Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Quito (Agenzia Fides) - "If I do not work dad punishes me": this is the reality for over 15 000 children in the capital of Ecuador, Quito, working as peddlers in the streets of the city. According to the Instituto de la Niñez y la Familia (INFA), 63% of these children work more than 40 hours per week. Behind this reality, problems of abuse in the family and the mafias are hidden that force children to sell sweets, flowers, cds, to play instruments like guitar, flute, or harmonica, or juggling on street corners or on buses.
Although Article 136 of the Labor Code provides for 15 years as the minimum age to start working in the country, children begin to work at the age of 5. The majority, 90%, do not even live in Quito, but comes from other provinces. According to the Police Specialized in Children and Adolescents (Dinapen), many come from Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, and Manabi. The Director of the Center of Employed Child (CMT) reports that child labor is connected with the conditions of poverty in the country.
The Center describes it as a tool that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, as well as affecting their physical and psychological development. From the data of INFA in the last 10 years road work requires an investment of 'only' 5% which, compared to the earnings from the sale of sweets, for example, it is nothing. And this is also one of the factors that has an impact on the increasing rate of child labor. Dinapen has stated that children earn between 12 and 68 dollars a day, with a monthly income between 100 and 1800 dollars, money that is not theirs but is handed over to their exploiters. In addition to this sad scene we have to add the so-called "invisible work", where children are exploited to load and unload heavy materials, food and timber. The work increases by 25% during the Christmas period, on Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 20/3/2012)
