MANILA – Finding insufficient data on child laborers, the Labor department has ordered a nationwide profiling of this sector.
As the department issued guidelines, Labor secretary Silvestre Bello III directed field offices to consolidate data from social partners to identify child laborers and assess their needs.
“Given the insufficient data on child laborers, it is necessary to first conduct nationwide profiling of target child laborers and their families,” Bello said in a statement.
The profiles will “serve as basis for the provision of appropriate services and interventions necessary to remove the children from child labor,” he said.
Information on child laborers will come from the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction of the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Community-based Monitoring System employed by local government units.
Child labor refers to any work or economic activity performed by children under 18 years old that subjects them to any form of exploitation or is harmful to their health and safety, or physical, mental or psychological development.
An estimated 2.1 million children aged 5 to 17 years were engaged in child labor, 97.7 percent of whom were in hazardous child labor, a 2011 survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.
But the survey data did not provide the names and location of the child laborers.
As lead agency in carrying out the Philippine Program against Child Labor and the chair of the National Child Labor Committee, the Department of Labor and Employment is responsible for monitoring and reporting if a child has been removed from child labor.
Under the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, the government targets to reduce child labor cases by 30 percent, or 630,000, from the estimated 2.1 million child laborers nationwide. (PNA)
