a look at child labor in the Philippines

Child labor is one of the many concerns in the Philippines and, most disturbingl
y, one of the most rampant problems we face. In the endeavor to create
an awareness of an already existing law that is evidently not properly implement
ed, child labor clearly falls within this category. Every child has the
right to the most basic of necessities in life like a healthy environment, forma
l education, and most importantly, a loving family to come home to. Yet,
poverty hinders the child to any of these things and forces labor in farming fie
lds, mining shafts and peddling in the busy and dangerous streets of the
country.

WHAT IS "CHILD LABOR"?

"Child labor" is, generally speaking, work for children that harms them or explo
its them in some way (physically, mentally, morally,
or by blocking access to education).
BUT: There is no universally accepted definition of "child labor". Varying defin
itions of the term are used by international organizations,
non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interest groups. Writers
and speakers don t always specify what definition they are
using, and that often leads to confusion.
Not all work is bad for children. Some social scientists point out that some kin
ds of work may be completely unobjectionable except for one
thing about the work that makes it exploitative. For instance, a child who deliv
ers newspapers before school might actually benefit from learning
how to work, gaining responsibility, and a bit of money. But what if the child
is not paid? Then he or she is being exploited. As Unicef s 1997
State of the World s Children Report puts it, "Children s work needs to be seen as h
appening along a continuum, with destructive or exploitative
work at one end and beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children s developmen
t without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest - at
the other. And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not nega
tively affect a child s development." Other social scientists have
slightly different ways of drawing the line between acceptable and unacceptable
work.
International conventions also define "child labor" as activities such as soldie
ring and prostitution. Not everyone agrees with this definition.
Some child workers themselves think that illegal work (such as prostitution) sho
uld not be considered in the definition of "child labor." The reason:
These child workers would like to be respected for their legal work, because the
y feel they have no other choice but to work. .
To avoid confusion, when writing or speaking about "child labor," it s best to exp
lain exactly what you mean by child labor or, if someone else is
speaking, ask for a definition. This website uses the first definition cited in
this section: "Child labor" is work for children under age 18 that in

some way harms or exploits them (physically, mentally, morally, or by blocking c

hildren from education).
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WHO IS A "CHILD"?
International conventions define children as aged 18 and under.
Individual governments may define "child" according to different ages or other c
riteria.
"Child" and "childhood" are also defined differently by different cultures. A "c
hild" is not necessarily delineated by a fixed age. Social
scientists point out that children s abilities and maturities vary so much that de
fining a child s maturity by calendar age can be misleading.
For a discussion, see Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling, William Myers, "What Works for W
orking Children" (Stockholm: Radda Barnen and Unicef, 1998), pp 9-26.
WHO ARE CHILD LABORERS? AND HOW MANY ARE THERE?
In 2000, the ILO estimates, "246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involv
ed in child labor, of which 171 million were involved in work that by
its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral de
velopment. Moreover, some 8.4 million children were engaged in so-called
'unconditional' worst forms of child labor, which include forced and bonded labo
r, the use of children in armed conflict, trafficking in children and
Unicef s State of the World s Children Report says only that although the exact numb
er is not known, it is surely in the hundreds of millions.
More information about who child laborers are, where they live, and new statisti
cs on the total number can be found on www.ilo.org; also, the US Dept. of
Labor s By The Sweat and Toil of Children, Vol. VI: An Economic Consideration of C
hild Labor.
For more information about individual child laborers, see stories produced by Ch
ild Labor and the Global Village: Photography for Social Change.
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WHERE DO CHILD LABORERS LIVE?

61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US, Canada, Europe an
d other wealthy nations In Asia, 22% of the workforce is children.
In Latin America, 17% of the workforce is children. The proportion of child labo
rers varies a lot among countries and even regions inside those countries.
See Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable, Geneva, 1998, p. 7; and other ILO p
ublications.
"In Africa, one child in three is at work, and in Latin America, one child in fi
ve works. In both these continents, only a tiny proportion of
child workers
are involved in the formal sector and the vast majority of work is for their fa
milies, in homes, in the fields or on the streets." --
Unicef s 1997 State of the World s Children Report
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IS THERE CHILD LABOR IN THE UNITED STATES?

