EDITORIAL - Children in bondage

As we celebrated Independence Day yesterday, we also joined the rest of the world in dedicating the day to the fight against child labor. For the Third World, this could be a tricky battle. Often, impoverished parents themselves send their children to work, even in the sex industry.

The International Labor Office estimates that around the world about 200 million children work, often in bondage. In this third observance of World Day Against Child Labor, the ILO is focusing on children who are forced to work as helpers in private homes. In the Philippines, there are about 29,000 domestic workers aged 10 to 14, according to the ILO. Elsewhere in Asia, nearly two million children work as domestic helpers. The ILO reports that many of the children have been trafficked or sold or are in bondage. Some children work without pay. Often they work excessive hours and are exposed to abuse, violence and sexual harassment.

Other children are forced outright to enter the flesh trade. Philippine authorities have made some inroads in stopping child prostitution, but the battle is complicated by the fact that often, parents themselves sell their children for sex.

Other children can be found working in hazardous environments such as mines and quarries. The mom-and-pop pyrotechnics manufacturing enterprises in Bulacan often employ children, who are willing to work for lower pay and longer hours so they can add to the family income. This is a gray area in the developing world. When impoverished parents make their children help in farms or marginal fishing, they don’t consider it child labor but merely a family enterprise. There are child workers who don’t want to be "rescued" from employment, even when they know they work in hazardous environments.

Such gray areas are bound to be overlooked as those who are waging the battle against child labor concentrate on the worst cases of abuse and exploitation of children. There are millions of children who can still be saved from a lifetime of suffering and given hope for a bright future.