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7.3% of Costa Rican Work Force
is Made Up of Minors
The high cost of living in Costa
Rica may be the cause of why
7.3% of the work force or
127.077 workers are children and
adolescents.
According to a report by the "Informe
alternativo sobre el
cumplimiento de los derechos de
los niños, niñas y adolescentes
en Costa Rica" which 15
government agencies took part
between 1998 and 2003 to create,
43.4% of the minor work force
work in farming, while 21.7% in
sales and 9% in industrial
factories.
In rural areas, minors enter the
work force at an earlier age
than in urban areas, the reports
shows. Males make up the largest
percentage - 72.7% - of the
minors in the work force.
Ana Helena Chacón, vice minister
of Seguridad Pública, is totally
against the current legislation
that deals with minors in the
work force.
The Fuerza Publica and a special
unit of the Ministerio de
Seguridad Pública have been
trained to intervene in a
positive way the eradication of
child workers.
It was vice minister Chacón that
spearheaded the program along
with the Oficina Internacional
del Trabajo de las Naciones
Unidas, a United Nations
organization.
Police now, along with combat
delinquency, have new tools and
understanding to watch over the
exploitation of minors in the
work force, which are usually
poorly paid and some even
abused.
Instructors at the Academia
Nacional de Policía (national
police academy) and members of
the San José Municipal police
force, have received intensified
training on the worst of child
labour abuses. Authorities at
the academy hope that this
training can spread throughout
the entire police force.
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