Trabajo infantil y sus consecuencias en la salud de los niños

Child labor and its impact on children's health

Estimado editor,

Los niños y adolescentes forman parte de la fuerza laboral desde la
antigüedad y aunque actualmente el trabajo infantil es reconocido
como una actividad que atenta contra sus derechos y su salud, se
estima que para 2020, 160 millones de niños estaban trabajando,
especialmente en África. ¹ En Colombia el trabajo infantil está
permitido a partir de los 15 años por el Código de la Infancia y la
Adolescencia; ² sin embargo, según los datos de la Gran encuesta
integrada de hogares (GEIH por su sigla en español) realizada en
2022 por el Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística,
para diciembre de 2022 la población infantil trabajadora era de 369
mil niños y adolescentes entre 5 y 17 años, de los cuales 55%
(206 000) se encontraban en áreas rurales y 69.5% eran varones
(257 000). ²

Dear Editor:

Children and adolescents have been part of the workforce since ancient times and although child labor is now recognized as an activity that violates their rights and puts their health in danger, it is estimated that 160 million children were working in 2020, especially in Africa.¹ In Colombia, child labor is allowed from the age of 15 by the Code of Childhood and Adolescence.² However, according to data from the Gran Encuesta Integrada De Hogares (Large Integrated Household Survey or GEIH by its Spanish acronym) conducted in 2022 by the National Administrative Department of Statistics, as of December 2022 the working child population was 369 000 children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years of age, of which 55% (206 000) were located in rural areas and 69.5% were boys (257 000).²

Letter to the editor

Luís Ignacio López-Michelena1

1 Universidad El Bosque - Faculty of Medicine - Bogotá D.C. - Colombia.

Open access

Received: 05/08/2023

Accepted: 18/09/2023

Corresponding author: Luis Ignacio López Michelena. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad El Bosque. Bogotá D.C. Colombia. Email: lilopez@unbosque.edu.co.

Keywords: Child Labor; Public Health; Pediatrics; Occupational Medicine; Occupational Exposure (MeSH).

Palabras clave: Trabajo infantil; Salud pública; Pediatría; Medicina ocupacional; Exposición ocupacional (DeCS).

How to cite: López-Michelena LI. Child labor and its impact on children's health. Rev. Fac. Med. 2024;72(2):e110450. English. doi: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v72n1.110450.

Cómo citar: López-Michelena LI. [Trabajo infantil y sus consecuencias en la salud de los niños]. Rev. Fac. Med. 2024;72(2):e110450. English. doi: https://doi.org/10.15446/revfacmed.v72n1.110450.

Copyright: Copyright: ©2024 Universidad Nacional de Colombia. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, as long as the original author and source are credited.

Child labor is found in all economic sectors, but especially in the agricultural and domestic work sectors.1,3 While national (Resolution 2400 of 1979)4 and international standards (Conventions 138 and 182 of the International Labour Organization)5,6 state that children cannot perform hazardous work, child labor conditions around the world show an unsafe exposure profile. Worldwide, working children are exposed daily to chemical substances, physical hazards (ionizing radiation, vibrations), biomechanical risk factors (manual handling of loads, inadequate and prolonged postures), and occupational accidents. These occupational hazards can affect their physical and mental development, compromise their health in adulthood, and cause early impairment of their occupational capacity, which in turn has a negative socioeconomic impact on nations with high rates of child labor.1,7-9

It has been reported that half of the world’s occupational accidents in children and adolescents occur in the agricultural sector.9 In addition, several studies have demonstrated the negative effects of work on children’s health. For example, Arcury et al.,10 in a study of 202 “farm” boys and girls working on farms in southern United States, found high percentages of dermatological (44.1%), musculoskeletal (42.6%), heat stroke (45.5%), and trauma (26.2%) injuries. In Colombia, Torres-Tovar et al.11 reported the presence of children and adolescents in labor activities in rice, coffee, sugarcane and cotton crops, finding high rates of occupational accidents with serious consequences for their health and development, mainly amputations of the limbs.

On the other hand, mental health problems appear early in the working child population. For example, it has been reported that children and adolescents working as soldiers and in domestic work may develop psychiatric disorders such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social phobia.12 It has also been described that the rates of physical and sexual abuse in children doing domestic work are high, which is a very disturbing situation if we consider that these activities occur mostly in family contexts.12

Undoubtedly, child labor poses an ethical problem for the health, economic, and political authorities of nations, but the actors involved (parents and/or legal guardians, employers, and authorities) cannot continue to tolerate this form of work that violates the rights of children and adolescents. Even though social sanctions against child labor are becoming increasingly frequent, actions must also be taken by the academia to guarantee the effective protection of this population.

Mr. Editor, it is necessary to make it clear that writing, documenting, and doing research on child labor should never be perceived as a validation of this type of work. On the contrary, providing written evidence of this problem is our responsibility as adults and academics, and it is also a way of giving a voice to all children and adolescents who are subjected to the worst forms of labor in the country and in the world on a daily basis. There is no denying that we are far from achieving the Sustainable Development Goal8,7, which aims to eradicate all forms of child labor worldwide by 2025,8 but failure to act, censorship, and tolerance of this practice moves us further away from this goal.

Conflicts of interest

None stated by the author.

Funding

None stated by the author.

Acknowledgments

None stated by the author.

References

1.International Labour Office Organizatión (ILO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward. New York: ILO, UNICEF; 2021.

2.Colombia. Congreso de la República. Ley 1098 de 2006 (noviembre 8). Por la cual se expide el Código de la Infancia y la Adolescencia. Bogotá D.C.: Diario Oficial 46446; november 8 2006.

3.Colombia. Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE). Boletín Técnico. Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares (GEIH). Módulo de Trabajo Infantil (MTI). Octubre – diciembre 2022. Bogotá D.C.: DANE; 2023 [cited 2023 Aug 3]. Available from https://bit.ly/3JiTm4a.

4.Colombia. Ministerio de Trabajo y Seguridad Social. Resolución 2400 de 1979 (mayo 22). Bogotá D.C.; May 22 1979.

5.Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT). C138 - Convenio sobre la edad mínima, 1973. Ginebra: OIT; 1973.

6.Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT). C182 - Convenio Sobre las peores formas de trabajo infantil, 1999. Ginebra: OIT; 1999.

7.Santana VS, Kiss L, Andermann A. The scientific knowledge on child labor in Latin America. Cad Saúde Pública. 2019;35(7):e00105119. https://doi.org/c8p7.

8.Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT). Estimaciones mundiales sobre el trabajo infantil: Resultados y tendencias 2012-2016. Resumen Ejecutivo. Ginebra: OIT; 2017.

9.Ramos AK. Child Labor in Global Tobacco Production: A Human Rights Approach to an Enduring Dilemma. Health Hum Rights. 2018;20(2):235-48.

10.Arcury TA, Arnold TJ, Quandt SA, Chen H, Kearney GD, Sandberg JC, et al. Health and Occupational Injury Experienced by Latinx Child Farmworkers in North Carolina, USA. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019;17(1):248. https://doi.org/gthc2d.

11.Torres-Tovar M, Helo-Molina DS, Rodríguez-Herrera YP, Sotelo-Suárez NR. Child labor and agricultural production in Colombia. Rev. Fac. Med. 2019;67(4):573-80. https://doi.org/mrfp.

12.Lopez-Michelena LI. Efectos en la salud causados por el trabajo infantil. Una revisión desde la medicina del trabajo. Rev. Cuban. Salud Trabajo. 2023;24(1):e375.