MEETING the government’s zero child labor goal next year may be an uphill climb especially with the suspension of the profiling of child laborers due to the pandemic, according to Social Watch Philippines (SWP).
Of the 266,873 profiled child laborers between 2018-2020, only 21 percent or 56,276 of the profiled children have been removed from child labor.
Under the updated Philippine Development Plan (PDP), SWP said the government’s target of zero child labor in the Philippines means removing 2.1 million children from the labor force by next year.
“In support of the child-labor-free Philippines, we have been advocating for the sufficient funding for the implementation of the child labor profiling and monitoring under the DOLE’s Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program [CLPEP] and the Livelihood Assistance to Parents or Guardians of Child Laborers,” SWP explained.
SWP said the suspension of the profiling of child laborers led to the realignment of P224.4 million for Covid-19 response programs of the DOLE.
“The profiling and monitoring of child laborers is a crucial administrative initiative to fostering updated database and assessment platform in the provision of interventions to remove them from child labor in a responsive manner. Profiling and monitoring of child laborers should instead continue amid Covid-19,” SWP stressed.
The target of ending child labor in the country by next year was a welcome development for SWP after the initial version of the PDP aimed to merely reduce child laborers to 630,000 by next year.
SWP noted that the country’s commitment under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.7 and the Third National Action Plan of Children underlines the Philippines’s obligation to eventually eradicate child labor by 2025.
However, SWP said attaining this target means the President must approve the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) proposal of providing P135 million for the salaries, operations and other expenses for the implementation of child labor profiling and monitoring in the 2022 national budget.
“Responsive and effective program on the prevention and elimination of child labor hinges on a firm policy commitment for adequate and sustained funding allocation,” SWP said.
The coordination between SWP and DOLE has led to the agency’s improved budget for the Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program.
The CLPEP received a budget of P100 million in 2019, and an additional P15 million and P30 million in 2020 and 2021, respectively.
The program also provided a P68.7-million budget for Livelihood of Parents of Child Laborers to 2,289 beneficiaries this year. Under the CLPEP, each beneficiary receives P30,000 worth of subsidy from the DOLE.