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Child Labor

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Submitted By ayanadenisse
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Child labour is one of the many concerns in the Philippines and one of the most rampant problems we face. In the endeavour to create an awareness of an already existing law is evidently not properly implemented, child labour falls within this category. Every child has the right to the most basic of necessities in life like a healthy environment, formal education, and most importantly, a loving family to come home to. Yet poverty hinders the child to any of these things and forces labour in farming fields, mining shafts and peddling in the busy and dangerous streets of the country.

I would want to focus on the most disturbing problem here in the Philippines – Child Labour. Child labour refers to the illegal employment of children below 18 years old in hazardous occupations. Underage children are being forced to manual labour to help their families due to poverty. As researched, about 2.4 million children all around the Philippines are compelled to do labour, such as in crop plantations, mining caves, rock quarries and factories. Child labour has many ill effects in children who are supposed to be in the environment of a classroom rather than roaming the streets and risking every chance and time just to earn enough money.

It is appalling knowing that there are a lot of children experiencing such heavy problem. Parents, indeed, have the responsibility of educating their children. It is their main duty to send their children to school. But it is dismaying to realize that because of scarcity, parents tend to become unconcerned about their children. Instead of sending them to school, they send them to work just to contribute to the needs of their families.

There is this one question I have in mind, does the Philippine government look for ways to manage, to resolve, and to eradicate child labour? Child labour has become a rigid social problem in our country.

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