Sunday (12) was the World Day Against Child Labour. The date was established by the International Labor Organization (ILO), of the United Nations (UN), with the aim of alerting society to the problem and mobilizing it.
According to research carried out by Fundação Abrinq in 2021, approximately 1.3 million adolescents are in child labor in Brazil.
The survey, based on data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), showed that 86% of adolescents between 14 and 17 years old who are in the labor market are in child labor. In 2020, that rate was 84.8%.
Today, Brazilian legislation prohibits work until the age of 13. Between the ages of 14 and 16, teenagers can work as an apprentice. From 16 to 18 years old, the law allows part-time work, as long as it is not night-time, dangerous and unhealthy activities.
THE CNN asked the pre-candidates for the Presidency of the Republic what they think about child labor and the fight against it.
Check out the answers below:
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT):
Strengthen social and educational measures to keep children in school, fighting the growing dropout rate, which had fallen during Lula’s governments. If families have income, they will keep their children in school. This was one of the conditionalities of Bolsa Família. And strengthen inspection initiatives against slave and child labor.
Jair Bolsonaro (PL):
The president has not responded at the time of publication.
Ciro Gomes (PDT):
The pre-candidate has not responded at the time of publication.
André Janones (Avant):
The pre-candidate has not responded at the time of publication.
Simone Tebet (MDB):
The pre-candidate did not respond at the time of publication.
Pablo Marcal (Pros):
Brazil has about 25% of its population in the age group up to 17 years. It is estimated that 5% of these children and adolescents are subjected to child labor and these numbers tend to worsen with the degradation of the economy.
Talking about combating child labor without attacking the country’s economic problems is just a fallacy. We need to attack on two fronts: give families a dignified life condition by improving the country’s economy and work in education to keep children in school and teach them to undertake from childhood.
Every child needs to learn about government, about being free and about entrepreneurship. This is an activation that will bring results in the future. Korea [do Sul] invested in education for decades and has been reaping the rewards for some years now. Adolescents should be encouraged to practice entrepreneurship and be highly productive. There is no such thing as a free country where people still have a slavery mentality.
Felipe d’Avila (New):
A child’s place is at school. Education is an essential tool to guarantee opportunities and reduce inequality. In the knowledge economy, quality basic education cannot be left out. We need effective and focused public policies that help the poorest families and allow children not to have to work. Only at school can they prepare to break the cycle of generational poverty.
Jose Maria Eymael (DC):
The pre-candidate has not responded at the time of publication.
Leonardo Pericles (UP):
The pre-candidate has not responded at the time of publication.
Luciano Bivar (Union Brazil):
Child labor is prohibited in Brazil and should have been banned by now. A child’s place is at school. This problem can only be effectively tackled when the State assumes its responsibility and reorganizes the economy, because with the increase in unemployment and poverty many families are forced to put their children to work.
With the implementation of the Single Federal Tax (IUF), I intend to exempt families who earn up to five minimum wages from the discount on the Income Tax and INSS salary. That means more money in people’s pockets. The IUF will also generate immense tax simplification, replacing eleven taxes with just one, much smaller. In this way, companies will be able to generate more jobs.
Sofia Manzano (PCB):
Child labor is characterized by the ILO as one that disrespects the minimum age legislation established for work. In Brazil, the minimum age for work is 16 years old. From the age of 14, adolescents can only work as an apprentice.
It is clear that the dismantling of public social policies for low-income families, combined with the precariousness of labor relations after the reform, ended up increasing child labor. We know that children who work are mostly from black and peripheral families, whose need to bring income to the family, due to unemployment and precariousness, combined with the bourgeois culture that it is “better working than stealing, lead thousands to childhood loss.
In addition, the pandemic raised this situation even further, with the growing dropout rate, due to the absence of attendance at public schools, which, above all, guaranteed the lunch. unable to study at home and without a meal, many children and young people dropped out of school.
The fight must be carried out on several fronts, as we know that by reducing inequality, reducing unemployment, and strengthening public early childhood education, we can initially help to reverse the devastating situation, in addition to reinforcing the punitive framework of companies that carry out this practice, because today, we only have to pay a fine, after inspection by the MPT, without any repercussion in the criminal sphere against these agents and even when there is this inspection, as the underreporting of complaints is notorious.
Vera Lucia (PSTU):
Child labor is one of the saddest reflections of capitalist barbarism. You have to fight it with all your might. Unfortunately, on this agenda too, Brazil is only going backwards. We have had a blackout of official government data since 2019, but research shows that more children and adolescents are carrying out illegal activities for their age in the pandemic in our country.
Child labor is directly linked to the economic crisis we are going through. It is linked to the increase in hunger, poverty, humanitarian crisis, worsening social inequality and unemployment. When it most needed public policies to combat child labor, the Bolsonaro government reduced federal spending by 95% to combat forms of child labor from 2019 to 2021, reveals a survey carried out by the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies, the Siga Brasil portal and the Smart Lab platform.
If in the first year of his term Bolsonaro invested R$ 6.7 million in the fight against child labour, in 2020 and 2021 the expenditure was around R$ 300 thousand per year. In 2021, the federal government had committed BRL 1.88 million to the item and used less than 18% of it. But what to expect from a president who defends child labor and reinforces a popular mentality that “work is better than stealing” and that “work doesn’t kill anyone”?
The 1988 Constitution prohibits anyone under 16 from working, except as an apprentice, from 14 years of age onwards. The Child and Adolescent Statute, in force since 1990, supports the rule.
We defend more investments and greater efforts from the federal government, together with state and municipal governments, in the fight against child labor, with more inspection and awareness campaigns. All of this accompanied by policies to generate employment, fight hunger and social inequality.
Photos – The presidential candidates
Source: CNN Brasil
