DOLE reports 70% drop in PHL child labor in ’20

THE number of child laborers in the country dropped by 70 percent in 2020 compared to about a decade ago despite the onset of the pandemic, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

Citing latest figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC) Director Ma. Karina P. Trayvilla disclosed that from the 2.1 million in 2011, the number of child laborers was reduced to just 596,900 in 2020.

“Most of them were 17 years old and younger and are males working in the agriculture sector,” Trayvilla said in an ambush interview on the sidelines of the National Summit of Councils and Interagency Bodies Addressing the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Manila on Wednesday.

She said decline in child laborers was noticeable after President Duterte signed Executive Order (EO) No. 92, which institutionalized the National Council Against Child Labor (NCACL).

“Before [EO 92], we operated by virtue of a memorandum of agreement so we were like a committee. But this time, we already have instructions from the President to scale up the efforts on addressing child labor…our efforts were harmonized and more organized compared to before,” Trayvilla explained.

OSAEC

THE labor official, however, stressed the PSA data does not include cases of Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children (OSAEC).

She noted OSAEC cases, which are handled by the Department of Justice (DOJ), rose by as much as 200 percent during the pandemic as the Internet became more accessible to more people and many were forced into poverty.

In its website, the DOJ Cybercrime Office cited the data from private National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which showed the number of reported OSAEC cases rose to 279,166 from March 1 to May 24, 2020 compared to the 76,561 cases tallied in the same period in 2019.

The OSAEC victims were mostly female minors.

Profiling

TRAYVILLA said they hope to continue the downward trend for child laborers and also start reducing OSAEC cases through their ongoing profiling initiative, which started in 2018.

“This is what we needed so [our policies] will be evidence-based because the PSA only comes out with estimates. The profiling will allow us to identify them, where they are, and what interventions they need,” Trayvilla said.

As of last March, BWSC told Businessmirror it was able to profile 454,520 child laborers. Of which, 105,826 were given their needed intervention such as livelihood for their parents as well as health or educational needs.

Only 97,333 of the profiled minors were removed from child labor.

This was less than half DOLE goal of rescuing 630,000 children from the worst forms of child labor by 2022 under the Philippine Development Plan.

“It takes time for us to withdraw minors from child labor since it involves targeting the root cause of child labor, which is poverty. This is one of the most challenging programs [of DOLE],” Trayvilla said.

Trayvilla said they hope to fast track the pace of their efforts against child labor in the next administration.