Bolivia law allows 'children' aged 10 to work

[88m3]

Children aged between 10 and 12 will need to be under parental supervision to be allowed to work
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Bolivia has lowered the legal working age to allow children to work from the age of 10 as long as they also attend school and are self-employed.

The law also permits 12-year-olds to be contracted to work for others. But they need parental authorisation.

Vice-President Alvaro Garcia Linera said the new legislation reflects the needs of Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in South America.

It also sets harsher punishment for violence against children.

The law sets a sentence of 30 years in jail for child homicide.

The measure, approved by Congress earlier this month, was signed into law by Mr Garcia in the absence of President Evo Morales, who was travelling to Brazil.

"President Evo [Morales] intervened to make sure we found a balance between the reality and the law, between rights and international treaties," added Mr Garcia.

'Other needs'
More than 500,000 children already work to supplement the family income in Bolivia according to the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

Children's organisations say most young people who find a job do not want to go back to school
Many work cleaning shoes and selling food in stalls in La Paz and other Bolivian cities. But others face extreme conditions in mines and in agriculture fields.

Mr Morales's socialist government hopes the law will help eradicate extreme poverty in Bolivia.

The International Labour Organisation says children under the age of 15 should not be allowed to work.

But it allows a minimum working age of 14 for developing countries.

"It would have been easier to pass a law in line with international conventions, but it would not be enforced because Bolivia's reality has other needs and characteristics," said Mr Garcia.

The ILO says it is studying the legislation to decide whether it breaches international regulations on child labour.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28360838

 

[DEAD7]

 

[wheywhey]

Children in Bolivia and other South American countries live in prison with their parents when they are incarcerated. There is no system to take care of them.

 

[the cac mamba]

i worked at 12

 

[88m3]

i worked at 12

Children in Bolivia and other South American countries live in prison with their parents when they are incarcerated. There is no system to take care of them.

Do you support this?

 

[The 2020 New Member]

I haven't thought about this issue in a while but this seems fair. Hopefully it's not too good to be true.

 

[the cac mamba]

Do you support this?

article says the ILO says min age should be 15. no, i dont. is this same organization supporting their families? fukk no

itd be ideal if kids didnt have to work but thats not the reality of a lotta situations. in an ideal world these kids would graduate high school and then start working but . i mean of course 10 is young and its uncontrolled so im not gonna be like 'yea i advocate for this'

 

[88m3]

article says the ILO says min age should be 15. no, i dont. is this same organization supporting their families? fukk no

itd be ideal if kids didnt have to work but thats not the reality of a lotta situations. in an ideal world these kids would graduate high school and then start working but . i mean of course 10 is young and its uncontrolled so im not gonna be like 'yea i advocate for this'

It's part of the UN and does more than deal with labor. I mean if I shared your attitude I could say something like "anti-land mine legislation is useless because they aren't providing doctors to people injured by land mines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization#Minimum_wage_law

At the end of the day it's Bolivia's Governments responsibility to fix their economy. Doing so at the expense of children's lives and education even if it would even make a difference in the short term economic situation seems shortsighted at best.

Also the fact that they felt it was necessary in the same law to also set "harsher punishment for violence against children" at the same time should ring alarms.

 

[tmonster]

well children do have all that free time
these people are the true mvp

 

[tmonster]

This is where you and I differ
I understand very much how difficult it is
but with ever increasing processing power and sporadic breakthroughs, I can't understand how clever we can get at creating robots. Tomorrow can result in a paradigm shifting discovery, this has been the trend. I see things and hear of discoveries today that I could not imagine 10 years ago. and your definition of robots is too limited, imagine genetically designing organic lifeforms that are devoid of sentience yet maintain all the amazing neurokinetics, anato-mechanical wonders and intelligence that millions of years of evolution has honed and refined; plus enhancements beyond! That is a robot too. In fact man has been looking to do this to his fellow terrestrial creatures, man included, since civilization begun, but as we sit on the dawn of a new genetic engineering age, we are closer to carrying this out, closer to having moral cake and eating its calorie rich labor layers too.

but I digress, the main point of the thread is a pure thought experiment about a hypothetical world where we DO achieve this and what capitalism would mean in such a place.

 

[Trajan]

It's part of the UN and does more than deal with labor. I mean if I shared your attitude I could say something like "anti-land mine legislation is useless because they aren't providing doctors to people injured by land mines.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Labour_Organization#Minimum_wage_law

At the end of the day it's Bolivia's Governments responsibility to fix their economy. Doing so at the expense of children's lives and education even if it would even make a difference in the short term economic situation seems shortsighted at best.

Also the fact that they felt it was necessary in the same law to also set "harsher punishment for violence against children" at the same time should ring alarms.

Whether they ban it or not...the reality is children work over there. Necessity trumps idealism in this case. At least they are trying to regulate what already goes on.

Kudos to the govt of Morales.

 

[Domingo Halliburton]

what do you expect adults to go down these narrow mine shafts?

 

[unit321]

Well, there's two sides to every coin. At least they have the parents with the child. Or hopefully. It's a poor country.
In the US, a kid can have a paper route (at least back in the day when people read newspapers), and delivered all the papers on his own (unless his parent's drove him around in their car, using more fuel than the money earned by the kid).

 

[babylon1]

like things are any different here in the "land of the free". i see kids working all the time if their parents have a stake in the business

 

[unit321]

like things are any different here in the "land of the free". i see kids working all the time if their parents have a stake in the business

Yes, things are different here. 10 to 12 year old kids with $600 iPads, $100+ Nikes, etc. They don't lift a finger at home, let alone an outside job. They have maids do the house work. No chores.