Child labor slowly declines in Latin America and the Caribbean
20 de September de 2017
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We are heading in the right direction, but we must accelerate to end child labor by 2025
Child labor in Latin America fell 17% between 2012 and 2016, from 12.5 million to 10.5 million. This is clear from the report on Global Estimates of Child Labor, presented by the International Labor Organization and prepared within the framework of Alliance 8.7 .
According to estimates, for the region the net percentage of child labor went from 8.8% in 2012 to 7.3% in 2016 , which shows that progress is slow, but also uneven among countries, as there are vulnerable groups such as indigenous populations, girls and female adolescents and those who live in rural areas, who need more attention.
However, Latin America and the Caribbean has managed to reduce hazardous child labor, going from 6.8% in 2012 to 4.4% in 2016, this means that about 3.4 million children and adolescents stopped working in dangerous activities.
This report, based on data from 105 national household surveys, collects information on more than 70% of the world's population of children between 5 and 17 years of age and, for the first time, includes countries of the Organization for Cooperation and Development. Economic Development (OECD), such as the United States and Canada in the case of the Americas, and also China.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than 50% of minors who work do so in agriculture; The second sector with the highest percentage of child labor is services (35%), followed by the industrial sector (13%). This reality differs in the rest of the regions analyzed because, although the agricultural sector has the highest percentages of child labor in the world, Latin America and the Caribbean is the only region where child labor in the service sector is higher than in the industrial sector , which is probably related to the increasing urbanization that is registered in the countries.
In the world…
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Regarding the gender distribution of the reduction in child labor , the report highlights that it has been slower in the case of girls and female adolescents. For 2016 it is shown that child labor in boys and male adolescents decreased by 12%, while for the group of female girls and adolescents it only reached 6%. The same trend is observed in the case of hazardous work, where the reduction for boys was 19% and for girls and female adolescents, it only reached 8%. This is probably related to the type of jobs and tasks assigned differently to boys and girls.
The report includes a reference to child labor according to the countries' national income classification . Thus, it is estimated that 19% of child labor is concentrated in low-income countries (in the case of Latin America, only one country is in this category); 8% in lower-middle-income countries (8 countries in the region are in this category); 7% in upper-middle-income countries (21 countries in the region classify in this group) and 1% in high-income countries (three Caribbean countries correspond to this category).
The response of Latin America and the Caribbean
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Regarding the relationship between education and child labor , global estimates for 2017 show that in the world, 36 million boys, girls and adolescents between 5 and 14 years of age work and do not attend school. They represent 32% of all boys and girls in that age group. This should not be interpreted as the possibility of combining work and study, since 68% of the boys and girls who combine work and study between the ages of 5 and 14 see their energy diminished and they present a relatively lower performance in learning achievements, with the risk of being left behind and accumulating disadvantages in their prospects for accessing sustainable livelihoods.
On the other hand, the global report highlights the reality of child labor in situations of fragility and crisis , such as armed conflicts or disasters. In this regard, it mentions that, according to UNICEF, one out of every four children lives in countries affected by conflicts and disasters, this increases the risk of child labor and school dropout to dedicate themselves to work, because it constitutes a survival mechanism used by families when the degree of vulnerability increases.
Estimates of child labor in countries affected by armed conflict include Colombia, along with countries in other regions such as Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, among others. For these cases, the report calls for reflection on the importance of tackling child labor as a priority in the humanitarian responses of governments, employers, workers and social organizations.
At the moment, the global report is only available in English at the following links:
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