Toil for
Tots

The debate on the issue of child labor in Brazil begins with two divergent points. The first one is the definition of child labor. The second, derived from the first, is the question of finding out how many Brazilian children actually work and under which conditions. Nobody knows exactly how many children work in the world, in spite of the many research and statistical institutes in charge of studying this issue.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 73 million minors between the ages of 10 and 14 are induced to precocious labor, which means 13% of all children in all poor and rich countries in the world. Five percent of these young workers are Brazilian children, according to a study by the Brazilian Geography and Statistical Institute (IBGE). The National Domicile Sampling Survey indicates that 3.5 million children in that age bracket were working in 1993, when the study was completed (it was published in March 1997). This figure is equivalent to the whole population of Uruguay, one of Brazil's partners in the Mercosul Foreign Trade Zone.

The worst part is that child labor is illegal; in Brazil, you have to be 14 to be employed. This is what the Constitution says in its chapter VII, article 227, which regulates social responsibility for children and adolescents. The third paragraph establishes age 14 as the minimum age for admission to the job market and includes other provisions such as guaranteed access to education and social security, as well as labor rights.

The Child and Adolescent Statute, in its fifth chapter, prohibits any work by children younger than 14, except in the position of apprentice. This is the loophole that companies use when they want to obey the law: when the child turns 12, he/she can be an apprentice, so he/she is hired under special conditions (specific job description in case of a physical handicap, access to an apprentice scholarship fund, guarantee of labor rights, etc.). It is known that only 25% of these youngsters carry the carteira de trabalho (employment identification card) which grants them at least the social security benefits (known to be very fragile in the Brazilian case, since they do not abide by neither law nor ethics, as we have seen).

Last year, at the ILO assembly in Geneva, Brazilian Labor Ministry Paulo Paiva announced that the government has decided to raise to age 15 the established minimum age for apprenticeship, following recommendations from that organization. Since 1996, ILO has been proposing a debate about a new child labor convention as a venue for countries to establish procedures in situations that involve risk and also to eliminate the most intolerable forms of child exploitation.

The United Nations Convention on Children Rights determines that all people younger than 18 are children and have specific rights to full development, survival, health, education, free speech, etc. Brazil was one of the signatories of that convention.

The child issue in Brazil, which is already serious, assumes in fact a much larger dimension because it reflects (sometimes in an overdose) a regular occurrence in the overall job market in Brazil, i.e., that informal work—work without the carteira de trabalho—does not discriminate on the basis of age. Just as we do not even know exactly how many adults are actually working in the country, we have no idea of how many children are already part of the Brazilian labor force. In spite of the lack of statistics, there is no question about the poor conditions under which these children work: wages, hours, vacation, breaks, all depend on the good will (or ill will) of employers.

There is no union to protect young workers (often because it is against the law), especially the domestic workers who have been called "new slaves" at the mercy of their own families (for whom they wash, iron, cook and oftentimes beg in the streets) or of whomever "hires" them as nannies, pool cleaners, car washers, gardening helpers, guards, dog trainers, etc. Given this overall scenario, the profile of the young Brazilian worker is still an unknown.

Official statistics (such as the Brazilian Labor Market Chart, issued by IBGE) show that 65% of minors work longer than the legal workday and that more than 80% receive less than minimum wage. A few years ago, IBGE published a study called Brazilian Social Inequality Features, according to which almost 8 million children and teenagers worked at the turn of this decade (3.6 million worked and went to school at the same time). This figure, ILO estimates, represents some 17% of the domestic labor force. According to IBGE, 14% of those workers are children between the ages of 10 and 13, i.e., below legal age. In northeastern Brazil, these numbers are twice higher.

No Play

Children who work lack both the time and the disposition to play. When a working child sits in the classroom, he/she can't pay attention. As a consequence of working, he/she is more exposed than other children to health problems. At work, he/she is also at risk when he/she performs tasks, which are often heavy, beyond her strength and aptitude, during extended hours and with no protective equipment or even training for the task.

Does anyone have any questions about the kind of working hours which adolescents have to face in the charcoal kilns of Mato Grosso do Sul, the orange harvests in São Paulo, the sugar cane cutting in Rio de Janeiro, the extraction of salt in Rio Grande do Norte, the ore mining in Pará, the office-boy daily routines in the huge corporate centers, the commerce of knickknacks in the corners of the large avenues, the begging at the traffic lights of the gigantic urban areas in Brazil?

