic fertilizer and other agriculture-based products, and handicraft and souvenirs.

DOLE also offers educational assistance for child laborers like Project Angel Tree, which offers scholarships for child laborers. And it established mobile schools to make education more accessible for the working child.

“These programs are supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Labor Organization,” Bernaldes said. –Fred Rosario, Times Columnist and Former Labor Attaché and Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Reporter, Manila Times