The problem of child labor is aggravated

Children who work as a means of working intensively with their families, with almost the same obligations as adults, do not have the same opportunities as the rest of the children to realize their dreams and make the most of their talents. According to specialists, they are tired, sometimes withdrawn, have trouble paying attention in clbad and often end up leaving school. They do not have time to play, to enjoy children's literature, to do their homework. They are fat, with too much load for the few years they have.

In Argentina, this reality concerns 1,417,517 children, according to UCA, and will be remembered especially the "World Day against Child Labor" on June 12, but not campaigns for the next elections. "It's a complex issue that costs need to be on the agenda, which is a priority in politics with allocated budgets," says Gustavo Ponce, child labor specialist at the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Argentina. "Budgets must take into account children, there must be a specialized team in each province with government coordination," he added.

"Sometimes children get up at 5 in the morning, feed the animals, go to school and work until 9 pm Most of them carry food. water and firewood between 8 and 9. Or, they work at home, with gender stereotypes, because only older girls are caring for younger siblings, or children who at age 13, are given a plot in the family farm of small producers and drop out of school.they are tired and they miss school, it is very unfair because they're not under the same learning conditions as boys who do not work, families enjoy it positively, but it hurts play, education.

Child Labor, in the latest UCA report entitled "Childhood: progress and setbacks of the key to inequality", is measured with the help of intensive domestic and economic tasks carried out on the market by children and adolescents aged 5 and 17, in urban areas in Argentina. "Children and adolescents who perform these tasks are often exposed to exploitation, diseases, delays in education, among other deficits of human and social development," says the statistical document published the week last by Ianina Tuñón, researcher in charge. of the barometer of the social debt of the childhood, the UCA.

Argentine law allows work from the age of 16, but the UCA considers that it is a tension factor for the teenager who does not have still completed high school, which is mandatory.

It is estimated that in Argentina, about 764,000 girls and boys aged 5 to 15 years have had at least one productive activity according to the "Survey of Activities of Children and Adolescents (Eanna)", 2016- 2017, conducted by Indec, which represents 10% of the country's children. It takes a total of 7,648,413 boys in this age group, although the limit is 15 years.

For the UCA, which calculates on the basis of boys aged 5 to 17, 15.5% were working in 2018 in 2018, while in 2017, the percentage was 12%, or 1,171,247 children. "Between 2010 and 2018, there is a decline of about 19%, however, this progression is reversed compared to the last inter-annual period, both by an increase in domestic work and by so-called economic work. ", says the report.

But not everything is child labor. It's one thing to help a little at home and another to work in adulthood. The Indec survey explains that the intensity of the working day is an indicator that rivals the school results: among the youngest (5 to 15 years), 8.5% work in urban populations and 6.1% in rural areas; and they develop days of 36 hours or more per week. For 16- and 17-year-olds, full-day work is increasing: just over one in four men (26.3% of the urban population and 26.6% of the rural population) working time of a full time adult.

For the ILO specialist, "child labor exists in many productive areas, it is closely related to the informal work of parents and is a considerable effort to eradicate this activity in rural areas, in the country". Agriculture".

More work in the middle clbad

The novelty of this recent increase in child labor, according to the UCA, lies in the fact that it has developed in the non-professional social strata and in the interior of the country. The most affected are teenagers, women when it comes to housework and men when they work for the market.

"What struck me the most when we wrote this report, is the increase of child labor in the intermediate sectors," said Ianina Tuñón, a member of the Observatory. of the Argentine social debt of the UCA.

Compared to 2017, total intensive domestic work increased from 5.5% to 7.2% in 2018. At a very low socio-economic level, it went from 7.3% to 9.7%. At the intermediate level, it went from 6.4% in 2017 to 8.9% in 2018 and in the upper middle, it went from 1.5% in 2017 to 4.4% in 2018.

In other economic activities, the number of child labor also increased from 7.9 per cent in 2017 to 10.2 per cent in 2018. At the medium, medium and high socio-economic levels, it experienced the highest growth and from 6.3% in 2017 to 11.3% in 2018 and from 5.4% to 8.2% respectively.

"Work among children aged 5 to 17 has increased over the last year, but not so much in the lower social clbades, because during a recession, there is no job for anyone, no big or small. and keep what they have and then use a secondary workforce at home, in their businesses, "explains Tuñón.

First person

Some 168 million children work in the world. That is why, in order to raise public awareness of this issue, the ILO launched the "World Day Against Child Labor" in 2002, commemorated on 12 June.

As part of the ILO's initiatives for 100 years, it has already compiled 100 testimonials from people from all provinces, nowadays, from adults who are victims of the harshness of child labor. This is the multimedia campaign "100 years, 100 votes: child labor in the first person".

Rufina, 51, is one of the testimonies collected by the ILO to commemorate the "World Day Against Child Labor". In a moving audio, you can hear his story:

"My first job was at age 8," he says. "They sent me to a family in the interior, my parents decided that way, we lived in the countryside and decided that I had to go to work in the city of General Roca (Rio Negro province). ).

"My work day started at 8 am, placing a small drawer in front of the kitchen counter to take action, turning on the kettle and preparing breakfast, and it ended at 9 am a normal day, except that they had guests and had to be with them because they were playing cards and had to bring them coffee or whatever they needed.

"I was worried about my mother, how to help her in the situation we were going through, my father was hitting me a lot and I could not speak at that time, all I was doing was working and quitting To be a girl, a toy, all I did was work, and nothing else. "

Ponce says that "children start working on housework, carrying water and firewood and taking care of animals." At first, it's considered a help at home, but when you listen to the stories, you see that it actually becomes a job. , and they have adult responsibilities, they are left alone and very isolated. The boys then try to make the school compatible with the world of work. This is happening a lot today. "

According to the ILO, the term "child labor" refers to any work detrimental to the child physically, mentally, socially or morally, which impairs their schooling and prevents them from playing. "They are not allowed to be children." Among them, children are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, such as working in hazardous environments, slavery and other forms of child labor. forced labor, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution. "

What the law says

Law 26,390 of 2008 provides that the minimum age for working is 16 years, with the permission of their parents up to 18 years of age.

Persons over the age of 14 may be employed in companies whose owner is their father, mother or legal guardian, in days not exceeding three hours a day and fifteen hours a week, provided that it does not involve difficult, dangerous or risky tasks. unhealthy and that they comply with school attendance.

They can not occupy people aged 16 to 18 in any job for more than six hours a day or thirty-six a week.

However, for Ponce, the challenge is always to "further protect the work of adolescents aged 16 and 17".

Public agenda

Today there is a general framework in public policies, namely the "National Plan for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labor and the Protection of Child Labor", which "should be put in place at the national level ", recommends Ponce. Corresponds to the period 2018-2022.

"I see a great opportunity, there are sustainable development goals at the global level and Argentina today has a national plan, with adequate laws, as well as recent data from an investigation." for the first time on child labor in rural areas. " He insists that we must prioritize this issue in the public agenda and work for the restitution of children's rights. "