Child workers in 10,000 barangays

MANILA, Philippines — Nearly 10,000 barangays in the country have been found to have child laborers in hazardous situation, said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, in a statement, said these 9,435 barangays are found in at least six regions in the country.

“There are 9,435 barangays in Level 1 and these are in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions 1, 5, 7, 9, 12, and the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao,” she said.

The first, Level 1, or the so-called “new frontier” are barangays that have child laborers in hazardous situation, but where initiatives have not yet been undertaken.

The DOLE also noted an additional 5,545 barangays nationwide, where there is also presence of child laborers in hazardous situation but interventions have been undertaken and are continuing, or those belonging to Level 2.

Baldoz said these areas will now be the main target of their convergence program on child labor called H.E.L.P. M.E., which seeks to provide focused, converged, and synchronized strategies to effectively address the problem of child labor in the country.

H.E.L.P. M.E. stands for health, education, livelihood, and prevention, protection, prosecution, and monitoring and evaluation.

Baldoz said the program aims to eliminate at least three-fourth of the total number of child laborers in the country.

“By 2016, we aim to have freed at least 75 percent of the 2.9 million child laborers in the country,” she said.

DOLE said there are already 588 barangays found in Regions 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, and the National Capital Region (NCR) that are in Level 3 or where child labor initiatives have been initiated, need to be sustained, and continuously monitored. –LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO, Manila Bulletin