Yes, if you are talking about "child labor" as defined by the US law. The Fair L
abor Standards Act sets the minimum working age as 15, with some exceptions.
In the United States: An estimated 290,200 children were unlawfully employed in
1996. Some it s not clear how many were "older teens working a few
too many hours in after-school jobs." About 59,600 were younger than age 14, and
some 13,100 worked in garment sweatshops, according to an Associated
Press series on child labor published in December 1997. (Available on www.igc.or
g, by searching for "child labor" on IGC sites and IGC member sites.)
Unicef s 1997 State of the World s Children Report says "The growth of the service s
ector and the quest for a more flexible workforce in industrialized
countries, such as the United Kingdom and the US, have contributed to an expansi
on of child labour."
"Hundreds of thousands" of children work in US agriculture, according to a repor
t by Human Rights Watch published in June 2000.
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WHAT DO CHILD LABORERS DO?

Work ranges from taking care of animals and planting and harvesting food, to man
y kinds of small manufacturing (e.g. of bricks and cement), auto repair,
and making of footwear and textiles. (See a list in US Dept. of Labor, By the Sw
eat & Toil of Children, Vo. V: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor,
Appendix C. http://www.dol.gov
A large proportion of children whom the ILO classifies as child laborers work in
agriculture.
See Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable (1998) "Every Child Counts" (2002) a
nd other ILO publications (http://www.ilo.org).
More boys than girls work outside their homes. But more girls work in some jobs:
for instance, as domestic maids. Being a maid in someone s
house can be risky. Maids typically are cut off from friends and family, and can
easily be physically or sexually abused by their employers.
Note: Less than 5% of child laborers make products for export to other countries
. Sources for this statistic include Unicef s State of the
World s Children Report 1997.
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WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Many children in hazardous and dangerous jobs are in danger of injury, even deat
h.
Beyond compassion, consider who today s children will become in the future. Betwee
n today and the year 2020, the vast majority of new workers,
citizens and new consumers whose skills and needs will build the world s economy a
nd society will come from developing countries. Over that
20-year period, some 730 million people will join the world s workforce more than
all the people employed in today's most developed nations in 2000.
More than 90 percent of these new workers will be from developing nations, accor
ding to research by Population Action International. How many will have
had to work at an early age, destroying their health or hampering their educatio
n?
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HOW CAN ORDINARY PEOPLE HELP REDUCE CHILD LABOR?

Learn about the issue. Support organizations that are raising awareness, and pro
viding direct help to individual children.
HOW WAS CHILD LABOR REDUCED IN TODAY S DEVELOPED COUNTRIES?
Four main changes took place:
1. economic development that raised family incomes and living standards
2. widespread, affordable, required and relevant education
3. enforcement of anti-child labor laws (along with compulsory education laws
)
4. changes in public attitudes toward children that elevated the importance o
f education
Sources of information about the history of include Hugh Cunningham and Pier Pao
lo Viazzo, eds, Child abour in Historical Perspective,
1800-1985: Case Studies from Europe, Japan and Columbia (Florence: Unicef, 1996)
. Other sources of information about history and controversies
about which of the four elements were most important, are listed on the site www
.childlabor.org.

