World Day against child labor celebration highlights its portal

In a bid to eradicate child labor in the Philippines, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) launched a portal providing relevant statistics and other information that will help and encourage the public to combat child labor.  

The Child Labor Knowledge Sharing System or CLKSS (pronounced clicks) is a portal that can be used by the public, government units, and advocacy groups to report child labor case, learn how to help child workers, and to compile relevant information about child workers in the country. It can be found at http://www.clkss.org.ph.
The CLKSS launching was the highlight of the annual celebration of the World Day against Child Labor held last Wednesday in Manila.

Labor Assistant Secretary Teresa Soriano said that through CLKSS, they will now have the readily available and updated data that they can use in the formulation measures and programs to combat child labor.

Information about the services offered by local government units and advocacy groups are also listed in the site, so that concerned parties will know whom to get in touch with in case of incidents involving child workers.

The names and contact details of experts who may serve as resource speakers and provide relevant training and services are also listed.

The CLKSS website also features a system which allows the public to report employers hiring underage workers.

DOLE calls this “real-time monitoring,” because reports by citizens are instantly stored in the agency’s database for use by the authorities.

The public, members of advocacy groups, members of the National Child Labor Committee, and government officials may register on the CLKSS website. Access will be specified by DOLE site administrators.

Stakeholders will have a higher access level than ordinary citizens, who will only be able to access information of public interest, said the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Jodie Mitra, who is involved in setting up the site.

Details such as the childrens’ names and complete addresses will be kept confidential.

The CLKSS also have Facebook and Twitter accounts with hashtags that will enable people to track child-labor-related tweets.

The Department of Labor & Employment (DOLE) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) are optimistic of the website’s success.

Johan Arvling of the ILO, who spoke at the website launch via Skype, said that, “The vision for CLKSS was formed and fermented in a positive manner, from passion from people in the event and community. First of its kind, and it is a privilege to be part of. We would want to support it and move forward.” — SUSAN G. DE LEON, Zamboanga Times