Street children

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY -- I saw a television documentary last week about this guy who made it his mission to help street children. At his own expense, he raised, fed and sent to school scores of children in Manila, with help from good Samaritans.

           

At the end of the documentary, the man said he was still trying to find a place for some of the children as the owner of the apartment who agreed earlier to rent his house where the children could stay suddenly backed out.

           

Like the unfortunate kids, there are thousands of other street children in this country abandoned by their parents who are existing at deplorable conditions scrounging for food from garbage bins to begging along the streets to survive.

           

Samaritans like the guy I saw on TV are needed to help these youngsters. But then, the responsibility should fall squarely on the government particularly the Department of Social Works and Development whose use of the CCT (conditional cash transfer) program for supposedly poor families had been questioned for a alleged anomalies like misuse of funds intended for poor families or children

           

Reports have it that rich families and those favored by politicians and government officials have been selected as CCT beneficiaries.

           

There has to be stringent measures to make sure that the CCT funds would be used to alleviate the suffering and poverty of marginalized  families particularly children. 

           

It is a welcome development that Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetanohas called on government to strengthen the National Child Labor Committee to effectively protect and promote rights of the country’s rising number of street children who are most vulnerable to exploitation and child labor.

A presidential fiat would be a fitting gesture after the observance of the World Day Against Child Abuse last June 12, since child labor is one of the worst forms of child abuse.

           

“Children should be given the opportunity to exercise their right to live a life free from forced labor. If it is within our power to see to it that this right is upheld, then it would be an injustice not to exert all possible efforts to do so,” the senator said in a statement emailed to this paper.

           

The senator also said that there is an urgent need to increase the NCLC’s budget to match the challenges facing the Philippines vis-à-vis the 2015 global target to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.

           

“We have to empower agencies that will help us meet the goal of reducing child labor by at least 75% by year 2015,” he said.

           

The minority leader also urged the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Social Welfare and Development to launch a joint nationwide education campaign aimed at creating higher awareness towards child labor and exploitation in order to protect the vulnerable children against those who exploit their innocence.

           

“We need to see more government agencies checking on industries that hire child laborers and in communities where parents are known to force their children to seek employment,” he said.

           

“Government must also be prepared to support both the rehabilitation of the children and the parents,” he added.

           

Cayetano has already raised the alarm over a report of the International Labor Organization that stated that a total of 2.4 million child laborers ages 9-17 years old are employed in the Philippines.

           

“Despite being a signatory to various ILO Conventions that prevent child labor, the Philippines is known to have one of the largest number of child laborers in the world,” he said.

           

Indeed, the government has to find ways to alleviate poverty in the country and provide more opportunities for these street children’s parents to be able to provide for themselves and their families.