child labor

1. INTRODUCTION
in today’s modern world, the situation of child laborers and street
children has preoccupied the minds of many human rights activists and social
issues experts. Many children work and live in unsuitable conditions in busy
streets, in the cold, heat and pollution, they are human beings and helping
them is crucial and necessary as a human rights challenge. This phenomenon
is not exclusive to a particular country, but we see this problem practically
across the whole world.
Children who undertake arduous work that they are incapable of doing
or dangerous jobs, due to economic and financial needs, with the aim of
producing goods or services to receive wages, are considered as child
laborers. Overall, children who have to work on the streets for their survival in
big cities, are called street children. The term is usually associated with
children who both work and sleep on the streets.

2. CHILD LABOUR
 Refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous
occupations
 International labor organization(ilo) defines child labor as damage to children’s health,
hamper their education and lead to further exploitation and abuse
 ILO also defines the worst child labor which include using children in armed forces(i.e)
Africa sexual exploitation like prostitution and pornography, illegal activities like
trafficking of drugs etc.

3. CHILD LABOR
 Child protection law expanded the definition of children to mean “persons below 18
years of age but those over or unable to fully take cake of themselves or protect
themselves from abuse. Neglect. Cruelty. Exploitation or discrimination because of a
physical or mental disability or condition.
 About 2.06 million children all around the Philippines are compelled to do labor, such as
crop plantation, mining cave, rock quarries and factories.

4. WORLD/PHILIPPINE SCENARIO
• The latest global estimates indicate that the number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million
worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years. 63 million girls and 97 million boys
were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children
worldwide.
• The total population of children 5 to 17 years old in the Philippines was estimated at 31.64 million in
2021. Of the estimated 31.64 million children 5 to 17 years old in 2021, 1.37 million or 4.3 percent were
working. This was higher than the proportion of working children 5 to 17 years old in 2019 and 2020 of
3.4 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.
• In 2021, the total number of working children considered engaged in child labor was estimated at 935
thousand. This was higher than the reported working children engaged in child labor in 2020 at 597
thousand. In 2019, the estimated number of working children engaged in child labor was 640 thousand.

5. CAUSES OF CHILD LABOR
Child labor is rooted in poverty and the lack of economic
opportunities
Children with unemployed parents or whose parents do not
have social security must work to help in their family’s struggle
for survival
Philippine culture especially in rural areas
Filipino children try hard to support their families and are
forced to work and even quit school
Homelessness and abandonment of children are forced to beg
or work in dangerous facilities because nobody will know
and is perfect for a worker.

6. CHILD WORK
• Light work (children
learn to take
responsibility)
• Respect of rights to
health and education
• Occasional
• Legal
CHILD LABOR
• Hazardous work
(exploitive)
• Deprivation of rights to
health and education
• Constant and for long
hours
• Illegal

7. • Poverty-related health problems increase the risks and consequences of work-related
hazards and may lead to permanent disabilities and premature death.
• Long hours of work on a regular basis can harm children’s social and educational
development.
• Kids who work more than 20 hours per week have reported more problem behaviors, and
sleep deprivation and related problems. They are more likely to drop out of school and
complete fewer months of higher education.
• Children working in agriculture suffer particularly high rates of injury. In the Philippines, for
example, has agriculture had five times greater risk of injury compared with children
working in other industries.
• Several conditions cause the relatively high rates of injuries, health problems, and fatalities
among agricultural child laborers: exposure to pesticides and working with machinery and
sharp tools.
EFFECTS ON CHILDREN ON THEIR WORKING
CONDITIONS

9. CATEGORICAL WORST FORM OF CHILD
LABOR
• Commercial sexual exploitation, including use in the production of
pornography, sometimes as a result of human trafficking
• Forced labor including domestic work, sometimes as a result in human
trafficking
• Recruitment of children by non-state armed groups for use in armed
conflict
• Forced begging
• Use in illicit activities, including in the distribution, procurement, and
sale of drugs including methamphetamine

10. WORLD’S EFFORT TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOR
• 1989: The U.N. enacts the Convention on the Rights of the Child to guarantee the protection of
children’s rights to grow and thrive.
• 1992: The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) is founded to promote
the global elimination of the practice and support countries in their efforts.
• 1999: The Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, ratified by 186 countries, requires ending
practices like slavery, human trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor in armed conflict,
prostitution, pornography, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities.
• 2021: The U.N. General Assembly declares this to be the Year for the Elimination of Child Labor.
• 2025: International commitment is set to end all forms of child labor this year under Target 8.7
of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.

11. PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS/EFFORTS TO
ELIMINATE CHILD LABOR
• Kabuhayan para sa Magulang ng Batang Manggagawa (KASAMA)- orm of livestock raising, Negokart and business
starter kits, materials for mat weaving and soap making, food vending or carinderia, and hair cutting and cosmetology
sets
• Project: Angel Tree- builds up of a network of patrons and supporters of NACLP—called “angels”—who pool or donate
resources for child laborers’ education and other needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, mentoring, livelihood, school
supplies, medical assistance and other work and training opportunities. The “angels” could be non-government
organizations, private institutions, and other partner government agencies.
• Sagip Batang Manggagawa Quick Action Teams- conducted 10 rescue operations, one each in NCR, Regions IV-A,
VII, XII, and six in Caraga. During the said rescue operations, DOLE and members of the team removed or rescued 28
child labourers from hazardous activities, bringing to 3,431 the number of child laborers rescued since the inception of
the program in 1993. These child laborers were mostly found working in KTV bars/night clubs.
• Sagip Batang Manggagawa (SBM)- is an inter-agency quick action mechanism that responds—detecting, monitoring,
and rescuing child labourers—to cases of child labor in extremely abject conditions. DOLE handles administrative cases
and leads the teams, working with the DSWD, National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, local
government units, and non-government organizations in raids of suspected child labor lairs.

12. STREET CHILDREN
• Street Children is a term for children experiencing poverty (homelessness) who
are living on the streets of a city.
• Street children are minors who live and survive on the streets. They often grow up
in public landfills, train stations or under the bridges of the world’s major cities.
• Because of conflicts with their family, these children don’t want to or can’t return
home.

13. THREE TYPES OF CHILDREN-UNICEF
• Street Living – children who ran away from their families and live
alone in the streets
• Street Working – children who spend most of their time on the
streets, fending of themselves, but returning home from a regular
basis
• Street Family – children who live in the streets with their families.

14. CAUSES OF THE PHENOMENON OF STREET CHILDREN
• Negligence of family
• Poverty
• Influence by friends
• Mental health problems
• Lose/killed parents due to war/conflict
• Violence
• Parents give up to keep their own

15. HOW GOVERNMENT AND THE SOCIETY DEAL WITH
STREET CHILDREN
• Correctional – primarily used by the government and police to protect the public and help
kids away committing crimes.
• Rehabilitative – supported by churches and NGO’s to help and rehabilitate street children,
providing them programs to keep them from going to back to the streets
• Outreach Strategies – empower the street children by providing outreach education and
training to support children
• Preventive approach – focuses on the problems that cause children to leave their homes for
the street by targeting the parents’ unemployment and poor housing campaign for children’s
rights

16. SOLUTIONS
• Laws
• Create demand for trained and skilled workers
• Awareness
• Empowerment of poor people
• Protection of children especially from trafficking and others forms
of violence

17. CONCLUSION
• Child labor and street children are not just and affront to the rights of a child
but also a symbol of a society that lost its way. But the causes can be reduced
through the cooperation of government and people by spreading awareness,
improving the economy of the country, etc. The causes are many and so can be
the solutions if we truly try our best to help them out. If they are given proper
facilities such as food, shelter, education, clear drinking facilities and health care
then they can do better and have a bright future and live a comfortable life and
it will also increase the employment rate in the countries specially in the
developing countries which will benefit both them and the nation. So, we
should not hate them but help them to have a proper life.