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BRAZIL: Activists ‘Responsibly Optimistic’ on Child Labour Reduction

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 5 2006 (IPS) - Activists in Brazil are somewhat sceptical with regard to the fact that Brazil was held up as an example of what can be done to eradicate child labour.

A “cautiously optimistic” report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on child labour in the world shows that the problem has slightly improved, and that eliminating the worst forms of child labour in the next 10 years is feasible, the organisation’s Director-General Juan Somavía said at the release of the report on Thursday.

The number of child labourers around the world dropped 11 percent between 2000 and 2004, from 246 million to 218 million, according to the ILO.

The reduction in the worst forms of child labour, including sexual exploitation, working in slavery conditions, drug trafficking, pornography and other activities that jeopardise the health, safety, or morals of children was even more significant: 26 percent, from 171 million to 126 million in the 2000-2004 period.

Greater awareness of the problem and political will, as well as concrete action in the area of poverty reduction and mass education were decisive in achieving these results, says the report, “The end of child labour: Within reach”.

The ILO backs such efforts through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), and through ILO Convention 182, concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, which has been ratified by 90 percent of the organisation’s member countries.

Latin America and the Caribbean saw the most rapid decline in child labour, with a two-thirds reduction in the number of child workers from 2000 to 2004. In the region, only 5.1 percent of children between the ages of five and 14 work, compared to 16.1 percent in 2000.

The case of Brazil was mentioned to illustrate what can be done, as Latin America’s giant reduced the number of child labourers between the ages of five and nine years old by 60.9 percent and between the ages of 10 and 17 by 36.4 percent, from 1992 to 2004.

Somavía praised the actions taken by Brazil, such as the Programme of Eradication of Child Labour (PETI), which began to be implemented in 1996. The programme pays monthly grants of between 12 and 19 dollars to families that keep their children in school and ensure that they do not work. The initiative now forms part of the family grant programme, a poverty-targeted effort that provides various kinds of social assistance to more than eight million families.

But Jane Vilani, labour prosecutor and head of the National Commission for the Fight against Child and Adolescent Labour Exploitation, told IPS that she was not so “enthusiastic” about the outlook in Brazil, based only on direct income transfer programmes..

In her view, initiatives are needed to effectively break the vicious circle of reproduction of child labour, offering “quality education” to children and conditions that would allow families to pull out of poverty.

“Poverty generates child labour, which leads children to skip or drop out of school, and the consequent lack of education causes unemployment or underemployment that will force the children of the next generation to work as well,” she explained.

Without an “exit door” that would allow families to stop depending on social assistance, income transfer initiatives are merely “palliative measures” that do not effectively solve the problem, said Vilani.

Nevertheless, Vilani shares Somavía’s optimism with respect to the possibility of eradicating the worst forms of child labour, given the 26 percent reduction in the space of four years.

But sociologist Isa Maria Oliveira, executive secretary of the National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labour, doubts that the goal can be met, because these practices are difficult to fight due to their clandestine nature, and because there are no reliable statistics on child sexual exploitation or the number of children involved in the drug trade.

In these cases, she said, prevention is more effective, because it is very difficult, for example, to pull children and teenagers out of the drug trade or other kinds of illegal activities once they have been recruited.

Oliveira also believes in Vilani’s “vigilant or responsible optimism” with respect to the efforts made by Brazil. She noted that when leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in early 2003, his government inherited a PETI that provided assistance to 810,000 children, and that the number has grown by only 300,000, to 1.1 million.

The last official census, based on data from 2004, estimated that there are 2.7 million child and adolescent labourers in Brazil, said Oliveira. And unless the pace at which child labour is being reduced picks up, it will not be possible to meet the national goal of eliminating all child labour by 2015, she added.

The government budget for 2006 would nearly triple the funds allotted to PETI, in order to expand the programme to a total of 2.2 million children, and thus virtually eradicate the problem. But that is merely the stated intention, and there are no guarantees that the budget funds will materialise, said Oliveira, who said there are many indications that it will not actually happen.

The implementation of the budget is a complex question that depends on the will of state and municipal governments, which in large part have not joined in the effort, said the activist. She pointed out that in past years there have been many cases of local authorities rejecting the programme’s goals.

The mission of the National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labour, she explained, is to monitor the application of the programme, “exercising social control.”

Brazil is an example to be followed mainly because of the degree of social mobilisation,” and “the strong partnership between civil society and the government” in the fight against child labour, she stated.

But public policies are needed to effectively fight poverty and the decline in the quality of education, in order to uproot child labour. It is also necessary “to change cultural beliefs” that see it as positive for children to work, “in order for them to become responsible and help their families,” said Oliveira.