Child labor at its highest level | Article

Mario Luis Fuentes*

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) has published the results of the 2022 National Child Labor Survey. The presented tables present two indicators: the professional status of persons under the age of 18, in which there were: from October to December 2022, a total of 2.33 million people, of which 1.61 million were men and 721,456 were women.

The second indicator is the so-called “broad indicator”, which should be interpreted in accordance with constitutional and generally accepted standards and, on this basis, be used as the basis for the development of public policies and programs aimed at eradicating this unacceptable phenomenon. reality. Taking this measurement as a basis, the data comes to 3.73 million girls and boys engaged in child labor, of which 2.24 million are male and 1.48 million are female.

By age group, it is important to emphasize that during the specified period there were 401,479 girls and boys from 5 to 9 years old in child labor; 1.50 million aged 10 to 14 years; and 1.82 million aged 15 to 17 years. It should also be noted that 1.81 million were engaged in activities not permitted by the Act; 1.59 million performed household work in unsuitable conditions; and 317,940 were engaged in both prohibited activities and household chores under inappropriate conditions.

The figure of 3.73 million is the highest since the October-December 2015 period, when the figure was 3.57 million; in October-December 2017, their number decreased slightly to 3.19 million; but during the same period in 2019, just before the start of forced confinement, which began in March 2020 in our country due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it rose to 3.26 million.

Even more alarming data comes from the tables published by Inegi: of the 28.43 million girls and boys under 18 years of age estimated at the end of 2022 nationwide, a total of 7.5 million had a scholarship to study; the figure is higher than in 2019 and 2017, but similar to that recorded in absolute terms between October and December 2015. This allows us to counter official rhetoric that says scholarships are being awarded to this population “like never before.”

However, despite the increase in the number of scholarships compared to the previous four years, there has been a sharp decline in the number of girls, boys and adolescents receiving other government programs as the Inegi figure stands at 1.23 million; the figure is significantly lower than the 4.59 million people who received programs in October-December 2019; also lower than 4.76 million for the same period in 2017; and even less than the 5.57 million who received one or another government program during the same period in 2015. Thus, as a counterpart, Mexico registered a total of 18.54 million girls, boys and adolescents in 2022, out of a total of 28.4 million who live there. in the country who “have not received government assistance or other support.”

Another fact that should be highlighted among the large amount of information provided by Inegi is that we are also faced with the highest absolute number of girls, boys and adolescents who are out of school. Indeed, according to the cited survey, in the period October-December 2015, this amount was 2.046 million; For the same period in 2017, it was 2.094 million; In 2019, it dropped to 1.99 million; but in 2022 it increased to 2.14 million.

What does all this data mean? The first thing to say is that they cannot be interpreted in isolation, and that their reading must be done in the overall context of the lack of respect for human rights, as documented in the 2022 Mexican Children’s Rights Index. In this regard, it cannot be stressed enough that if the conditions interpreted there can be considered dramatic, in the light of these new results one can feel that we are facing a worsening of the terrible conditions that exist for children in Mexico.

It should not be ignored that, according to ENSAUT, 2022, more than half of girls and boys experience some form of abuse or severe punishment in their homes; and that the number of investigations into sexual crimes, corruption and trafficking of minors, and failure to respect family obligations – all of which are systematized and published by the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System – has increased significantly in the past five years.

A comprehensive reading of this information necessarily leads to a painful conclusion: Mexico is a country that, through public policy, has decided to leave children behind; and in this sense, it can be argued that we are a deficit state because we have been incapacitated since the Convention on the Rights of Girls and Boys came into force in 1991 in our country, and subsequently after the constitutional reform of 2011 in terms of human rights, building the country , suitable for children.

By the appropriate word, it should be understood as nothing less than a country that guarantees the rights of children and adolescents in a universal, comprehensive and progressive manner; but this is not happening because the fact that the number of girls and boys receiving public support has fallen implies a serious and unacceptable violation of the principle of progressivity embodied in Article 1 of our Magna Carta.

Child labor, in addition to being an anomaly in the economic model, is an aberration from a human rights perspective because it represents pressure and unjustified treatment of those who, instead of contributing to the family income, should be fully protected. systems, and this includes social institutions such as the family.

This must be said very clearly. In Mexico, the principle of the best interests of children is violated every day; and the right of priority, that is, to always be considered first in everything that concerns them; the prohibition of allowing any girl or boy to remain behind is simply nullified in the decision-making system of the Mexican state. And all this requires deep institutional reform, but moreover, a revolution in the mentality of people, to include a children’s rights perspective in everything that is done in the public and private spheres.

*PUED-UNAM Researcher