DIGITAL ART BY Jan Eoin Alegre and Renndrich Gesite.
A horrifying figure lies in the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in their most recent Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS) which highlighted that at least 3.5 million Filipinos who are aged six to twenty-four, fall under the Out-of-School Children and Youth (OSCY)—the label for which also classifies family members who are aged six to fourteen as non-attendees of formal school.
But if not in school—gaining education and studying for the mainly required diploma for a bound stable profession—what do these children do?
The return of carnivals in sparking town fiestas, which used to be less festive in the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, definitely poked the people’s alarm. Two in parallel reasons for this are the peculiar image of a childlike horror train driver, who seemed to be unaware that he is running the engine of his horror, and the odd sight of a boy who appeared to be either malnourished or is actually aged in ranges four to six years old and seemed to be an anxious amateur at reloading round “bullets” of pellet guns that are to be toyed by children who are close to his age and are unaware of their right to not be allowed in laborer’s shoes, thus, the next customers he is forced to serve.
So, an even more horrifying figure is the statistics which estimate that 897 thousand aged at least 5 years old are already working. This, therefore, claims that out of every ten Filipino children—say, in a carnival—there is one who is already counted to be out-of-school and is also paralleling fun as, obnoxiously, a child laborer.
Disregarding the mandate of the laws like Republic Acts (RA) 7568 and 9262 that are implemented for the issuance of protection among Filipino children and their rights from being violated in the forms of forced labor, slavery, deprivation of their dignity and liberty, and robbing them off of their childhood, there are still, ironically, numerous cases of child labor going on and being enabled in the Philippines. Not just existing in carnivals, but different working fields.
The pandemic only heightened the rise of child labor in the country, aside from it being declared in the survey conducted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the inflation in the last two years has been clamoring to the public. Due to the escalating prices of gold, the country is demanded to produce more, and in light of this, companies made use of children in regional mining operations. This exposed children to hazardous work and has put their health at risk without the assurance of shouldered healthcare treatments from “employers”. Lower-state families also sent their children off to work different labors, and sometimes, even to hand out their palms on the streets and ask for extensive blessings.
Some children were made to drop out of school due to the inflating expenses in education since the pandemic, while some never got to set foot in an educational environment. Then again, they are made to work and put food on the table, on their own, or along with the productive efforts of their parents. They sweat and tire themselves as they tear to provide for their basic needs since, after all, child labor is forced due to the heavy weight of poverty, parents’ unemployment, and the lack of education.
In the sense that carnivals are being transferred from one town to another that celebrates their fiesta, if there is at least one child laborer who is exposed for the public eye to see, it will appear as if this bailiwick is being enabled and even normalized. Children who would find a glimpse of a boy their age, behind a carnival tent’s barrier, receiving thirty pesos and handing a loaded pellet gun in return, might absorb this disturbing sight to be a mere destined fate for the unfortunate—child laborers do not deserve the label they have; just like every other child, they also have a right to proper clothing, sufficient nutrition, proper education, and a better environment away from forced workspaces.
So, in an unwanted perspective wherein this vicious circle of labor keeps its faulty hoops intact due to the ignored caterwaul for action, this cycle will only continue. With children growing up as laborers, having no proper education, and remaining to be unaware of the need for family planning with the environment they grew up in, the children that they will, in time, bear and then raise as parents, will motion to pave the same path they were forced to take.
Non-Government Agencies (NGOs) that are driven to help send child laborers to schools, instead of dismissing their right to education, are instituting foundations all over the country. Calls for help in the insufficient funds are done through social media platforms and fund-raising events—these should be heeded by those who sit above their privileges and those who are in authority to cater to these Filipino sectors’ dire demand.
Apart from the implementation of child-protecting laws, the National Government should support more implementing agencies that advocate against child labor and that protect children’s welfare. More programs, that are accessible for all, and that share guidance in family planning and protected sex awareness, should be run, since, the lack of such enable the bearing of many children that cannot be sufficed by an already struggling financial capacity.
Workspaces should be monitored more, say, after making a notion to re-institute carnivals to add colors to a town that has long been in a pandemic and is still in it, there is an evident but unnoticed labor work going on among one child or two. More decent and productive jobs for parents who are either graduates or non-graduates should be offered, and if prior or further training is necessary to hone their skills, it should be without having to shoulder the expenses, to encourage more employment. After all, the parents are those who should be feeding their children and not being fed by them. Moreover, they should be sending their children off to school, and not to work.
With the proper addressing of this adversity and its exploiting roots, reclamation of the right to betterment will not only be gleaming to those who are forced to fathom the shadows of a carnival full of squeals of either fear or joy due to which they also wish to enjoy but every single Filipino child laborer.
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