Since 1991, ILO has been working on developing its International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor, known in English as IPEC. The objective is a direct attack on the problem in 20 countries, Brazil among them. According to the United Nations, the vast majority of working children lives in Asia (half of the total), in Africa (a third of the total) and in Latin America.

It is not only a poverty issue, say the experts at UNICEF, which is a United Nations agency dealing with childhood issues. In Latin American countries, one in five children already works. But in Eastern and Central Europe, increasing numbers of children have been forced to start their working lives recently. In England and in the United States, as a result of the growth in the service area and in the demand for more flexible labor laws, employment of the very young has been growing. Gary S. Becker, Economics Nobel laureate in 1992, estimates that over 1.5 million American youngsters perform some kind of labor, even when their families have a higher standard of living than Latin American and Third World families who sometimes are extremely dependent on the wages of their offspring for survival.

The United Nations, through its several departments, is committed to uncover the hidden reality behind such scenarios. It has decided to start with the cruelest side of that reality: types of work which are hazardous or harmful to children. One example is children using the large knives required to cut sugar cane. Forty percent of the accidents recorded in this activity victimize children, although these young workers represent less than 30% of all sugar cane cutters.

The causes of child labor are often economical reasons. In the case of Latin America, they are easily visible when we consider the crisis of the 1980s, which spread throughout several economies in the continent and established the short-term destiny of several developing countries: (a) government debt, which in turn led countries into recession and unemployment and (b) World Bank and IMF demands, resulting in restrictive—or "structural adjustment"—policies imposed on debtor countries which destroyed, among other things, their capacity to invest in education and health. All this resulted in a drastic reduction of the supply of public services and/or the deterioration in the quality of such services. Children are direct victims of this situation: most government cuts affected health, food supply, food production subsidies and social services.

The result is that in the decade of the 1990s, when most Latin-American countries, Brazil included, can boast a scenario of inflationary stability and resumed economic growth, the social picture remains very poor. A survey by UNESCO, which is the United Nations agency for issues of education, science and culture, reveals that for the past three years the elementary schools in the 14 less developed countries in the world have space for only four in each group of ten children. This is not the case of Brazil, although the situation here is not much better. In Brazil, which is considered the richest economy in Latin America, the graduation rate for elementary school is only 40%. In the continent, it reaches 50%.

In the view of the U.N. agencies, a broad strategy to fight child labor must start with what they consider the logical alternative: good quality schools to which families are encouraged to send their children and which develop relevant educational programs in which the students themselves are willing to participate. There are 140 million children between the ages of 6 and 11 out of school and not very interested in school. An equivalent number of children drop out of school due to lack of response or encouragement before they complete the initial phase of the course. It is calculated that 400 million children and teenagers up to age 18 do not attend any form of regular school. A good percentage of these young people tries to conciliate school and work, with no good results.

In the beginning of June 1997, the global media started working on an issue which is important for this case. ILO proposed to its 174 member countries assembled at the International Labor Conference the adoption of measures to fight bad work conditions—any kind of work, not only child work. A suggestion was made to create a global community seal in order to commit world commerce to defend the rights of workers. That is, the global economy would only accept products coming from countries that provide basic conditions for dignified work. The market rules issued by the World Commerce Organization (WCO) make no mention of the problem.

What ILO wants is to attempt to use the community seal to achieve the mandatory status which is absent in its recommendations—a problem which WCO does not have, because its recommendations are already legally enforceable. Brazil, in a still unexplained attempt to retain its place in the global market, is opposing the seal and thus aligning itself, also without explanation, to competitors such as China and Indonesia, which are countries known by their use of slave labor (adult and child). All who have adopted the no-seal stance maintain the position that they are trying to prevent imposition of new non-tariff barriers. Maybe. The key, however, is to fight for the dignity of work and to include child work as the priority in this fight.

Also in early June of last year the 7^th International Seminar in Technology and Employment took place in São Paulo, promoted by the Vanzolini Foundation (which has systematically promoted discussion on the issue of child labor), among others. One of the conclusions of that meeting was that countries like Brazil will establish their presence better in the global market when they develop educational and research policies that allow them to empower and train their workers. Investment in basic education—the foremost need of children and teenagers—is one of the most effective measures among all the measures recommended at that seminar to secure competitive entry in the world market.

Experts have been stressing for years that countries need to improve their educational systems in order to achieve changes in their economic and social scenario. The longer and the better the educational process is, the less chance there will be for children to be exposed to labor, they say. That is the reason why the Convention on Children Rights insists in the fact that elementary education must be universal and mandatory.

