DOLE, DSWD join forces in combatting child labor

From the Website of DOLE
links: http://www.dole.gov.ph/news/view/3370

DOLE, DSWD join forces in combatting child labor

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) launched convergence programs to eliminate child labor, including its worst forms, and to achieve a child labor-free Philippines by 2025.

The tie-up, dubbed “Makiisa para sa #1MBatangMalaya: We are one with the children in ending Child Labor” aims to curb child labor in the country and to raise public awareness on the problem brought by this menace. 
DOLE Undersecretary Joel B. Maglunsod said that to end child labor, comprehensive actions must be done to help the parents of child laborers. These child laborers, he added, are compelled to help augment their families’ meager incomes by engaging in hazardous work.

“This is why DOLE is indeed very grateful that we are not alone in this endeavor. Eliminating child labor is a real challenge that requires collective action and close cooperation of different actors – government agencies, civil society organizations, LGUs, media, parents and also the children themselves,” Maglunsod said. 

The convergence programs launched include CARING-Gold Project of International Labor Organization (ILO) and BanToxics, which calls for the reduction of child labor and improve working conditions in ASGM Gold Mining; the Strategic Help Desks for Information, Education, Livelihood and other Developmental Interventions (SHIELD) against Child Labor; and the Module on Child Labor for the Family Development Sessions of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the DSWD.

As the chair agency of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), DOLE vowed to intensify its campaign against child labor and to continue providing support to the various initiatives of its social partners in curbing child labor, including its worst forms.
 
The worst forms of child labor in the Philippines include work exposure of children to physical and psychological abuse; forced domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation as well as the procurement or offering of a child for illicit activities, particularly in drug trade and production.

“Despite our significant advancements against child labor, we will continue to work together to attain a child-labor free Philippines and provide a clear understanding of the child labor issue among the poor households whose children are at risk of becoming child laborers,” he added.
 
There are 2.1 million child laborers in the Philippines, according to the 2011 Survey on Children done by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), and the elimination of child labor calls for a unified action among the various government and non-government organizations.

“We must immediately and urgently rally to respond to this concern because as the problem is unabated, children will continue to be violated a thousand fold, especially those child laborers engaged in backbreaking and hazardous work,” DSWD Director Ma. Alicia Bonoan said.

These initiatives are aligned with both the Philippine Program against Child Labor 2017-2022, which aims to withdraw one million children from child labor, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that calls for the end of child labor in all its forms by 2025.

END/Abegail De Vega

DOLE Website

http://www.dole.gov.ph/


links:

http://www.dole.gov.ph/news/view/3370




OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS WEBSITES

Human Rights Advocacy Promotions | Human Rights
Home - Human rights Promotions Website
HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS

---

PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

---

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------

Posted in: GOVERNMENT AND GOVERNANCE, HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATES