DOLE launches data system on child labor

To properly monitor the child labor cases in Central Visayas, the Department of Labor and Employment has recently launched the Child Labor Database System in the region.

During the launching last Friday at the Session Hall of the Capitol Legislative Building, representatives from the labor department, provincial government, other national government agencies and non-government organizations signed a memorandum of agreement to share information on child labor.

Through the database system, there will be no more "double counting" as it will integrate all the information regarding child labor.

Ma. Nancy Abad, chief of the DOLE Worker's Amelioration and Welfare Division, said that based on the latest count of the National Statistic Office, the country has about 2.4 million child laborers, 388,000 of whom are found in Central Visayas.

According to the NSO records, there are about 10,000 child laborers in Cebu. However, the labor department found out that at least 2,000 child laborers are working under worst condition.

It was noted that most child laborers in the province are found in the sugarcane plantations in Medellin and in pyrotechnics factories in Lapu-Lapu City. Some of them are also involved in entertainment works.

Abad said that the database system is a tool for policy making and decision making towards the elimination of child labor in the region.

The system will also contain the child labor status, demographic information on child laborers as well as the profiles of the companies and factories that are employing minors.

Abad stressed that the system was launched only recently since it is dependent on international funding.

She said the Philippines has been fortunate because it was among the 15 countries whose efforts on eliminating child labor were recognized during the Geneva convention last year. Because of this, the government is now starting to receive funding from the UNICEF and the International Labor Organization.

Through educational assistance, the international funding had already helped at least 3,000 child labor victims in the province. - Flor Z. Perolina