If governments would honor their legal commitments in the educational arena, occurrences of children being exploited for labor would be significantly limited, UNICEF studies reveal. If there was political will, the funds to create good schools would be raised and all the innovative ideas springing up all over the world would succeed in rehabilitating educational systems everywhere. Successful programs are showing results all over the world.

The Brazilian Constitution says that education is a universal right and the duty of the State and the family and that it must be promoted and encouraged with cooperation from the whole society. The Federal Government is supposed to dedicate at least 18% of its fiscal revenue (25% in the case of state and local governments and the Federal District) to promote education (maintenance and growth). If this is in fact happening, and if it is enough, is something that no one can prove when they look at the status of working children in Brazil.

Only for
a Few

Minister of Education Paulo Renato Souza has said recently that the technical school model adopted so far in Brazil favors primarily the middle and upper classes. He promised to announce a national plan for financing the training of teachers to work in professional technical schools. The plan, he says, is to meet the new needs of the Brazilian population. This project should receive funds from the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), in the order of $ 500 million.

Entities such as the Brazilian federations for commerce, industry and agriculture have been developing major technical school programs which are administered through the National Learning Services for Commerce (Senac), Industry (Senai) and Agriculture (Senar) and are considered to be the most advanced programs in the field, with centers located throughout the country. Sesi and Sesc deal with basic education only. Several courses taught by Senac and Senai schools have been officially recognized as "third level" education (community college level in the U.S.) The initiative announced by Minister Paulo Renato Souza should be able to perfect the system and increase the supply of classroom space for adolescents and young adults interested in training and professional improvement.

Working children and working teenagers value education, declare the specialists. "Young workers who have completed 2^nd level education (high school) boast an average salary advantage of 14% over their workmates who have completed 1^st level only and 91% over those without 1^st level. Young workers who have completed 1^st level, on the other hand, make 67% more money than their friends who are below that level", says Elenice M. Leite, Senai's Department for Research, Studies and Evaluation, in her study "Minors in the Population and Workforce of the State of São Paulo", 1987.

For the past several years, the São Paulo State Government has been conducting the Pacto dos Bandeirantes—Bandeirante Pact—(Bandeirante = Brazilian historical explorer), with the purpose of eliminating child labor in rural and urban areas through programs recommended by multidisciplinary chambers (uniting both government and the business community) and providing encouragement to stay in school. Several conventions were created, such as the agreement between the Labor Relations State Secretary and industry leaders like Abecitrus (orange juice exporting conglomerate) to stop child exploitation in the orange harvests and to decrease the drop-out rate in the schools, with support from the companies themselves. Other examples are same-type agreements signed with footwear industry unions and associations in the metropolitan area of Franca, state of São Paulo.

According to the São Paulo Sugar and Alcohol Industry Chamber of Commerce, which has signed the pact, there are no more children working in the 200 cities located within that sugar-alcohol industrial pole, the largest of its kind in Brazil.

Many children left fieldwork but not all have returned to the classroom. According to the São Paulo State Federation of Agriculture Workers (Fetaesp), there are still some cooperatives linked to the citrus industry who are employing 8 thousand children up to age 10. This pact is directly led by Walter Barelli, São Paulo Secretary for Employment and Labor Relations. According to Barelli, the solution to this problem is forthcoming.

Salary
to Go
to School

A bill was introduced in the São Paulo City Legislature for a law which will supplement the income of those families who keep their children in school—a pioneer idea implemented by the local government of the Federal District (capital city of Brasília).This is related to one of the sections in the pact, which stresses that without this extra income it is impossible to foresee the effective elimination of child labor in Brazil. Another section relates to professional training for teenagers in order to prepare them to enter the job market later.

The Secretariat for Child Well Being has created a "right to family and community life" program, which fights child labor indirectly by allowing the family of origin to keep their children. Each family of origin receives $50 to keep its children in school. The funds are donated by businesses and various agencies (domestic or not, such as the Associazione dei Bambini, an Italian association for children).

There are several other examples. One is the Somar Project, in existence for three years, sponsored by two corporations in the region of Matão, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, which provides care for rural area children, ages 5 to 15, who come from families who live off fieldwork and the harvest of oranges. Rita Ferrari Magalhães explains that the primary challenge of her program is to stop parents from profiting from their children's labor. The program looks at education in its search for alternative solutions.

