Ebook: Hazardous Child Labour in Latin America

From children working on Bolivian sugar cane plantations to child miners in Peru, child labour lingers on in many parts of the world, including Latin America. There are various reasons as to why child labour continues to be such a tenuous social problem. There is disagreement on its causes and thus also disagreement on the solutions. There is even disagreement on the extent of the problem. In order to bridge this lack of information and to stimulate policy interventions, the IREWOC Foundation (International Research on Working Children) has undertaken action-based research in the field of the worst forms of child labour in Latin America. This book is based on the foundation’s research. It aims to document the living and working conditions of child labourers, to explore the true reasons why children are (still) working under harmful conditions, and to identify and analyse initiatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations to eliminate these worst forms of child labour. In the face of challenges imposed by achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN, specific attention was paid to educational initiatives. Although the evidence from the various cases discussed in the book illustrates positive trends in terms of the worst forms of child labour, thousands of children were still found to be engaged in activities that form a direct threat to their health and jeopardize their education. This book proposes several practical recommendations for possible interventions. It offers a qualitative focus and concentrates on the community level.

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In order to bridge the lack of information on child labour and to stimulate policy interventions the IREWOC Foundation (International Research on Working Children) has undertaken action-based research in the field of the worst forms of child labour in Latin America. In 2006 and 2007 a comparative study on the Worst Forms of Child Labour was carried out in 7 different economic sectors in Bolivia, Guatemala and Peru focussing on the hazardous worst forms. The central research objectives were as follows: •to map the working and living situations of children who are working in specific economic sectors and what the consequences of this work are for their physical and emotional wellbeing. •to investigate the reasons why these children are working in these worst forms sectors. The research results were expected to give important insights into the currently polarised debate between those who state child labour is above all related to cultural considerations and those who state that economic reasons are fundamental to the phenomena of child labour. • to map the existing policy initiatives for child labourers in the worst forms and to identify the best practices. In the face of challenges imposed by achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) set by the UN, specific attention was paid to educational initiatives. Is education a useful tool in combating child labour, and vice versa, is child labour a significant obstacle to achieving universal primary education? Although the evidence from the various cases discussed in the book illustrate positive trends in terms of the worst forms of child labor, thousands of children were still found to be engaged in activities that form a direct threat to their physical, mental and moral health and jeopardize their education. This book proposes several practical recommendations for possible interventions.