Abstract
Introduction: Child labor is a global problem affecting 168 million children and adolescents, of which 98 million are found in the agricultural sector. In Colombia, there were 869 000 child workers in 2017.Objective: To characterize child labor in the agricultural production of rice, coffee, cotton, sugar cane, and panela sugar cane in Colombia.Materials and methods: A qualitative study was conducted from a literature review of studies on child labor, a documentary review on Colombian regulations regarding this phenomenon, and the empirical collection of data through participant observation and the use of interviews.Results: According to the official sources of information, given the level of industrialization and formal employment in the rice, cotton and sugar cane production processes there is no evidence of child labor in said sectors. On the contrary, in the case of coffee and panela sugar cane production, most of agricultural work occurs within a family economy scenario, which causes children and adolescents to work as unpaid family members to support their households. It is worth noting that due to the fact that agricultural work in Colombia takes place in rural areas and under informal economy conditions, there is an underreporting of the number of working children and adolescents in the agricultural sector, and therefore, the capacity of the Colombian state to confront this situation is very limited.Conclusions: The informal economy dynamics of the Colombian agricultural sector constitutes a potential scenario for the occurrence of child labor that requires the development and implementation of a public policy supported by a strong supervision by the State, and an educational strategy that, on the one hand, integrates school education with training options in relation to the agricultural production dynamics, so that children and adolescents attendance to school is encouraged, and, on the other, enables them to plan a life project in the context of agricultural work in rural areas.
Highlights
Child labor is a global problem affecting 168 million children and adolescents, of which 98 million are found in the agricultural sector
In the case of coffee and panela sugar cane production, most of agricultural work occurs within a family economy scenario, which causes children and adolescents to work as unpaid family members to support their households
In the last stage two techniques were used: on the one hand, participant observation allowed researchers to get involved in the production processes of each agricultural crop, and, on the other, the use of semi-structured interviews made possible to know the opinions and narratives of different people related to child labor in these agricultural sectors in Colombia
Summary
Child labor is a global problem affecting 168 million children and adolescents, of which 98 million are found in the agricultural sector. [2] According to the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE, for its acronym in Spanish), in 2014 most of working children and adolescents were found in the commerce, hotel and restaurants sectors (38.2%), and the agriculture, cattle, hunting, forestry and fishery and aquaculture industries (34.0%). Taking this into account, a qualitative study was conducted in order to characterize child labor in the context of agricultural production of rice, coffee, cotton, sugar cane and panela sugar cane in Colombia. This article presents the results of a literature review of studies and international and national regulations on child labor in the agricultural sector, as well as the characterization of child labor in the production processes of the agricultural crops studied here Most of them were classified as unpaid family workers (50.8%), and child labor was associated with a higher school dropout rate, since in child workers dropout rate was 42.4% versus an 11.6% rate in non-working children. [3]
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