Moreover, most of the children who work are
assisting their parents, and receive no pay
themselves, said Rodríguez.
The study forms part of the ILO program on
statistics and follow-up on child labor, and the
final results for Central America will be published
in 2004.
Close to half of the child workers were found in
Guatemala (937,530), while the country with the
smallest absolute number of child laborers was the
tiny Belize (8,582).
Guatemala, a country of 12 million, has the
largest population in Central America, followed by
El Salvador (6.2 million), Honduras (6 million),
Nicaragua (5 million), Costa Rica (3.8 million),
Panama (2.7 million), and Belize (250,000).
Minors in Central American mainly work in
agriculture or as street vendors. Others are
involved in the services and manufacturing sectors.
"This is extremely dangerous for the region,
because the rights to dignified development and
health of these children are being violated,"
United Nations children's fund (UNICEF adviser
María Conde pointed out to IPS, when she was
informed of the new statistics.
Although many child workers also attend school,
work tends to take priority over education as they
grow older.
In Belize, 18 percent of working five to
14-year-olds are not in school, while the proportion
stands at 21 percent in Costa Rica, 32 percent in El
Salvador, 34 percent in Honduras, 37 percent in
Panama, 40 percent in Nicaragua and 41 percent in
Guatemala.
Children who begin to work at a young age and
drop out of school tend to reach the upper limit of
their vocational possibilities at a very young age,
which often leads to an accumulation of social
discontent and temptations to turn to crime, noted
Conde.
"Last decade, we saw that poverty had a
woman's face. And in this new decade, we are clearly
observing that now poverty has a child's face,"
said Conde, who works at the UNICEF office for Latin
America and the Caribbean, based in Panama.
In Costa Rica, 15 public figures from the fields
of science, sports, music, religion and politics
said they would sign a statement against child labor
next Friday.
Among the signatories will be former Costa Rican
president and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Oscar Arias,
Costa Rican-American astronaut Franklin Chang, and
classical music composer Benjamín Gutiérrez.
"Work is not tiring, but sometimes it's a
little bit boring," said Jorge Luis Cerdas, who
is small for his age and looks much younger than his
16 years.
Cerdas said he began to work when he was 11, and
only completed primary school before dedicating
himself full-time to helping his father at their
vegetable and fruit cart.
"My biggest dream? To have a vegetable and
fruit stall in the market. I don't like having to
move around all the time," said Cerdas, who
works under the scorching tropical sun from seven in
the morning to six in the evening.
The boyish adolescent in slightly shabby clothes
parks his cart Monday through Friday in downtown
Cartago, a city located 22 kilometers east of San
Jose.
Under his father's gaze, Cerdas told IPS that his
15-year-old sister had also dropped out of school,
and that his younger brother, 11, was the only one
who still attended class.
Some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) say
the governments of Central America and programs like
IPEC do not do enough to attack the causes of child
labor.
"It seems to me that small parts of the fire
are put out, but the real causes of the fire are not
attacked," said Virginia Murillo, executive
president of the Costa Rican section of Defense of
Children International (DCI), who added that that
only a small fraction of child workers in the region
receive any kind of support.
The activist told IPS that governments in the
region should show a greater interest in reducing
poverty and increasing the quality of education.
DCI, an international child advocacy
organization, warns that many child workers in the
region are exposed to toxic pesticides, work long
days, and carry loads that are too heavy for their
age. Young street vendors, meanwhile, are at risk of
traffic accidents and abuse and mistreatment by
adults.
The Commission for the Defense of Human Rights in
Central America (CODEHUCA) has also expressed
concern over the phenomenon of child labor.
According to the non-governmental rights
organization, the situation of child workers
reflects the precarious social conditions in Central
America, which, paradoxically, have worsened since
the Cold War-era armed conflicts that plagued the
region came to an end.
Child labor is just one more demonstration of how
economic, social and cultural rights are constantly
violated in this region, said CODEHUCA general
coordinator Daniel Camacho.
