DOLE gives P11-M aid to parents of child laborers

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Labor (DOLE) is giving P11.9 million worth of livelihood assistance to parents of poor families to keep their children from working.

According to Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, the assistance will be distributed to parents transitioning out of the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program this year to help them become self-sufficient.

There will be some 305,000 graduating CCT beneficiaries in the country’s 17 regions by the end of the year.

An estimated 3,700 children will be kept away from child labor under this program.

“The DOLE, through the HELP ME Convergence Program on Child Labor, will provide livelihood To parent-beneficiaries whose children are at risk of going back to child labor,” she said.

HELP ME stands for health, education, livelihood, and prevention, protection, and prosecution, monitoring and evaluation. It is President Benigno Aquino III’s program to eradicate child labor and to achieve the country’s Millennium Development Goal of eradicating poverty through decent work.

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Baldoz also disclosed that the DOLE’s support of P 11.9 million is equivalent to 5 percent of the Workers Income Augmentation Program (WINAP) funds.

“The DOLE has set aside this amount and we will dovetail this with the HELP ME Convergence Program on Child Labor and the DOLE’s Campaign for Child Labor-Free Barangays. We will work in convergence with the DSWD and our other partners,” Baldoz explained.

Those who want to avail of the cash grant should be able to prove that there are no child laborers in their families. The condition was approved by the National Advisory Committee of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, popularly known as 4Ps, in its modified CCT Program for Families in Need of Special Protection (CCT for FNSP).

Baldoz said that the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has already provided the DOLE with a list of municipalities where the first batch of beneficiaries of the livelihood assistance will come from.

“Our DOLE regional offices have listed down the barangays for convergence with DSWD,” Baldoz said adding that the Bureau Of Working Conditions will also publish the names and addresses of the beneficiaries of this program for transparency. – Ace Tamayo, Rappler.com