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PARAGUAY: The Struggle Against Child Labour Is Just Beginning

Alejandro Sciscioli

ASUNCION, Sep 26 2005 (IPS) - Derlis’s day begins at 5:00 AM, when his mother wakes him up to go to work. At the age of 12, he is one of the main breadwinners in his family, helping to support three younger siblings, ages 2, 7 and 9.

“My mom also works and my brother and sisters stay with my grandma. I don’t know my father,” says Derlis, who makes the 25 km trip every day from Capiatá, a poor suburb on the eastside of the Paraguayan capital, to work as a shoe shiner in the downtown Palace of Justice.

Derlis is one of the nearly 242,000 children between the ages of 10 and 17 who work in Paraguay, according to the latest projection by child labour expert Roberto Céspedes, based on statistics from the 2001 official household survey.

Children between the ages of 10 and 14 account for just over 40 percent of that total.

In a book on child labour in Paraguay, published with support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Céspedes says children who work make up 4.2 percent of the Paraguayan population, which stood at just over 5.8 million people in 2001.

Nearly 60 percent of the young workers are aged 15 to 17, and 118,000 minors work in urban areas, compared to 123,000 in the countryside.

“With respect to previous years, the number of child workers has declined in absolute terms: 395,453 in 1995, 260,633 in 1998 and 233,175 in 1999,” says the study.

That is partly because civil society began to combat child labour in the early 1990s.

But the Paraguayan state is just starting to tackle the problem.

The Secretariat for Children and Adolescents was created in 2001, after the legislature approved a new code on child rights as a result of the ratification of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, agreed in 1989 in the United Nations.

The following year, the first secretary was appointed, and the main task was to establish national priorities and an action plan. But “these plans were not approved until late 2004,” lawyer María Teresa Sánchez, the head of the Secretariat’s legal advice department, told IPS.

She pointed out that in this short time, the Secretariat has been forced to take on various fronts at the same time, and has made progress especially towards the drafting of a legal framework and the creation of new institutions.

The National Coordinator for the Eradication of Child Labour (CONAETI), which was set up in 2002, is made up of public bodies, including the Secretariat itself and the Ministry of Justice and Labour, as well as non-governmental organisations.

A national plan for the phased eradication of child labour and the implementation of protective measures for adolescent workers has also been launched.

And “In keeping with ILO conventions 138 and 182, which set the minimum working age at 14 and list the worst forms of child labour, respectively, the executive branch issued a decree in March containing a list of jobs and activities that are considered dangerous,” noted Sánchez.

The government has expressly prohibited the involvement of workers under 18 in 26 different labour activities that pose a threat to the health, safety or moral integrity of children and adolescents.

These include the handling and sale of agrochemicals and other potentially toxic substances, domestic labour, modelling that includes erotic images, and work that poses a risk of sexual abuse. Furthermore, workers under the age of 18 cannot legally work between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM.

The list was drawn up by government officials, civil society organisations, doctors and child workers.

“Adolescents can legally start working at the age of 14,” but certain limits have been established, such as a maximum workday of six hours and the stipulation that the work cannot hinder his or her education, said Sánchez. “And the work must be strictly necessary,” she underlined.

Although there are no reliable statistics, authorities say the main income earning activities among children in the cities are peddling candy or cards with religious images, or panhandling.

In rural areas, children mainly work in the fields. They also help out at home with the chores.

“The national plan that has been put into effect outlines phases,” explained Facundo Salinas, a lawyer specialising in children’s issues who is an adviser to the Secretariat for Children and Adolescents.

“We first have to identify each child and their specific personal situation, and then adapt our response to their needs, because every case is different,” he added.

In Coronel Oviedo, the capital of the eastern province of Caaguazú, the Secretariat is working on a pilot plan that provides “assistance to the families of child workers to set up micro enterprises, so that the children do not have to leave their homes,” said Sánchez.

“For example, because it is an area rich in timber, we have had a good response to the proposal to set up micro businesses that distribute charcoal. In exchange for the facilities offered them, the parents must promise and ensure that their children do not work,” said Salinas.

NGOs started addressing the problem of child labour a number of years before the state began to tackle the issue.

With financial support from the Swedish chapter of the global humanitarian organisation Save the Children, the Paraguayan NGO Global Infancia launched a programme in 1999 against child domestic labour, “the most invisible form of child labour in our country,” Faustina Alvarenga, who heads the project, told IPS.

Poor families in this South American country traditionally send one or more of their children to live with better-off relatives, friends or godparents.

In addition, “Many of these girls are sent by their mothers to live elsewhere because they are at imminent risk of sexual abuse within their own families, at the hands of stepfathers, cousins, uncles, brothers or even their own father,” said Alvarenga.

In these cases, “The biggest problem is the severing of bonds. The family sends the girl away and forgets about her,” she added. “Our work is to make sure that the ties between the child and the family remain in place, which is important for the development of their future lives.”

According to an ILO study, in Greater Asunción there are around 11,000 girls under the age of 14 working as domestics.

Global Infancia and the government’s national plan are also focusing on the problem of child labour in agriculture.

After the new code on child rights went into effect, municipal advising centres on the rights of the child, known by the Spanish acronym CODENI, were created in conjunction with Global Infancia to provide direct assistance free of charge with respect to all problems faced by minors, including child labour, and to promote the rights of children.

“There are currently more than 110 CODENIs around the country,” said Mabel Benegas, who is in charge of legislation and public policy affairs in Global Infancia.

She told IPS that one of the tasks of the CODENIs is to gather statistics on child labour and provide assistance to child workers.

Derlis brings home between 10,000 and 20,000 guaranis (between 1.60 and 2.30 dollars a day), which are mainly used to make it possible for him to stay in school. Whatever is left over goes towards helping to support the family. Although he is 12 years old and has not yet completed third grade, he says he is determined to continue his studies.

Derlis, whose nine-year-old brother is getting ready to follow in his footsteps and become a shoeshine boy, says: “I like working and I like studying. I hope I can study medicine someday.”