Alicia weaves through El Alto’s stalled traffic under a blazing sun, hawking colourful woven flowers to grumpy drivers and lovers.
With luck, the 12-year-old and her mother will together muster $18 by day’s end, all the while keeping watch over her younger brother and sister, ages 8 and 6.
“It is difficult for my mother to sell alone because she has to look after my siblings,” said Alicia, who normally goes to school in the afternoon but is using her vacation to help her mother by working the entire day. As her siblings sleep, her mother knits the flowers that Alicia sells.
While most of the world is trying to diminish child labour, Bolivia has become the first nation to legalise it from age 10. Congress approved the legislation early this month, and Vice-President Alvaro Garcia signed it into law on Thursday in the absence of President Evo Morales, who was travelling.
The bill’s sponsors say lowering the minimum work age from 14 simply acknowledges a reality: Many poor families in Bolivia have no other choice than for their kids to work. The bill offers working children safeguards, they say.
“Child labour already exists in Bolivia and it’s difficult to fight it. Rather than persecute it, we want to protect the rights and guarantee the labour security of children,” said Sen. Adolfo Mendoza, one of the bill’s sponsors.
Under the legislation, 10-year-olds will be able to work as long as they are under parental supervision and also attend school. It sets 12 as the minimum age for a child to work under contract. They also would have to attend school.
“To eliminate work for boys and girls would be like eliminating people’s social conscience,” Mr. Morales said in December in support of unionised young workers who marched on Congress to prevent it from ratifying a bottom-end work age of 14.
“The President gave us his support. He also worked as a boy, herding llamas,” Rodrigo Medrano, head of the Union of Boy, Girl and Adolescent Workers, told The Associated Press. He said there is no alternative in a society where half the population is poor.
Jo Becker, the children’s rights advocacy director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, disagrees.
“Bolivia’s move is out of step with the rest of the world,” she said. “Child labour may be seen as a short-term solution to economic hardship, but is actually a cause of poverty.”
