CHILD LABOR

What is child labor? National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) defines child labour as: children 5-14 years of age involved in labor activities. Intenational Labor Organization, on the other hand, defines child labour as: work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that:

is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and interferes with their schooling by: depriving them of the opportunity to attend school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities often at a very early age. The worst types of child labour are the following:

Child prostitution Child slavery (bonded child labor) Children involved in illegal activities Children in hazardous work works/situations that were explicitly considered, hazardous, to children (people under the age of 18) are the following:

Mines Work in oceans Moving machinery Carrying heavy materials Extremely hot/cold temperatures Agricultural work Tannin work Glass work

Working with pesticides or herbicides Working with chemicals Working with silica dust

Whether or not particular forms of work can be called child labour depends on the childs age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries. Three Sectors of Child Labour The agriculture sector comprises activities in agriculture, hunting forestry, and fishing. The industry sector includes mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, and public utilities (electricity, gas and water). The services sector consists of wholesale and retail trade; restaurants and hotels; transport, storage, and communications; finance, insurance, real-estate, and business services; and community as well as social personal services. In a worldwide perspective: 115 million children worldwide are child workers Total of 128 goods from 70 countries are made by child or forced child labor, meaning children under the age of 15, in violation of international standards. Many children around the world work in slave or bondage conditions. Children are either forced by governments into labor, or governments ignore companies that forcibly employ them, in Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Burma, China, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Uzbekistan, among others. India has the greatest number of child laborers, followed by China. Smaller nations in subSaharan Africa have a higher percentage of children, as much as a third of children under 14, who work in diamond mines or other factories instead of going to school. The labor department of U.S says these countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Zambia it has spent more than $740 million in programs to help more than 80 countries combat child labor since 1995.

According to ILO survey, there is already 5.59 million child labourers in the Philippines

5-17 years old Population

already working (5.59 M) not yet working (23.429 M)

The 2011 Survey on Children conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) and released Tuesday showed that out of the 29.019 million Filipino children aged 5-17 years old, about 18.9 percent or 5.59 million, were already working. Almost all of them are in hazardous condition.

Compositon of 5-17 Population

15-17 y/o workers (2.562 M) Not yet working (23.429 M) Non-Hazardous Child Labor (0.035 M) Hazardous Child Labor (2.993 M)

Of those 5.59 million children at work, 3.028 million were considered as child laborers and 2.993 million were reported to be exposed to hazardous child labor. 69.5 percent of child laborers, or 2.106 million, were attending school. 60 percent of child laborers in the country were in the agricultural sector. There are two boys for every girl, especially in agriculture. In the services sector, there are more girls than boys.

As they grow older, they also tend to drop out of school. With the younger age group, aged 5 to 9 years old, 90 percent are in school. By the time they reach 15, only half of them are in school. The regions which had the highest incidence of child labor were Central Luzon, Bicol, Western Visayas, Northern Mindanao, and Central Visayas.