90k saved from child labor—DOLE

MORE than 90,000 children have been removed from harmful work since the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) started profiling child laborers.

Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the initiative was aimed at creating a database that would serve as a basis for providing appropriate services and interventions necessary to remove children from child labor.

The profiling was aligned with the Philippine Development Plan 2017– 2022 goal of reducing child labor cases by 30 percent.

Since 2018, the Labor department has already collected the key demographic information of over 400,000 child laborers nationwide.

The latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that 597,000 children are still engaged in child labor, mostly working in the agriculture sector.

Meanwhile, cases of online sex abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC) spiked by 264 percent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sexual exploitation was among the worst forms of child labor identified by the International Labour Organization.

In a study by the Institute of Labor Studies (ILS) presented during the National Stakeholders’ Summit addressing the Worst Forms of Child Labor, including Online Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, the alarming rate of increase can be attributed to the country’s affordable and easily accessible internet packages.

“Affordable internet access also contributes to enabling impoverished households to participate in this money-making scheme,” ILS Researcher Frances Camille Dumalaog shared.