Phillipines
Children bleed trees for rubber.....
- Child Labour in the Rubber Farms in the Philippines
Extracts from
Child Recruitment and Some Most Hazardous Forms of Child Labour in the Philippines - A KDF (Kamalayan Development Foundation) Experience by Alejandro W. Apit
In Tacul, Rubber started in 1981
According to the Bagobo residents, in Barangay Tacul, rubber planting started in 1981. The small farmers as well as some bigger ones and small landlords saw it as a profitable business, and so, they started converting their corn lands and others into those planted with rubber.
In Tacul, 50 children work to produce rubber
In Tacul, more or less twenty children are engaged in the production of rubber. They are those whose ages range from 8 to 14 years old. But there are more who are 15,16 and 17 years old, these young workers number at least 30. In other words, there are at least 50 children aged 8 to 17 who are presently working in the rubber farms.
The children's role in rubber production consists of such activities as wounding the trunk of the tree so that its sap oozes out and flows into a container, mixing the sap with a certain acid, collecting and assembling the 'lateks' or 'kaplams' and carrying the 'bloke' and bringing them to the roadside in wait for the collecting vehicle. The workers have names for their raw material and raw product: 'latek' for the tree's sap; 'kaplam' for the mixture of latek and aksido and 'bloke' for the mixture of latek and kaplam.
With Chemicals, Children are Thin and Pale
The child workers are thus interacting with a chemical or acid or are exposed to such chemical in their work everyday. For many are not provided with the necessary protective device, while those who start with hand gloves are usually led to find out after one week of work that such device is not long effective and needs replacement. Then they opt to continue their work without any such device or its replacement which is just costly and beyond their financial capacity. Thus, all of them are in open interaction with the acid and its effects on their body... Such interaction or exposure constitutes the hazardous part of their occupation.... Most child workers are stunted in the physical growth, their heights and weights do not correspond to their ages. They are thin and pale, they look as if they lack blood. They easily get common illnesses like fever, cold and cough.
P60 daily, P500 monthly or unpaid family members
The children work for 5 to 6 hours daily, from 5 in the morning until 9:30 and then from 2 to 4 in the afternoon... Many work all days of the week....Many are wage workers, some earn a daily wage of P60, others are involved in a "tersyahan" which garners a total of P1,500 and in which each participant receives a monthly income of P500. The rest are unpaid as they are part of their respective families, the fathers or the parents of which are the only ones considered as workers by the farm owners.
Many are losing their future
Many of the child workers have stopped their schooling. Some have finished their grade six, others have completed only grade two, three or four and still others have not stepped on school floors. Child labour has put them out of their school and has thus reduced, if not abolished, their chances for a better future.
For further information:
Kamalayan Development Foundation, Inc.
129, West Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines
Phone : 929 7241 Fax: 928 9220