Child Labor

Peru is a country of abundant natural resources and rich culture. Despite this, over a third of the population
live in poverty, specifically about 8 million people still qualify as poor, especially in rural areas. For this reason,
a lot of children are seen in the need to work. So today, I am going to talk about Child Labor in Peru. This issue
is pending to be solved in the country.

I am convinced that this is one of the most important problems in the world, because according to the
International Labor Organization, one in seven people in the world does not have the money to feed himself
or herself. In Peru, this fact is reflected in the need for children to work because if they didn’t work, they might
be hungry. In our country, more than two million children and adolescents work, according to numbers from
the national statistics institute INEI. The numbers are low because they exclude children under 14, those
working in illegal activities or domestic service, and those who usually work but are currently inactive.

However, what kind of jobs do children do in Peru? After watching a video from the internet related with child
labor, I understood that children do many jobs in Peru, either legally or illegally. Take, for example:

Cleaning cars: As you can see in these pictures, there are a lot of children who do this job in any street of any
part of the world. They sell food or clean the glasses of the cars. They usually say that they work because in
their homes there are not enough money to eat and they have to work since 10:00 am until 8:00 pm,
endangering their lives because they could suffer an accident.

Markets: In our country there are a lot of wholesale markets, where some children work, they usually help
women carrying their purchases, however they could be intimidated for older carriers, even beaten up,
because children charge cheaper than them. But, there are also some children who collect potatoes that
sellers discard and then, they sell these potatoes and save what is left so they can eat.

Making mud bricks: They make approximately 1000 bricks a day to fulfill the orders of the construction
companies.

Mining: I strongly believe that this is one of the worst types of child labor because the children descend into
the bowels of the earth to crawl through improvised tunnels, narrow and dimly lit where the air is filled with
dust. They are constantly at risk of fatal accidents due to rock fall, explosions, collapse of the walls of the mine
and they also endanger their lives outside the mine because they have to use toxic materials such as mercury,
which is harmful to health.

Farming: The children have to fumigate the crops, but they can suffer from headache and vomiting by inhaling
the insecticides.

These are just a few examples because there are more.

Without a doubt, there are a lot of children who have been exploited by older people, but many times they
have no choice because they live in poor households. In the other hand, many children are threatened by their
parents, too. There are a lot of cases where the parents intimidate their children telling them that if they didn't
work, they could be beaten up.

The consequences of Child Labor is that most of this children have to sacrifice their education and aspirations
in order to go to work or maybe they are required to repeat school years. This situation is very sad.