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WHAT ARE SOME "MYTHS" OR MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUT CHILD LABOR?
Unicef lists four "myths":
1. It is a myth that child labor is only a problem in developing countries. "
But in fact, children routinely work in all industrialized countries,
and hazardous forms of child labour can be found in many countries. In the US, f
or example, children are employed in agriculture, a high proportion of
them from immigrant or ethnic-minority families. A 1990 survey of Mexican-Americ
an children working in the farms of New York state showed that almost
half had worked in fields still wet with pesticides and over a third had themsel
ves been sprayed."
2. It is a myth that child labor will only disappear when poverty disappears.
Hazardous labor can, and should be eliminated by even the poorest
countries.
3. It is a myth that most child laborers work in sweatshops making goods for
export. "Soccer balls made by children in Pakistan for use by children
in industrialized countries may provide a compelling symbol, but in fact, only a
very small proportion of all child workers are employed in export
industries - probably less than 5 per cent. Most of the world s child labourers ac
tually are to be found in the informal sector - selling on the street,
at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses far from the reach of official l
abour inspectors and from media scrutiny."
4. It is a myth that "the only way to make headway against child labour is fo
r consumers and governments to apply pressure through sanctions and
boycotts. While international commitment and pressure are important, boycotts a
nd other sweeping measures can only affect export sectors, which are
relatively small exploiters of child labour. Such measures are also blunt instr
uments with long-term consequences that can actually harm rather than
help the children involved."
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WHAT CAUSES CHILD LABOR TODAY?

Poverty is widely considered the top reason why children work at inappropriate j
obs for their ages. But there are other reasons as well -- not
necessarily in this order:
1. family expectations and traditions
2. abuse of the child
3. lack of good schools and day care
4. lack of other services, such as health care
5. public opinion that downplays the risk of early work for children
6. uncaring attitudes of employers
7. limited choices for women
"The parents of child labourers are often unemployed or underemployed, desperate
for secure employment and income. Yet it is their children -
more powerless and paid less - who are offered the jobs. In other words, says UN
ICEF, children are employed because they are easier to exploit,
" according to the "Roots of Child Labor" in Unicef s 1997 State of the World s Chil
dren Report.
The report also says that international economic trends also have increased chil
d labor in poor countries. "During the 1980s, in many developing
countries, government indebtedness, unwise internal economic policies and reces
sion resulted in economic crisis. Structural adjustment programmes
in many countries accentuated cuts in social spending that have hit the poor di
sproportionately. " Although structural adjustment programs are being
revised to spare education from deep cuts, the report says, some countries make
such cuts anyway because of their own, local priorities. In many
countries public education has deteriorated so much, the report declared, that e
ducation itself has become part of the problem because children
work to avoid going to school. This conclusion is supported by the work of many
social scientists, according to Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling,
and William Myers, who conducted a literature search for their 1998 book, What W
orks for Working Children (Stockholm: Radda Barnen, Unicef, 1998).
Children do some types of low-status work, the report adds, because children com
e from minority groups or populations that have long suffered
discrimination. " In northern Europe, for example, child labourers are likely to
be African or Turkish; in Argentina, many are Bolivian or Paraguayan;
in Thailand, many are from Myanmar. An increasingly consumer-oriented culture, s
purring the desire and expectation for consumer goods, can also lead
children into work and away from school."
Other sources: Child Labor: Targeting the Intolerable, published by ILO, Geneva,
1998. ILO information available using: www.ilo.org.
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WHAT ARE SOME SOLUTIONS TO CHILD LABOR?

Not necessarily in this order:
1. Increased family incomes
2. Education that helps children learn skills that will help them earn a livi
ng
3. Social services that help children and families survive crises, such as di
sease, or loss of home and shelter
4. Family control of fertility so that families are not burdened by children
The ILO s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) has ex
plored many programs to help child laborers. See IPEC documents
on the www.ilo.org site.
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child calls for children to participate
in important decisions that will affect their lives.
Some educators and social scientists believe that one of the most important ways
to help child workers is to ask their opinions, and involve them in
constructing "solutions" to their own problems. Strong advocates of this approac
h are Boyden, Myers and Ling; Concerned for Working Children in Karnataka,
India; many children s "unions" and "movements," and the Save the Children family
of non-governmental organizations.