DOLE, DSWD team up against child labor

Poverty has forced children to work to augment their parents’ meager incomes. (Photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) have teamed up to ensure a Philippines free of child labor by 2025.

The two agencies joined forces in its “Makiisa para sa #1MBatangMalaya: We are one with the children in ending child labor” to raise public awareness and get rid of child labor in the country.

In particular, the DOLE and the DSWD will be working together on covergence programs to eliminate the prevalent but illegal practice.

“Eliminating child labor is a real challenge that requires collective action and close cooperation of government agencies, civil society organizations, local government units, media, parents and the children themselves,” said Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod.

The partnership was launched in Quezon City on Thursday. Maglungsod noted that child workers are compelled to help augment their families’ meager income by engaging in hazardous work.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2011 Survey on Children, there are 2.1 million child laborers in the Philippines.

The convergence projects of the DSWD and the DOLE to combat child labor are:

• The CARING Gold Project of the International Labor Organization and BanToxics, which calls for the reduction of child labor and improve working conditions in gold mining
• The Strategic Help Desks for Information, Education, Livelihood and other Developmental Interventions (SHIELD) against Child Labor
• The Module on Child Labor for the Family Development Sessions of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the DSWD

The ILO donated $ 2 million for the CARING Gold project, which will be initially pilot tested in mining areas in Camarines Norte and South Cotobato.

On the other hand, the SHIELD project will be initially pilot tested in six local government units in Quezon, Camarines Norte and Ormoc, Leyte in the first half of 2017.

These are all aligned with both the Philippine Program Against Child Labor 2017-2022, which aims to rescue one million children from child labor, and the Sustainable Development Goals that calls for the end of child labor by 2025.

As the chair of the National Child Labor Committee, the DOLE vowed to intensify its campaign against child labor and to back its partners in curbing child labor.

The DOLE noted that the worst forms of child labor include exposure of children to physical and psychological abuse; forced domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation; and offering children for illicit activities like drug ingand production.

Maglungsod assured that the two agencies would work together to attain a child labor-free Philippines and to make poor households understand the child labor issue.

For her part, DSWD Metro Manila Director Ma. Alicia Bonoan stressed the need to urgently address the problem, lest more children be trapped in child labor and in backbreaking, hazardous work.

Khalid Hassan, director of the International Labor Organization country office for the Philippines, noted that child labor is complex and deeply rooted in poverty.

“Children suffer and risk their health or even their lives to work for their family’s survival. Ending child labour requires strong commitment and collective effort,” he said. /ATM