Along these lines, very important work has been done by the Program for Solidary Community, directed by Ruth Cardoso (the Brazilian First Lady). She has been insisting in the concept of exchanging the labor of the child for the permanence of that child in school, with some form of remuneration for each family who succeeds in doing so. It could be the way out. In May 1997, for example, the program signed conventions with eight city governments in the state of Rio de Janeiro by which the eight Mayors committed to eradicate child labor by paying half a minimum monthly salary (about $50) to each family who takes their child away from work and keeps him/her at school. There will be inspections, specially in the Rio sugar cane region. According to ILO, 20% of the workers in that region are children. Later this year, similar conventions are expected to be signed by this program with the mayors of the so-called lakes region, where the salt extraction industry employs many children.

In the sugar cane plantations in northern Rio de Janeiro state, children and teenagers represent approximately one fifth of the overall work force employed by the 12 mills in the region. In Pernambuco, estimates from the State Secretary for Labor and Social Action reveal the existence of 40 thousand dropout children working in sugar cane plantations. The Bolsa Escola (School Scholarship) program, initiated by the federal government, wants to solve the problem by paying $50 a month to families of children who attend at least 75% of the regular class schedule. The plan is good, but the Pernambuco Federation of Agriculture Workers (Fetape) says it has been progressing at snail's pace.

Smelling
a Rat

The case of the footwear industry in Franca, SP, is exemplary. The Footwear and Apparel Industry Workers Union of Franca and Surrounding Region, in a joint effort with CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores, a huge Brazilian workers union) and the Inter-Union Department for Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (Dieese), with support from agencies such as UNICEF and ILO, wrote a study which revealed that more than 70% of the children who live in the city work in the so-called production benches (shoe shops outsourced by the regional footwear factories) did not have the proper work registration and suffered from various health problems—headaches, dizziness, eyesight difficulties (due to prolonged exposure to shoe glue), cuts, injuries, muscle pain and back problems. Half of these little workers had repeated a grade at school.

The industry union was called in to discuss the matter and the result was the creation of the Business Institute for Support for Child and Adolescent Development (Pró-Criança), founded by a joint initiative involving the same footwear union, the Franca Commerce Association (Acif) and other entities, for the purpose of stopping child labor and decreasing the school dropout rate. The Institute launched the Pro-Child Seal, printed onto the packaging of the shoes, which identifies those factories that do not utilize child labor in their manufacturing process. Fifty of the 360 footwear industries in that region are already using the seal.

The charcoal kiln industries in Mato Grosso do Sul present a very similar case. In a large region surrounding the towns of Água Clara, Ribas do Rio Pardo, Três Lagoas, Brasilândia and Santa Rita do Pardo, children ages 7 to 14 are utilized to work the kilns in which the wood is burned to be transformed into charcoal (calcification). This labor involves daubing the oven doors with mud and collecting the charcoal, still very hot. In 1994, according to data from the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Land Pastoral Commission), 2.5 thousand children under the age of 14 worked these kilns, along with their families. As it happened in Franca, the community decided to take action. With support from the local government, the Citizenship Voucher was created. It is a monthly stipend of $50 paid to one thousand children who have returned to school "but for whom there is still much to be done", admits João José de Souza Leite, special programs coordinator for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Among all initiatives to fight child labor in Brazil, the pioneer and the one with the most extensive scope is probably the Abrinq Foundation for the Rights of Children, which was initially an association of Brazilian toy manufacturers. This foundation has created a community program, which also works as a true marketing tool for businesses. It is called Empresa Amiga da Criança (something like Big Sister Company) and it consists of a seal—which can also be used in advertising—which qualifies those companies that can prove that they do not employ children in any of their production stages and that they do not use suppliers who employ children.

The program has already enrolled 300 businesses and it also requires some type of community project, to be provided by the businesses and their owners, such as financial adoption of day care centers, orphanages and community centers. Approximately 200 thousand children have been helped through this seal. The Foundation's goal for 1998, says its president Oded Grajew, is to launch a campaign to convince the consumer to only purchase products from companies that sport the "Big Sister" seal in their packaging.

This article was originally published in Portuguese by magazine Problemas Brasileiros, which you can read on line at http://200.231.246.32/sesc/revistas 

Translated from the Portuguese by Tereza d'Ávila Braga. Tereza is a professional free-lance translator accredited by the American Translators Association. She specializes in technical and legal translation, as well as simultaneous interpretation, for corporations doing business with Brazil. Tereza came to the U.S. in 1984 as Trade Promotion Officer with the Consulate of Brazil in Dallas, where she served for nine years. She can be reached at 103264.2156@compuserve.com

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