Child labor exploitation expanded in Latin America with the pandemic

the stain of child laborpresent in all Latin Americaexpanded even more as a consequence of the impoverishment and social economic deterioration caused by the pandemic.

Today it is one of the most threatening human rights violations for the future of the region, especially due to the impairment in the education of minors, according to an investigation carried out by EFE on the occasion of the International Day against Child Labor.

The confinement reduced the income of many households. Hunger and multiple needs pushed millions of families to take to the streets, in many cases accompanied by minors forced to work to make up for the lack of basic goods.

“The pandemic has affected families a lot. In 2021 there was a significant increase in the number of boys and girls who went to work,” the director of the program quality and impact area of ​​the NGO Save the Children in Peru, Nelly Claux, explained to EFE.

that situation of poverty “It makes children participate in the search for resources from an early age”add.

In Peru, where it is legal to work from the age of fourteen in decent conditions, “a quarter of the child and adolescent population work”although it is not always “in the worst forms of work”. Most study and work at the same time, but there is a 5% who is exclusively dedicated to work.

In these circumstances, it is usual “the accumulation of money by third parties who employ children”points out Nelly Claux, who denounces that it is very common to find minors working in illegal mining, one of the most dangerous work activities, or “girls who from an early age do domestic work in third-party homes where they are often exploited”. Peru “it is the kingdom of informal work”says the Save the Children spokeswoman.

Mexico in second place

Mexico is the second country in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest prevalence of child labor, according to data from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Cepal).

The latest National Child Labor Survey estimated that of the 28.5 million girls, boys and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17 in Mexico, 3.3 million worked, of which two million work in illegal occupations and 1.2 million perform work classified as dangerous.

He 31.6% of working Mexican children support agricultural, livestock, forestry, hunting and fishing activities, 24.5% in mining, construction and industry, and 14% in trade, sales and sales agents mainly.

In Mexico, the Federal Labor Law (LFT) prohibits the work of minors under fifteen years of age. In addition, the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (T-MEC) obliges countries to include laws and regulations against child labor and prohibits the importation of products made by girls and boys.

Central America, an overwhelming panorama

The situation is not much better in Central America. In Guatemala, for example, around 900,000 minors, the 17% of the total, work despite not having reached the age of 18, the 60% in rural areas. The rest does so in the manufacturing industry, hospitality, restaurants and commerce, according to official data.

Indigenous children from seven to fourteen years old represent the 56% of the working Guatemalan child population, according to the latest National Employment Survey of 2017.

In Nicaragua, meanwhile, the authorities have not presented official figures for eleven years. The latest statistics, from 2012, indicated that there were 396,118 working children in Nicaragua, a country of 6.7 million inhabitants.

Nicaragua has ratified all major international conventions on child labor, including the International Labor Organization (ILO) Minimum Age Convention and the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention.

But according to Humanium, an international NGO committed to fighting the violation of children’s rights, Nicaraguan children continue to be subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including sex tourism.

The panorama is not more encouraging in El Salvador, where according to official data, 81,164 minors work, the 6.1% of the total, mainly males from rural areas, and 58,007 do dangerous work. And besides, the 40% does not attend school.

In Honduras, before the pandemic, there were 475,000 boys and girls working, a third of them in the fields. Today that figure has doubled, the spokesman for Unicef, Héctor Espinal, told EFE. In addition to expelling them from school, the pandemic pushed them to “work to survive.”

In Brazil, there are more and more children working

In 2019, there were two million children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 16 working in Brazil, according to official figures. “It is unfortunate that child labor in Brazil often begins at the age of five and we see more and more children in these conditions”The majority of them “blacks and indigenous”Dennis Larsen, coordinator of Unicef ​​in the northeast of the country, one of the poorest regions, denounced EFE.

For this reason, the new government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is reviewing the National Plan for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor and Protection of Adolescent Workers, launched in 2019 by his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

The NGO Andi, which works to combat child labor, indicated that barely 1,900 minors were withdrawn from the labor market in 2022. The complaints received by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office that year amounted to 2,500, a 65% more than in the previous period.

Paraguay and Bolivia, the gap grows

In Paraguay, according to an official survey that in 2011 recorded child and youth activity, that year there were 1,880,109 children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17, which represented the 40.8% of the population. And the 22.4% of them worked.

For its part, in Bolivia, where there is no data after the pandemic either, some 724,000 minors between the ages of 5 and 17 carried out an activity with an employer or collaborate in family or community economic work, according to an official 2019 survey. 41% of these children and adolescents did so in dangerous, prohibited and unhealthy conditions.

In 2022, the Bolivian Ombudsman warned that the State “violates the right to protection” of working children and adolescents, for not developing plans and programs to avoid labor violations.

A scenario that is repeated in many Latin American countries, where the worsening of poverty after the pandemic is leading to a setback in the fight against child labor.

Source: EFE