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Child Domestic Workers Essay

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Child Domestic Workers in the Philippines

Introduction

“I wake up at 3am to water the plants, clean the house, go to market, cook, wash the plates, wash the clothes, iron the clothes. I return to the market three times a day. From 5pm to 9pm, they allow me to go to school. When I return, I have to wash the dishes, then I massage both my male and female employer until 1am. I only have two hours to sleep.” This is how a girl from Buikidnon, Philippines described her experience with child labour to Anti-Slavery International researchers. She is a former child domestic worker who entered domestic work at nine years old, enduring her employer’s abuse.

Children are considered the future of our countries, with their own rights, especially to …show more content…

In many cultures, domestic work is seen as safe. It is even seen as normal that young girls enter into domestic work, as it is useful preparation for their later life when they will look after their own home. With suitable working conditions, usually seen as better than their current living situations at home, and better opportunities, especially for education, the girls enter into domestic work with high hopes. However, this is often not the case and child domestic workers are instead subject to exceptionally long days, unsatisfactory living conditions, a lack of education (even if they were previously promised it) and sexual and physical abuse. In the Philippines, domestic work can even be a lure to entice these girls across borders and into worse forms of labour, such as prostitution.

In 2012, the ILO produced Global Estimates on Forced Labour. This report shows that 17.2 million children are in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer and that 65.1% of all child domestic workers are below 14 years with 7.4 million aged 5 to 11 and 3.8 million aged 12 to 14 (International Labour Organization, 2013). The average entry age for this work is between nine and fourteen years of age, with some girls as young as seven. There are more girls under the age of sixteen in domestic work than any other type of work. Because the majority of people entering into these roles are females, it is not viewed as proper work so therefore

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