MANILA –The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has created a module on child labor for the beneficiaries of its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
The department presented the module during the launch of initiatives aiming to decrease child laborers by 1 million by 2025, held at the Occupational Safety and Health Center (OSHC) in Quezon City Thursday.
The module will be discussed with 4Ps beneficiaries during their Family Development Sessions (FDS).
“We will focus on educating poor families about the long-term effects of allowing their children to work at an early age,” Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said in a message delivered by DSWD Protective Service Bureau director Alicia Bonoan.
Taguiwalo said the module will explain to the 4Ps beneficiaries the negative effects of child labor on children and their families and teach them how to combat it in their own homes and communities.
She however stressed the “need for all of us to converge all actions, systems and processes if we want a holistic response that will stand the test of time”.
The social welfare chief noted that the participation of different partners from national government agencies and civil society organizations, both local and international, indicate that they are on the right track.
“The laws that criminalize child labor should be enforced more stringently. We need to rescue children who have become child laborers and help them and their parents build more stable and safer lives,” she said, urging everyone to do his or her part in helping poor people fight child labor.
“Children belong to school. We must help them enjoy the rights that all children should enjoy,” she said.
Meanwhile, DSWD 4Ps director Leonardo Reynoso said the module was designed to guide the Pantawid Pamilya City/Municipal Links and implementers in conducting three FDS sessions to discuss the module, to make them instrumental in putting a stop to child labor.
The FDS is a monthly gathering of Pantawid Pamilya beneficiaries where parents can learn how they can best carry out their roles and fulfill their responsibilities to their children. Attendance is required for the beneficiaries to remain in the program.
In 2015, an average of 9,252 Pantawid Pamilya children beneficiaries were not able to meet the required school attendance because they were working.
“We must unite with the national government and other concerned agencies in their efforts to respond directly to poverty and we must provide an appropriate intervention to put a stop to this social ill of making children work for their family’s needs. These numbers prove that things still need to be done in the campaign against child labor,” Taguiwalo said.