Monday, January 23, 2006
Oledan: Pure deprivation
By Radzini Oledan
Slice of Life
FOR some kids, childhood means preparing and going to school during weekdays where they discover new things and forge friendships. Play and leisure is allotted during their spare time.
However, for an estimated 4 million children in the country, child labor is a "normal" occurrence and a natural consequence of their impoverished situation.
Out of these child laborers, 2.4 million are considered to be working under hazardous situation but really, the statistics could merely be a tip of the iceberg.
Child labor is a pervasive problem but is especially prevalent in rural areas, where sadly, government cannot seem to enforce minimum age requirements for schooling and work. This problem exists in impoverished communities where working outside is seen as the only way out of poverty.
While these children are not well paid, they still serve as major contributors to the income of their families.
Children are often prompted to work by their parents. According to one study, parents represent 62 percent of the source of induction into employment. In fact, in rural areas having a large number of children is seen to be profitable for the whole family as parents can make use of children's ability to work.
There are willing preys to the enterprise of opportunists. Lumad communities could easily fall prey to the promises of higher income and improved lives.
Their inability to access basic services and opportunities serves as a pressure point for them to try their luck in other areas.
The inaccessibility of schools and the lack of quality education contribute to child labor with parents themselves pushing their children to enter in more profitable pursuits.
Many of our working children endure lives of pure deprivation. They have become the easy objects of extreme exploitation in terms of toiling for long hours for minimal pay. Their work conditions are especially severe, often not providing the stimulation for proper physical and mental development.
The International Labour Office (ILO) reports that children work the longest hours and are the worst paid of all laborers (Bequele and Boyden 1988).
Employers capitalize on the docility of the children since these laborers cannot legally form unions to protect themselves and change their conditions.
Thus, child workers have to endure conditions that may include health hazards and potential abuse.
While most of our child workers have to engage in long hours of toil to enable them to attend school, it could only sustain them so far. In the end, these children have to drop out for sheer fatigue.
The tradition of having children help out in the economic activities of the adults does not improve the situation. It is a view that work can help a children build self-esteem and for training. Yet, the situation has gone out of proportions with children finding themselves in an exploitative situation.
Child labor is highly unmonitored and found in the informal sector resulting to the lack of accurate data on this hidden problem.
The lack of enforcement of labor restrictions perpetuates child labor and this is manifested in different ways. Oftentimes, subsistence takes precedence over anything else.
We may need more than convening an anti-trafficking task force. Programs have to include not only the need for an economic change in the condition of the families to free a child from the responsibility of working but also education in the grassroots to change prevailing norms and perception that children should work to help their families.
In all of these endeavors, school represents the most important means of drawing children away from the labor market. It should ideally provide children with guidance and the opportunity to understand their role in society. But then again, there are rooms to clean, weeds to cut and errands for them to do, right?
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (January 23, 2006 issue)
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