Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Let Children Play
“Sampaguita” girls, foot shine boys, or simply “tambay ” children are common sights at the streets of urban city here in the
Child Protection Act of 1992 and Republic Act No. 7610 say that the minimum age for general employment is 15 years old. If this is the case, what happened to these street children? They are clearly not fifteen years old, so why are they working? Child Protection Act does have an exception but that can only be applied if these’ children’s work is a family business but selling “sampaguita” and the likes can’t be a family business. So, what happened to these children? What happened to the future of the
One of a government’s jobs is to ensure the future of the next generation, namely, the children. That’s why the Philippine Government created the Child Protection Act that forbids the working of underage children and instead use this stage to study. Unfortunately, this plan does not work on all places, especially in the city where life is hard for a child and their family, to survive. The government with all its many, many plans mostly forgot that there are still street children to care about. A further and firmer implementation of Child Protection Act is necessary. A government agency called Bureau of Women and Young Workers implements all these child labor laws. It’s good to thick that the government created this agency but still, why do street children still exists? The Bureau of Women and Young Workers lacks the necessary resources to execute the Child Protection Act. Inspectors from the Labor Standards Division and the Welfare Division are not sufficient. Also, orphanages with good facilities need to be established to care for these homeless children but for those that still have their parents to depend on, a background investigation is needed. This investigation will determine if parents can support their children and provide a decent if not good basic needs that will include primary education. Children whose parents can still provide will be having parents be given a steadier job to support the family. Children that cannot be supported by their parents should go the orphanages in order to fulfill their basic needs. Nation problems need not to be too complicated, it is the government that made these simple solutions hard to implement but of course, lack of resources can also be a bit of a problem that may arise in this solution, but still, this is another topic that need not be discussed here. This is about poverty after all.
Street children are one of the many things that shouldn’t exist in a country. Sleeping in on a carton box and begging for food in order just to survive in this society can only express the poverty and hard life here in the
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