| One in six RP kids has to work � NSO By Agence France Presse May 8, 2002, Philippine Daily Inquirer About one in six children in the Philippines had to work to help support his or her family in the past year, and most of them labored without pay, the National Statistics Office reported yesterday. Four million of the 25 million Filipino children aged 5 to 17, or 16 percent of the total, were �economically active,� according to the survey covering October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2001. This was almost unchanged from the figure recorded in a similar survey for 1994-1995. Most of the working children were male, aged 10 to 17 years old. Seven out of 10 children worked in the rural areas. The majority of them worked as unskilled, unpaid laborers in family farms, the NSO said. Others worked in shops or as vendors in forestry or fisheries. Agriculture accounts for about 40 percent of the Philippine labor force. An estimated 1.1 million children faced physical hazards. Many of the children were exposed to silica and sawdust, along with �danger of biological infections.� Almost 220,000 of the children did �heavy physical work,� the NSO said. About 942,000 of them said they had suffered injuries at work while 754,000 said they suffered work-related illnesses like body aches, pains and skin diseases���. Of the four million children who worked during the survey period, 65.9% attended school at the same time with 78% of them saying that their schooling was not affected by their labor. However 1.2 million children said their schooling suffered because of their work. Two in five dropped out of school. Government figures show that four in 10 Filipinos are poor, living on less than P38 a day. ***** |
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