Child exploitation, a problem of daily life
Child exploitation is a problem that affects the lives of many children in the world, and children in Ecuador are not immune to this. Regardless of whether it is a continent, country, city or canton, child exploitation is a situation that, tragically, is very present today, and just stand at a traffic light or approach a supermarket to confirm the presence of this problem.
Refusing before the reality of child labor, better called child exploitation since there is no legal form of work that involves children, this is a situation that remains constant throughout the year for the percentage of children who do not attend classes, but In everyone’s eyes, it increases notoriously when the classrooms are emptied when vacations arrive, because many of the children are heading to the streets of Ecuador with the intention of selling all kinds of items, it is necessary to mention that all this low The intense rays of the Ecuadorian sun and with the red light of traffic lights as a companion, taking risks that threaten their integrity, innocence and even against their lives. These children and the profits that could report at the end of the day end up becoming a fundamental column in the economy of their families. This research is intended to review and diagnose as the norm regulates and to what extent it manages legal system with respect to this problem.
History
It is necessary to know the history of child exploitation in order to understand the norms that currently exist. During the 18th and 18th century, children were considered to work to develop better when they are adults. At the end of the 19th century, with the appearance of protective law, which seeks the protection of the weakest, with which child labor begins to recognize as a problem in society due to the risks it brings to children. Subsequently, in the twentieth century, and with the creation of the International Labor Organization, certain requirements to work, prioritizing a minimum age to work legally, being this 14 years. In the course of this century, the vulnerability of minors begins to be aware, and with this the Convention on the Rights of the Child is created, marking the beginning of true protection to the exploitation of minors in the workplace. Finally, in 1992, the International Labor Organization created the International Program for Eradication of Child Labor-or International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, in its acronym in English IPEC-, with which it is intended to avoid and fight and fight Against child exploitation, through actions together with governments, employer organizations, non -governmental organizations, workers’ organizations and more social groups.
Difference between work and exploitation
As previously shown, child work and exploitation are very related concepts, however, they are independent of each other. The term child labor is justifiably considered as a compound expression, so, in order to understand it, it is necessary to separate the words that comprise, and individually, define each one. For work, according to the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, it is defined as ‘is the action or effect of dealing with any exercise, work or ministry; Human effort applied to the production of wealth ’(Royal Spanish Academy, 2001). According to this illustration, work is an action aimed at producing something. Complementing, is the children’s word, which refers to infant, or child in the stage between 0 and 12 years. However, at the time of combining words, the definition of children changes, and refers to all people who do not fulfill the age of majority. With these two concepts included, at the time of combining words and forming the compound expression, we arrive at the concept that child labor is the actions that minors carry out, carried out in order to obtain a remuneration. According to what is established by the International Labor Organization, work activities where minors participate, with which minors acquire experience, this activity does not interrupt with their school hours and does not harm its development are understood as child labor, does not harm its development and does not harm its development psychological or physical; However, there are cases in which the work can be dangerous for the child, can interfere with their assistance to classes, causes the abandonment of schools, or requires them to combine their studies with jobs that consume their time .
Doing the same exercise for child exploitation understanding, according to the RAE to exploit means ¨ use abusively for their own benefit the work or qualities of another person¨ (Royal Spanish Academy, 2001). The children’s concept is applied in the same way as mentioned above, and has the same variation as in child labor. According to this, child exploitation consists in the violation of a child’s right, either by slave. The true differentiation between these concepts consists of criteria such as inadequate remuneration, the exclusive dedication of work, the impediment to education, the damage to the dignity of the child, that the work produces physical and/or psychic stress, and that the people who are working are very early or less than 14 children.
Several international organizations have expressed their concepts on child exploitation, however, there is priority to the concept given by the International Labor Organization, which was mentioned above; The concept given by the International Emergency Fund for United Nations Children (UNICEF), which defines it as: ‘All work activity, paid or not, carried out by children under 15 years of age, which does not allow them to have the due educational development, or that in any way affects your well -being, health or integral development. On the other hand, adolescent is all person older than 15 and less than 18, so the teenage work would be the work activity carried out by people among that age range ’(UNICEF, 2005); On the other hand, in the concept that the Save The Children organization contributes, it is clearly seen as an assessment of child labor in its broadest sense, that is, such as: ‘the activities carried out by children to contribute to contributing to their own economy or that of their families. This means that we include the time invested in performing domestic tasks as well as in income generation activities, either inside or outside the home; Therefore, unpaid agricultural work carried out by many girls and boys in family farming fields, as well as the domestic work that many boys play in their homes, are understood in this concept. The work can be full or part -time ’(Save the Children, 2003). These concepts agree that these work activities hinder the development of minors, and that seriously affect their education.
Effects of child exploitation
With respect to the effects of child exploitation, in addition to the social damages it causes, this produces great affectation in the education of minors. This work activity cuts the future of children and produces problems in the education system due to dropout. As for education, we can say that child labor cuts the future of children and adolescents since it is the main component for the problems suffered by the educational system due to existing dropout problems. “Our country has, according to official referents, 7% of real illiteracy, but functional illiteracy reaches 40%. The school absence and the increase in the number of girls in the streets due to situations of dropout ”
In Ecuador it is not difficult or anomalous Of them in precarious ways, unfortunately this is the reality of our country and that of many others. The childhood phase is where children and adolescents must learn, grow, play and above all to develop their personality thus having the opportunity to think about their ideas or plans for the near future, however, many of them have to leave On the side their ideas since they must start working long before they are prepared physically and emotionally; losing his childhood and mature by force.
