About 3 million Filipino children are employed in the most hazardous forms of work, the latest survey of the National Statistics Office (NSO) shows.
Based on the 2011 Survey on Children of the NSO released to the public on Tuesday, the current number of children working in hazardous jobs grew from 2.4 million back in 2001.
Of the 29 million Filipino children (aged 5-17 years old), 5.5 million are employed in various forms of labor.
More boys are employed in dangerous work compared to girls, the study revealed. About 66.8 percent of child workers in hazardous work are boys, while 33.2 percent are girls.
Regions with the highest incidence of hazardous child labor are also some of the poorest areas in the country, which includes Central Luzon (10.6 percent), Bicol (10.2 percent), Western Visayas (8.5 percent), Northern Mindanao (8.2 percent) and Central Visayas (7.3 percent).
“We have to get to the root of child labour which is linked with poverty and lack of decent and productive work,” said Director Lawrence Jeff Johnson of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Country Office for the Philippines.
The ILO defined hazardous child work as “being likely to harm children's health, safety, or morals by its nature or circumstances.”
“Children may be directly exposed to obvious work hazards such as sharp tools or poisonous chemicals. Other hazards for child labourers may be less apparent, such as the risk of abuse or problems resulting from long hours of work,” the ILO said in a statement.
But the group clarified that the NSO study cannot be compared with previous statistics since it was conducted with the revised definition and terms under Republic Act 9231 on the worst forms of child labor enacted in 2003 and international statistical standards adopted in 2008.
It also said that the survey cannot give a complete and detailed picture of Filipino children trafficked for work, undergo sexual exploitation, or are in armed conflict.
“One of the recommendations is to conduct the survey every 5 years to immediately find solutions and provide interventions. Results of this survey will be used as targets for interventions both geographically and among specific groups by industry occupations, “ Johnson said.
The recent study by the NSO alarmed the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), one of the largest and oldest labor federations in the country.
“We are left with no choice but to double our efforts and find better ways to implement programs to get children out of child labor, especially those in hazardous work,” said Julius Cainglet, Assistant Vice President of the FFW.
Cainglet echoed the ILO's commitment in combating the continued rise of Filipino child laborers and their exposure to more hazardous work.
The ILO launched on Tuesday the Batang Malaya: Child labor free Philippines campaign, a nationwide drive geared towards the global deadline of ending the worst forms of child labour by 2016.
Under the campaign, the ILO seeks the following actions:
- Institutionalize the Survey on Children to regularly monitorprogress.
- Strengthen and rationalize the operations of the National Child LaborCommittee by giving it a legal mandate, budget and a dedicated secretariat.
- Improve enforcement of RA 9231 to ensure that all persons found to beengaging children in the worst forms of child labour are penalized.
- Expand the reach and strengthen the capacity of the labourinspectorate to monitor child labour even in unregulated sectors.
- Mainstream child labour in local development plans and integrate asconditionality in programmes to reduce poverty including conditionalcash transfers.
According to the ILO, there are 215 million children trapped in child labor worldwide, 115 million of them were in the worst forms of child labor in 2010.source: interaksyon.com
