Trabajo Infantil en Colombia

Abstract

The world today struggles with a social problem, it is planned to identify the causes and consequences of labor exploitation in children, thus seeking alternatives that reduce or can eradicate the damage that this type of activity does to children and adolescents, especially in those with limited resources and those with a high degree of vulnerability, who are the most affected. The need leads to searching from an early age and it is there that the sense of childhood begins to be lost, that of being a happy child. Child labor produces illiteracy or educational backwardness, chronic diseases, violence, psychological and moral effects, which results in poverty. The objective is to determine what were the causes and consequences that children and adolescents and their families face in the face of this scourge that is seen daily and what position the government has regarding this problem in order to deal with the situation. Applied models that have shortcomings should be improved and ideas oriented towards quality in childhood should be implemented. In Colombia, child labor rates continue to be alarming and represent a serious violation of children's rights. The International Labor Organization defines child labor as that which "deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and is detrimental to their physical and psychological development" that is, the phenomenon occurs when the work activities of children impair their physical and emotional development. Colombia has clear legislation in this regard. Article 35 of the Code for Children and Adolescents sets 15 years as the minimum age to work, and clarifies that adolescents between 15 and 17 years of age require authorization from the labor inspector or, failing that, from the local territorial entity, and they must have the protections enshrined in the political constitution, the labor regime and regulations that complement it; and in the international conventions ratified by Colombia.