Child Labor Still Widespread in Italy
A minor working. Photo: X/ @YakoutDiscount
June 12, 2024 Hour: 9:24 am
The new data were released ahead of the World Day Against Child Labor, which is celebrated every June 12 since 2002.
On Wednesday, Save the Children released a report showing that child labor is still widespread in Italy, although largely undetected.
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An estimated 336,000 minors aged 7-15 have had at least one working experience in their life, equal to about 1 out of 15 children of that age in the country.
Based on 82,000 interviews with teens living in Italy, the new data were released ahead of the United Nations’ World Day against Child Labour, which is celebrated every June 12 since 2002. Some 160 million minors are believed to be in child labor globally, according to the UN; although still high, their number dropped by some 85.5 million from 2000 to 2020.
In Italy, the minimum age for work is 16, and no public statistics on child labor are available. Marking the event, Italian President Sergio Mattarella urged society to create “an environment in which girls and boys can grow up healthy, educated, and free.”
“In order to do away with the deep-rooted causes of the phenomenon, and protect the rights of the child, we need an approach capable of engaging governments, organizations, companies, communities and individuals,” Mattarella said.
SCHOOL DROPOUT
The Save the Children study suggested a strong link between child labor and early school-leaving in later years, which is a phenomenon that plagues Italy at a rate (11.5 percent) above the European Union average (9.6 percent), according to the latest available data by Eurostat.
It also stated that, among children aged 14-15 who admitted to doing or having done working activities, some 27.8 percent carried out jobs “detrimental to their education and psychophysical well-being.”
Such jobs were deemed as harmful because “carried out at night, or during school time, or because the respondents themselves perceived them as dangerous,” the authors explained.
At least 53.8 percent of minors involved in work started after the age of 13, while 6.6 percent before 11; also, some 65.4 percent of them were male, and 5.7 percent had migrant origins.
POVERTY AND EXCLUSION
According to various experts separately interviewed by the same authors to analyze the findings, the root causes of child labor were family poverty and socio-educational contexts.
This matched the children’s answers: the main reasons for them to work were “to have money for themselves” (56.3 percent), and “the desire or need to support their parents” (32.6 percent).
Finally, the authors urged a public debate on “the intergenerational transmission” of poverty and social exclusion in Italy. “The education level of parents — especially of the mother — is significantly associated with child labor,” they said.
Source: Xinhua
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