We must become aware that child labor is totally illicit, and not only because the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador or the Code of Children and Adolescents stipulates it, but because it also constitutes a social phenomenon of great importance, since if it is said That the future of a country is the children, so because there are people who in many of the occasions are their own parents or their legal representatives who exploit them work in precarious conditions and in exhausted days where they do not have time even even To rest and much less to carry out their own activities such as going to school, since it does not have time or are too tired to attend and completely leaving it.
Types of child labor
The works allowed for children and adolescents who fulfill the minimum age determined in the country (15 years), are all those that do not affect their physical, mental and moral integrity, and, in a priority, their schooling. However, there is a wide variety of activities where minors work, which do not comply with the provisions of what is described above. The main activities are agricultural, mining, maritime or river, domestic, street activities. Agricultural activities are defined as all those that have to do with the planting, cultivation and harvest; cattle breeding, forestry, horticulture, animal milking and grazing. This is how minors run the risk of herbicide and pesticide poisoning, in addition to lesions due to machinery and heavy loads. Mining activities consist of exposure to the extraction, processing and transport of minerals, where minors are in contact with gases, powders, vapors and mercury pollution, as well as the physical injuries given by the realization of a effort to its development. On the other hand, maritime and/or river activities are all those where fishing, extraction of pearls or molluscs, requires minors to spend many hours submerged in water and mud. Domestic activities are known as the tasks carried out within the home as an economic activity. Which are: cooking, washing, cleaning, caring for children or older people for a long time, in which the child cannot carry out activities according to her age because they are exposed to servitude. The main form of child exploitation is the activities on the street in which children and adolescent are exposed to garbage collection for later recycling, car washing, footwear cleaning; In addition, of the street sale of different products, work in markets and participation in street shows.
Consequences of child exploitation
The consequences generated by child labor are diverse, especially because of the subhuman conditions in which it is carried out. As described above, every work that affects the physical and psychological condition of children and adolescents for their normal development is illicit. Societies, which allow child labor, contribute to the trap of poverty and vice versa, perpetuating that of one generation to another, which generates loss in the well -being of minors, as for society and in turn limits the economy of the economy of a country.
Venturing to work at an early age, helps children desist from studying, given that the activity they do does not give them the necessary time that the study requires; Likewise, on the health side there are many risks, because they can suffer fractures, allergies, because they are exposed to different kinds of work (agriculture, dumps, etc.), which require strength and for their age are not suitable.
If we relate the characteristics between minors and adults, we notice, in the physiological and psychological aspect, that minors are more vulnerable. As described above, working at an early age provides organic wear, even if they do light jobs, since they are carried out with excessive hours and in most cases with repetition. Generating in adulthood limitations in work performance. For all the aforementioned, different activities related to child labor have been implemented, one of them is the working childhood of Juconi (together with children), which helps rescue minors at risk of risk. Allowing at the present time, to talk about a decrease in minors, involved in child labor.
Percentages of minors working
According to the surveys and even study by the Institute of Surveys and Census (INEC) and by the United Nations Children’s Fund- United Nations International Child´s Fund or in its acronym UNICEF- it can be seen that, in the Labor scope of Ecuador, 8.56% is made up of minors. Similarly, with this survey you can see that of that 8.56%, there is 16.1% that corresponds to all children under 14 years old with a minimum of 5 years
Similarly, the National Institute of Surveys and Censuses, with the support of the Ministry of Education and the Secretary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation- Senescyt- conducted a survey on classroom assistance and the level of instruction in the that there is greater assistance, based on the survey on minors working. Of that 16.1% of minor workers, it can be seen that there is a 24.9% absence to classes. Likewise, of the 24th it was concluded that the highest level of instruction they attend is in basic education, having an assistance of 85%, while Baccalaureate only presented 15% assistance.
Ecuadorian regulations
In Ecuador, being aware of this problem, multiple actions have been carried out to achieve the eradication of child exploitation. Actions such as the ratification of international treaties on the elimination, prevention and detection of child exploitation, and primarily a project for eradicating child labor, which aims to reduce and prevent dangerous child labor through articulated, programs and actions that They try to face their causes and effects from a social view and the restitution of the rights of minors. This project establishes actions and strategies that seek to eradicate child exploitation, such as labor inspections, through inspections carried out over 15 years and derive the cases of children and adolescents (NNA) under 15 to systems that protect their rights equally, with inter -institutional coordination, this state portfolio coordinates its intervention in the territories together with the ministries of economic inclusion and social, education, health, National Directorate of Specialized Police for Children and Adolescents (Dinapen), Cantonal Councils for the Protection of Rights, Cantonal Boards for the Protection of Children and Adolescents, Autonomous Deconomous Governments Municipal, among others, among others.
CONCLUSION
After the exhibition that has been carried out regarding the phenomenon of child exploitation, the regulations, such as the Eradication of Child Labor Eradication, the agencies and institutions such as the International Labor Organization that have been created programs in order to contribute to the Eradication of this terrible problem both in the country and in the world, as the International Program for Eradication of Child Labor – or International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, we can deduce that despite these efforts Children’s exploitation is a much matter more complex than what is thought and therefore that this must be faced very directly.
We have analyzed different statistics of very important organisms and even the Ecuadorian legislation has been analyzed, in order to conclude that despite the fact that the percentages may vary, decrease, it means that the main objective is being achieved, which is to contribute to the elimination of the elimination of the Child exploitation. The lack of eradication of this problem is of supreme importance since children’s rights are violated, precisely those children who are 15 years, thus threatening their integrity, innocence and even against their life.
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