Hermes Jr.

Bongcaras Vytruviuz Jacoby Bermuda

HUMSS 12-C 09/30/2019

PSA urged to include 3 new types of child labor in surveys

By: Samuel P. Medenilla (March 31, 2019)

Emerging types of child labor should be included in the Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the Philippine

Statistics Authority (PSA) as these may pose additional challenges for the government’s effort to reduce

their numbers. The Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC) is now pushing for additional

research on the three new types of child labor identified during the 20th International Conference on Labour

Statistics (ICLS) last year. The three new types are own-use production work, unpaid trainee work and

volunteer work. BWSC, an attached agency of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), defined

“own-use production workers” as those engaged in the production of goods and services for their own final

use.

“Unpaid trainee workers” are those performing free work for the purpose of acquiring workplace experience

or skills, while “non-compulsory work” is performed for others without pay to benefit a community where a

child belongs to. Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla, director of the BWSC, said the government currently knows

very little about these child laborers since they are not monitored in government statistics. This will make it

difficult for the government to improve their welfare to address this, she said the BWSC has proposed the

inclusion of these new types of child laborers in the regular LFS of PSA. “These could be taken up in the

next Inter-Agency Committee on Labor and Productivity Statistics (IACLPS) with the Philippine Statistics

Authority and the DOLE,” Trayvilla said. “For policy-makers, this is vital in providing appropriate program

responses,” she added. This is consistent with the recommendation of the International Labor

Organizations (ILO) to paint a more accurate figure of the remaining child labor in the Philippines. “These

emerging work arrangements must be measured to determine the occurrence of child labor,” Frederico

Blanco, ILO Project Coordinator of the Global Research on Child Labor Measurement and Policy

Development said. The DOLE is currently targeting to reduce by 30 percent, or 630,000, of the estimated

2.1 million child laborers nationwide by 2020.

 Reflection

Millions of children in the Philippines are forced to work at young ages. Child labor is one of the

Philippines' most urgent problems and stems from a range of social factors. Unless something is done, the

issue of child labor will continue to affect the lives of many families across the country.

According to the International Labor Organization. Aside from mining, there is also an alarming

incidence of child labor in sugarcane plantations. Extreme cases of worsening working conditions for child

laborers in sugarcane plantations show how children are brought to plantations that are far from their

hometown. Trucks would pick them up and bring them to ‘camps’ that are located in nearby provinces to

stay and work there from two weeks to one month without their parents. They stay and sleep in makeshift

tents within the plantation,” the EU report said. More than four percent of children aged 5-14 years, over

875,000 in absolute terms, are engaged in child labor according to SOC 2011.

As with many threats to children's development and well-being, poverty is a root cause of child

labor. Families struggle to make ends meet and face hard decisions when it comes to sending their children

to work. Without immediate action, the problem will continue to grow. How could we stop this? As the voice

of the youth, education is the most powerful to eradicate this issue in our society, we must be alarmed on

what the current situation in our youth specially the children who needs more attention in terms of family

care as well as to the parents that they need to give a proper attention to their children, by this action we

can prevent this issue in our society. To the government officials: they must stop the corruption. The

children are suffering because of that. Since each of these individual parties depends on the others, they

would benefit from a more transparent system that involves labeling products to indicate whether they have

been made "humanely" or at least to provide a better understanding of the origin of the product.

Governments could link aid for primary education to action against child labor. Stop Child Labor endeavors

to influence policy and calls on governments to do more to tackle child labor. To Teachers:Education in the

Philippines can play an important role in fighting child labor. Awareness can be raised and action taken at

every level of the education system. Many teachers, pupils and other colleagues in education have shown

that this is not difficult. Their success stories and tips have been compiled in the special publication "Let’s

all go to school", along with other suggestions for activities at school and in class.