CAGAYAN DE ORO — The regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) has started to implement a child labor monitoring system in sugar plantation areas in Bukidnon.
Labor regional director Johnson G. Cañete said the initiative is part of the drive of the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor. Mr. Cañete said the department is working with sectoral partners on the program.
These include the District Tripartite Council in the sugar industry, Coca-Cola Foundation, Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc., Busco Sugar Milling Co., and World Vision International. Other partners are the barangay child labor program committees, headed by the barangay captains and the sugar planter associations represented by their crop inspectors.
The monitoring system is focusing on some 160 child laborers already profiled in five pilot barangays in the town of Quezon in Bukidnon. Raul L. Valmores, head of the DoLE-Bukidnon provincial field office, said the department wants to ensure that barangay officials and crop inspectors are fully aware and equipped with their roles and responsibilities that is why planning-workshops are conducted.
The partnership coupled with consciousness-raising on the negative effects on working children are key factors in in the monitoring system. The system harnessed user-friendly data capture forms, strategies for regular and quick-response monitoring, and referral support actions. A computer-based data bank has been developed for accurate reporting, information storage and easy data retrieval.
The child labor monitoring system helps identify child laborers in sugar farms. Based on the National Statistics Office’s 2011 Survey on Children, there are 1.4 million within five to 17 years old in Northern Mindanao, or 4.7% of the national total. Of this number, 405,816 are reportedly working. Of those working, about half of the figure is at risk, or working in hazardous environment. — RLAEmbodo, Businessworld
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
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