It
was the time for 13-year-old Filipino
girl Renelyn to unleash her complaints
and show her heartful smile.
In a 2,000-strong march calling for
legal prohibition of child domestic
labor, Renelyn knew that she could be
awakened from the nightmare filled with
heavy housework, inadequate food and
frequent abuse as a child maid, and
find a way back to school she has been
kept away for three years.
The Global March Against child labour
staged in Manila on Jan. 22, the seventh
since it was formed in 1998, gathered
representatives from 40 non-governmental
organizations, government agencies,
workers, employers ad children's groups
to seek fast approval of the magna carta
for domestic workers, most of whom are
children in the country.
"The proposed magna carta helps
address these issues by restoring the
dignity of this sector and putting special
protection for minor, especially young
girls who are usually preferred by many
employers these days," said Cecilia
Flores- Oebanda, President of Visayan
Forum (VF).
Apart from the march, the week-long
activities will also comprise child labour forums, dialogue with senators
and festival of child labour films and
documentaries, the organizer said.
According to the VF statistics in 2002,
there were 230,000 children reported
working in private households, mostly
12 to 17 years old and 92 percent female.
Among them, 83 percent live in the homes
of their employers and 54.9 percent
have no days off, it said.
Domestic work has been occupation in
the Philippines for centuries. The rise
of urban centers and the middle class
has exacerbated the phenomenon, and
with this came the demand for younger,
more subservient household servants.
On the other hand, armed conflicts,
the uneven development between the urban
and rural areas, and widening economic
disparities have driven people out their
communities, most of them looking at
urban centers as the land of hope.
Like half of the child domestic labor,
Renelyn comes from a family working
in the agriculture sector. To support
the family, the third oldest of four
was sent from her hometown in the southern
islands of Mindanao to a businessman's
house in Metro Manila.
"I was asked to shoulder all housework
in the six-member family. On five o'clock
every morning, I had to get up and begin
all cleaning, cooking, and washing until
midnight," she said.
For the 13 months she worked as child
domestic labor, Renelyn said that she
only earned 6,120 pesos, which could
hardly cover her own expense.
"Parents of child domestic laborers
think that by sending their children
to work in private households, they
can raise money for the needs of the
family and, at the same time, educate
their children and prepare them for
adult life. For some, they have no choice
but use their children as payment for
debts," the VF said in its report.
According to the VF survey, the domestic
work is the only and safest work for
children from poor families to lead
a better life. Is it really safe?
During the long-timed and heavy work,
they are made to use electrical and
mechanical equipment without any training
or safety precaution, Oebanda said.
The child domestic labor, especially
girls, are also made to do work that
exposes them to abuse and molestation
by male employers, and a significant
number of them are "trafficked,
transported, transferred, harbored,
or received by means of threat, use
of force, deceit or other dubious means,"
she added.
In a VF case, Roselle was nearly raped
by her 70-year-old employer when she
was just 12. Apart from that, she also
went through the ordeal of being hit,
her hair pulled, and even slapped, not
only by the employer but also other
family members.
"I cannot bear so much slapping
and kicking, so I escaped," Renelyn
said. Oebanda said that while pushing
child domestic labor illegalized, the
VF is also trying to expand access to
the children working in household.
"They are hidden behind the closed
door of their employers, making them
inaccessible to government inspectors,
statisticians, NGD workers, local government
officials, and even to neighbors and
passers-by," she said.
Because of their isolation, abuses are
undetected and unreported and the policy,
administrative, and regulatory machinery
of government are not attuned to effectively
monitor their conditions and provide
immediate intervention, she added.
According to Oebanda, the VF has file
seven cases for abused child labour,
but no one has been ruled so far.
Apart from extensive and deep reach
to the children labor, the organization
also called for more fund to build additional
safe houses nationwide for the runaway
from the employer houses.
Even under shelter in the safe house
in the Department of Social and Welfare,
Renelyn still cannot see a promising
future. " I want to go back to
school, but without work, I even have
no money to go home."
Since 1995, the VF has been implementing
a program to mobilize national efforts
to provide immediate holistic, and integrated
services to child domestic laborers.
"Education services are an integral
part of direct services provided under
the program. In partnership with schools
and parishes, child domestic laborers
are encouraged to continue their education,"
Oebanda said.
The program also facilitates the child's
enrollment in non- formal education
and vocational skills training, she
added.
Warner Blenk, director of International
Labor Organization's Subregional Office
for Southeast Asia and the Pacific,
also said that more alternatives should
be provided to child domestic labor
while efforts are made to free them
from the "virtual prison cell.
"
Furthermore, the government agencies
and non-governmental organizations should
also initiate programs to help parents
of child domestic labor find jobs in
case that they will send their children
back to employers, he said.
"I don't know what I can do when
I grow up. I just hope that I can help
my parents make living," Renelyn
said of her future plan.
Source:
http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/features/userobject1ai817984.html
