Child Labour as a Modern Slavery: Philippines

Every child is special. In today’s world, our society is being unfair to everyone. Every one of us are
part of the society but why is it the term “slavery” still appears and happening to our country? And now, the
term for slavery is Modern Slavery which means the illegal exploitation of people for personal or
commercial gain. Child Labour is an example of modern slavery. What is Child Labour? Child
Labour refers to the employment of children aged 5 to 17 years to deprive them of their
childhood and force them into a life of deprivation and illiteracy. These children missed their
chance to live their childhood because they’re already taking on a big responsibility that children
shouldn’t, they’re too young to take such a big responsibility and they’re not ready yet to take and
handle it by themselves. What causes child labour? What are the effects of child labour in a
child’s life? How about in our society? What are the possible ways to resolve this societal
problem?

According to the Department of Labor and Employment, the labor department renewed
its bid to free more than half a million children who are into child labor and its worst
forms amid reports that cases of child labor spiked despite the restrictions due to the
pandemic.Atty. Ma. Karina Trayvilla, director of the Bureau of Workers with Special
Concerns, said that while DOLE has yet to receive latest official data on the number of
young Filipinos engaged in child labor, the government is nonetheless bent on removing
about 630,000 of them from such condition by 2022.

“We understand that one of the root causes of child labor is poverty, but we are doubling
our efforts to eliminate this. We have encountered difficulties in the implementation of
the program due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now we are ready to intensify the
profiling of children in the country,” Trayvilla said.Under Republic Act No. 9231, child
labor refers to any work or economic activity performed by a child that subjects him to
any form of exploitation or harmful to his health, physical, mental, or psychosocial
development.Trayvilla said the target to withdraw 30 percent or roughly around 630,000
of the 2.1 million children engaged in child labor is included in the Philippine
Development Plan for 2017-2022.The total number of child laborers in the country
based on the 2011 Survey on Children conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority
was estimated at 2.097 million consisting of 5 to 17 years of age where 2.049 million of
whom are in hazardous child labor.The worst forms of child labor include slavery such
as the sale and trafficking of children, exposing of a child for prostitution or the
production of pornography, offering of a child for illegal activities such as production
and trafficking of dangerous drugs.“Because of this pandemic, we are worried that child
labor cases might increase. However, in terms of statistics, it is still undetermined but if
you observe the recent news, child pornography cases are rising because they are being
used to produce pornography since internet usage is prevalent particularly during the
lockdown days,” Trayvilla said.At present, amid the relaxation of quarantine protocols,
the labor department is gearing up its Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program
which aims to contribute to the realization of a child-labor-free Philippines.
To achieve this, Trayvilla said the DOLE regional offices are fast-tracking the profiling of
child laborers and in providing services to remove them from child labor, including the
stepping-up of the Sagip Batang Manggagawa, an inter-agency quick action mechanism
that aims to respond to cases of child labor in extremely abject conditions, and the
Project Angel Tree, which provides food, school supplies, and hygiene kits to child
laborers and their families.On top of this, the labor department regularly conducts
various advocacy campaigns in line with the National Awareness Week for the
Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, apart from the annual observance of
the World Day Against Child Labor and the National Children’s Month.