There are 300,000 children exploited at work
In spite of the fact that the law and international
agreements expressly prohibit child labour, over 300 thousand girls and
boys of Bolivia suffer conditions of exploitation in the labour market
with great damage to their integral development, reveals an official
report.
With no right to education, social protection and the diversions proper to their age, the majority of infants and adolescents, those between seven and 17 years of age, work in precarious conditions, in work days that overpass the 48 hours a week (above the maximum set for adults) and for miserable earnings insufficient to cover their most basic needs.
According to an investigation of the National Statistics Institute (INE), published this Wednesday by La Prensa, 10 percent of the child population in Bolivia is subject to these types of jobs in the labour market. Another significant, unspecified percentage of minors work in their own homes as unpaid labour, helping in domestic labour and informal activities.
The study reveals that the percentage of children in the labour market and in their homes has risen in the course of the last few years, product of the acute economic crisis the country is going through, stemming from the neo-liberal economic policies and that have accentuated the levels of exploitation in the labour force.
The rural areas house the majority of working children between the ages of seven and 13, while adolescents are predominant in urban areas.
"This reveals that it is boys and girls in the rural areas who insert themselves with greater intensity into the labour market from very early ages", points out the document. It also pointed out that although girls start working earlier they earn less than the boys.
According to the investigation, in the urban areas nearly three quarters of the minors work in the services sector, while in the rural areas more than three quarters of them work in some agricultural or mining activity.
Concerning the work day, the investigation indicates that the minors that work in the urban areas work for over 48 hours a week and for salaries under the 54 dollars a month, which is the national minimum salary.
Areas of Work and Activities
In the urban areas of the country, more than 70 percent of working girls, boys and adolescents perform activities in commerce and services, the majority of these in difficult conditions for their health and later development.
In contrast to the urban areas, in rural areas the working minors do so above all in primary sector activities.
The activities of industrial transformation and of construction, catalogued as secondary sector activities, are eminently masculine.
Independently of the age group, in these types of work 24 percent of boys and more than 36 percent of male adolescents. In some cases this population also works in the sale and repair of cars.
Unlike in the rural areas, where the primary sector is absolutely predominant in the economy, like agricultural tasks, 81 percent of minors between seven and 13 years of age are dedicated to this activity, in the face of 70 percent of adolescents.
It is also observed that the majority of girls in rural areas are dedicated to the activities of rearing and caring for animals; the boys take care of the harvest.
"For example, the existence of 2,200 children that declare as working in the production of sugar cane, and this is censual information. In this kind of work fungicides and pesticides that generate risks and deteriorate the health of the children", says the study.
Tertiary activities are the most important in the insertion of boys, girls and adolescents into the world of work. It represents 74 percent of the total of urban workers and 14 percent of the boys and girls in the rural areas in respect to the total number of minors working.
In the tertiary sector the predominance in the work of boys, girls and adolescents in established in the commerce sector (45 thousand workers), followed by that of personal services -like restaurants and hotels- and social services; also in the transport sector -that is the "voceadores"- that represent 95 percent of the total in this sector.
Work Conditions
In general the working conditions of minors are precarious, although there are some sectors were the levels of exploitation are very high.
"For example, a child that works in a bakery has to gat up at two o'clock in the morning; at three he starts kneading because the bread must be ready by five. That job is forbidden because that child should be sleeping and should work in the distribution of the bread, after eight o'clock in the morning", said the expert that made the investigation, Carmen Ledo, who said this is one of the transgressions that many minors are exposed to.
The same happens with girls and adolescents that work as domestic help. According to the information gathered, they talk of working days that surpass the 12 hours a day.
Alarm and Preoccupation
The regional United National International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) representative, Guido Cornale, showed concern in the face of the facts revealed in the book "Child Labour in Bolivia, Characteristics and Conditions", published by his institution and the INE.
"These activities have tremendous implications on the life of these people, especially in the violation of their human rights, such as education and health, sometimes reaching that of exploitation, slavery and forced labour", he said.
The director of the institution that works in favour of children commented that in order to fight the abuse of child workers a strong commitment is needed from all the institutions and organisations that work with minors.
In Cornale´s view, the Bolivian minors that work do not have the opportunity of becoming qualified or of having hope in their lives.
He pointed out that we need to be able to give answers to this sector in the areas of respect for human rights and the preservation of human capital.
Econoticias Bolivia