The Portrait of NorMin’s Child Labor

THE paradoxical statement from William Wordsworth's Imitation of Immortality from Recollection of Early Childhood which states that " The Child is the Father of the Man" can never be underestimated; however, it can never be ignored that children are children. Their hands are not as strong as their parents' hands. Their eyes have not yet seen the world as their parents have had. Their feelings are tender and they need every chance to grow, to develop and become individuals who can be accountable for their actions. Thus, the much quoted Iines from Chile’s Nobel Prize winning poet, Gabriela Minstral, The child cannot wait... to him we cannot answer Tomorrow; his name is Today" credit more serious attention.

What then is the children situationer in the Philippines?

Child labor is one of the many disturbing problems in the Philippines whose incidence has increased by almost 30 percent from 4.2 million in 2001 to 5.5 million last year as revealed in the 2011 Survey on Children of the National Statistics Office (NSO). "Child labor” in this survey refers to the working children who reported to have worked in hazardous environment regardless of the number of hours they spent at work (Hazardous Child Labor), or those who have worked for long hours (more than 20 hours a week for children 5 to l4 years old and more than 40 hours a week  for children 15 to l7 years old) or "Other Child Labor. The rest of the working children are classified under "Not Child Labor” category.

Out of the 5.492 million working children, 58.4 percent or an estimated 3.210 million were considered as in child labor, while 41.6 percent or an estimated 2.283 million were considered not in child labor. Comparing between boys and girls statistics show that in every ten working children, six were boys while four were girls. Causing alarm to our nation planners are the findings that as young as 5 years old, statistics show an 8.2 percent of working children who belonged to the 5 to 9 years of age category, while 46.7 percent of the working children were 15 to 17 years old and 45.1 percent were 10 to 14 years old. More alarming are those identified working in hazardous work environment which registered 39.9 percent for those exposed to physical environment, 19.1 for those exposed to chemical and physical hazards and 13.7 percent for those exposed to combined chemicals, physical and biological hazards.

While it is every child’s right to obtain formal education, it is sad to note that for all age groups, there is still 29.9 percent reported not attending school, and out of the three age groups (5-9, 10-14, 15-17), 47.3 percent among those belonging to 15-17 years old were not attending school. Between the two sexes, there were more boys than girls among the children in hazardous labor who were attending school.

The root cause that triggered children to work is poverty. Those who were reported helping in own household-operated farm or business posted  42.2 percent while 30.0 percent were reported supplementing family income or working for family well-being.

What is the portrait of NorMin’s Child labor?

The 2011 Survey on Children (SOC) reveals an alarming statistics which show that in every ten children aged 5-17 years in Northern Mindanao (29.6%) were working. In the National Capital Region and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the ratio was only one in every ten children.

The implications show that poverty is the biggest push that has made children worked and to start working as soon as they can manage to handle work which is hazardous to their health and to their well-being. This calls for interventions to give the children the opportunity for education and of appropriate social, cultural, physical and psychosocial development.

Posted in: Press Release