Capture fish and crabs in the river with a network for three or four hours a day.This is Sabina's work.He is 12 years old and does not matter if the sun burns or there is a storm, there is never a lack of work.The reality of the minor is to make money to "ensure that your family can eat".
He lives in Bangladés, a country where rural areas are full of minors who work in the agricultural sector.Like her, 160 million children worldwide are in a situation of child labor, according to data from the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF.
The causes that cause child labor are undetermined.But the orene of global cooperation that defends the rights of childhood,EDUCO, considers that behind this practice there is a combination of factors."Poverty, lack of employment opportunities for fathers and mothers, social marginalization and even social norms that tolerate this practice," they say from the organization.
Sabina fishing in the waters of the Khelpetua river in Bangladesh.EDUCO
In its COVID-19 report: impact of pandemia and sequelae in education, the Oenegé indicates that in Bangladesh 3.45 million children work, 95 % of them do so in the informal economy and, most perform tasksdangerous.As Sabina, they can even work 10 or 12 hours a day.
Many times these tasks develop in the family environment, mainly in family farms or microenterprises.This entails some danger, since almost half of the children aged 12 to 14 who work within the family unit "perform tasks that probably damage their health, safety or moral development," says the report.
The impossibility of accessing basic needs in extreme environments of poverty makes minors have to work to, as the expression says, take bread home.Sabina wants to return to school and be with her friends, but it is impossible: her parents, she says, suffer serious physical damage and has to help them.
Educate to save
"I may have to work to help my family, but I honestly don't want," says Shorif.With only 13 years, this bangladesí is aware that studying would improve his life.But it is out of reach.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of schools in this Asian country-where child labor is still eradicating-have closed its doors.The education system has been overwhelmed, especially in places where resources are scarce.
SegúnEDUCO, durante el cierre masivo de las escuelas, alrededor de 433 millones de estudiantes se quedaron fuera del sistema educativo.Without the necessary tools, distance teaching could not be materialized.
To this figure we would have to add the 250 million children who, before the current crisis, were already without schooling.
"My work schedule coincides with the school," says Sumaya, 13 -year -old Bangladesi.Although schools come back, fear not being able to reinstall.And it is that the classrooms became the protection elements that the children needed in the face of the violations of their rights.
Currently, they all live in uncertainty.They have been forced to work and have abandoned the studies.The lack of schooling puts its future at risk and, too many times, they become cheap labor for factories.
DesdeEDUCO alertan: esta explotación laboral de la infancia "es moneda corriente en muchos países asiáticos".
Irreversible damage
They do not play, they mature prematurely and unintentionally.In addition, your health - physical and mental- can be harmed.The consequences caused in minors to work are forced are devastating.
Some do so in hostile and violent environments, in which their rights are constantly violated.This generated physical and psychological such as depression, adaptation problems or low levels of self -esteem.
Hawa Diarra doing domestic work.EDUCO
In Mali, young girls are forced to work in conditions of slavery in homes.There, they usually stay at home taking care of babies.Hawa Diarra, 14 years old had to "look for life" after his mother died.He went to live with his aunt to the capital of the country, Bamako.
"I did this trip because I had no means to pay my clothes, my health or any other expense," he says.Then, her aunt took her with some neighbors, who, now, serves as a domestic employee.
Many of these young women also suffer physical and sexual abuse.And even get pregnant.
A similar reality is what many children live in Burkina Faso mines.In them, Nacanabo Karim saw "die to people".This is what this young man who is now 19 and who left school in his small village to be a labor in a mine that belonged to his father.
"I felt he risk his life in exchange for nothing," he says.Luckily, an injury caused your situation to improve.At last he could return to his village, from which he fled to look for money.
And it is that sub -Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence and the greatest number of children working.According to ILO and UNICEF data, child labor reaches 23.9% of young entities 5 and 17 years old.That is, 86.6 million boys and girls are forced to work to survive.
ILO and UNICEF are overwhelming: "We are at a critical situation" in world efforts to eradicate child labor.Which shows us that, more than ever, we need immediate measures so that these children stop becoming adults early.
