– Bolivia legalizes labor of kids as young as 10 (RT, July 20, 2014):
A law, legally allowing children to work from as early as the age of ten, has been signed in Bolivia this week, making the Latin American country the first nation to legalize child labor. International organizations say it contravenes UN conventions.
The legislation was approved by the Congress earlier this month, with Bolivia’s Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera signing it into law on Thursday. The signature – which didn’t come from President Evo Morales due to his absence from the country – officially lowers the age that children can legally work from 14 to 10.
Under the new legislation, children above the age of 10 will be allowed to become self-employed workers as long as they attend school and have permission from their parents. Those over 12 years old will be permitted to take on contract work, also on terms of parental consent and compulsory school attendance.
“The president gave us his support. He also worked as a boy, herding llamas,” Rodrigo Medrano, head of the Union of Boy, Girl and Adolescent Workers, told AP. The president has also been quoted in the past saying that “eliminating work for boys and girls would be like eliminating people’s social conscience.”
Bolivian officials say there is no alternative to the move in a society where half the population is poor and a large percentage of the adolescent population has to work anyway. It is hoped that adding another wage to a family’s income could alleviate many families’ financial burdens.
“Child labor already exists in Bolivia and it’s difficult to fight it. Rather than persecute it, we want to protect the rights and guarantee the labor security of children,” one of the bill’s sponsors senator Adolfo Mendoza told AP.
Jo Becker argues that people who start work as children end up with less education and lower earnings as adults. It then becomes a catch-22, as such families will most likely have to send their own children to work early.
More than 500,000 children already work to supplement the family income in Bolivia, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). A 2008 study done by the ILO and Bolivian government found that 850,000 children between the age of five and 17 were working in the country.
Nearly nine in ten were in the worst kinds of jobs, including sugar cane harvesting and underground mining.
We are quickly moving back to the Dark Ages. Technology is speeding the way. When that collapses, there will only be the Dark Ages, the ignorance, the barbaric behaviors of all…………..until we are all destroyed.
Too many factors are working to destroy mankind. The radiation from Fukushima will do much of the work.
Why do we advance only to go backwards into darkness and ignorance? I lived in a Golden Era, not seen since the Great Enlightenment of the 18th century, the Renaissance, or the time of Augustus…….the Golden Eras are few, I am grateful to have lived in one.
Hot and cold running water, lights that switch on, microwave ovens, all electric kitchens, dishwashers, garbage disposals, washers, dryers, irons…….the list is endless. The Romans had some of it………it took us 1900 years to make concrete after the Romans did…….we lose so much.
This is so sad. Ten year old children back at work instead of school. It is a huge step backwards, and joins with the ranks of the poor Chinese, Vietnamese, and other nations into darkness. Why do we do this? We seem unable to move forward for long.