Chihuahua— Even though child labor in crop fields is illegal, El Diario was able to verify that they have children working in the agricultural area located on the Meoqui-Rosales and Congregación Ortiz-Delicias highway, 70 kilometers from the city of Chihuahua, just one hour from the Historic Center of the capital.
The images were captured last Monday around 12:00 p.m. after a tour of the aforementioned place, where several people (mostly adults) and a 9-year-old girl with a pink hat are observed. denim pants and a light blue blouse with the image of Elsa and Anna, characters from the movie ‘Frozen’.
On the site you can only see crops, a little trees and a white house; In the middle of those hectares, the little girl can be seen picking onions, one of the crops that, according to other day laborers, is in season, like tomatoes and chili peppers.
What does the Federal Labor Law say?
This occurs despite the fact that, starting in 2012, the Federal Labor Law included the catalog of prohibited jobs for girls, boys and adolescents in order to safeguard their physical and emotional integrity in the face of the danger that these tasks represent.
One year after this decree, the Government of the Republic (exactly in June 2013) created the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor and Protection of Adolescent Workers of Permitted Age in Mexico.
Journalistic data published in this same publishing house in August 2022 revealed that Chihuahua was listed as one of the five Mexican states in which the United States Department of Labor would invest a million-dollar fund to reduce forms of labor exploitation such as child labor. detected by the US authorities.
The aid fund was 7 million dollars for the five states indicated: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Guerrero and Oaxaca, where more than 145,000 people are employed, according to data compiled in the document “Findings on the worst forms of of child labour”, released in 2021.
Said report also states that in Guanajuato they detected 90 children doing child labor, while in the state of Chihuahua they identified 24 minors of indigenous descent who worked in agriculture.
minor workers
On June 12, the World Day against Child Labor is commemorated, with the aim of raising awareness about the magnitude of the phenomenon and joining efforts to eradicate it.
According to the United Nations, many children around the world engage in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them.
However, children are considered workers when they are too young to work or when they participate in dangerous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development.
In the least developed countries, just over one in four children (aged 5-17) is engaged in work that is considered detrimental to their health and development.
According to this same source, Africa ranks first among the regions, both for the percentage of children in child labor (one fifth) and the absolute number of children in child labor: 72 million. Asia and the Pacific rank second, with 7 percent and 62 million in absolute terms.
With regard to work in agricultural fields, the Federal Labor Law prohibits the employment of minors and even classifies it as a crime, imposing a prison sentence ranging from one to four years and fines of 250 to 5 thousand times the Unit of Measurement and Update (UMA).
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Unicef classifies as the worst forms of child labor slavery, forced recruitment, prostitution, trafficking, the obligation to carry out illegal activities or exposure to any type of danger.
Likewise, the International Labor Organization (ILO) points out that these activities can produce immediate or future negative effects for the physical, mental, psychological or social development of the child and prevents the full enjoyment of their human rights; in particular, it hinders their attendance or retention in school and reduces their performance in it.
In a document from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the agency reveals that this is a multifactorial social problem that, although it is generally associated with contexts of poverty, also depends to a large extent on employers who demand a hand labor of minors under arguments such as the reduction of their production costs, or that girls, boys and adolescents are more agile or quick for certain manual tasks.
In addition, it points out that there is no single solution to eliminate child labor and that the participation of the different social actors must be sought to find and establish alternatives that address the phenomenon in a comprehensive and transversal manner.
They hold the authorities accountable
The president of the State Human Rights Commission (CEDH), Néstor Armendáriz, pointed out that the location of minors working in crop fields is worrying, because they are exposed to various risks. He mentioned that the authorities are responsible for acting and demanding that the bosses do not allow the children of the day laborers to be at work, this after the image of a minor was captured in a crop field.
He added that there is an inter-institutional committee that analyzes the situation of child labor, but it has not been in session for about a year, so there is no recent information on the situation of minors in the crop fields in case they have been located.
For its part, the Ministry of Labor, through its Social Communication area, pointed out that since the beginning of the current state administration, more than 190 inspections have been carried out in rural areas in various municipalities.
During these visits, it is checked that there is no work for people under 18 years of age, the general working conditions, as well as the special obligations of field employers stipulated by the Federal Labor Law, such as access to health services, education, safe transportation and comfortable living areas.
It added that in those cases where minors are found who are not accompanied by a relative, the state agency carries out the corresponding procedure established in numerals 16 and 17 of the Inspection Protocol on Safety and Hygiene and General Conditions of Work and Training and Training for Work Centers with Agricultural Activities.
Added to these actions, in the search for inter-institutional alliances for the implementation of joint actions aimed at preventing and eradicating child labor, an approach was achieved with World Vision, an assistance and development organization for people in situations of greater vulnerability, which It has been operating in Mexico for 40 years.
