Thursday, May 7, 2026
News and Views from the Global South
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Child Labour Seen as Normal
Diógenes Pina
- The three-wheeled cart piled high with scrap metal slowly makes its way down one of the main avenues in the capital of the Dominican Republic. It is pedalled by smiling 12-year-old Julio, who with his little brother Miguel goes out every day to scour the city’s outlying neighbourhoods in search of recyclable waste, which they sell to help support their family.
Nine-year-old Miguel perches on top of the metal in the small cart’s basket, watching the shining cars whiz by. Julio began to work on his own three years ago, and was later joined by his brother. They live with their mother and youngest brother.
Despite their young ages, no one glances twice at them as they go about their day-to-day work. In fact, 60 percent of people in this Caribbean island nation believe it is reasonable for children to work, as long as it does not interfere with their schooling and does not cause them physical or mental damage, reported the study “Dominican society’s perceptions on child labour”.
“That is a very high percentage,” Catholic priest Juan Linares, director of Muchachos y Muchachas con Don Bosco, told IPS. The non-governmental organisation, founded in 1985 to work for the eradication of the worst forms of child labour, provides support in a broad range of areas – education, health, legal, sports, arts and recreation – to some 5,000 children.
The study released this month was carried out by the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) and the Centre for Research on Education and Human Development at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM), a Catholic university in the Dominican Republic.
The majority of Dominicans do not see child labour as a major social problem, says the study, which was based on a survey of 2,200 households and published on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labour, commemorated on Jun. 12.
“In many cases it is seen as a source of income for the family; in others, the families see child labour as an alternative use of free time for boys and girls,” María Elena Asuad told IPS. Asuad runs the United Nations Children’s Fund’s (UNICEF) Programme for the Protection of the Rights of Children and Adolescents in the Dominican Republic.
Asuad clarified that she is not opposed “to the chores that boys and girls do in their homes, on their farms or in the family business, as long as it does not go against their health and well-being, and does not keep them from attending school and enjoying age-appropriate recreational activities and games.”
For his part, Linares said “I don’t see why many people think that if the work is carried out within the family, and does not involve pressure or physical danger, it isn’t harmful.” He added that “perhaps it comes from the idea that children should be given responsibility.”
The study also found that “68 percent (of respondents) believe work stands in the way of or limits strong performance in school and admit that it generally causes children to flunk and to eventually drop out of school.”
The national survey on child labour, carried out in 2000, estimated that 430,000 children and adolescents work, and that six percent of the country’s households had at least one working member under the age of 18.
ILO statistics show that the largest proportion of working minors in this country of 9.4 million is concentrated in agricultural areas. Other large categories are made up of children who hawk fruit, bread, peanuts and homemade sweets on the streets, shine shoes, or collect bottles and scrap metal for recycling.
“In the Dominican Republic, for example, girls are expected to care for their siblings as well as complete household tasks. As a result, almost twice as many girls as boys perform domestic chores,” says UNICEF’s State of the World’s Children 2007 report.
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