Child labor and poverty in Peru's Andean Highlands

Welfare of Peruvian Women and Children, Specifically Children

Poverty is recognized as a multidimensional phenomenon that deprives human beings, especially children, from meeting their fundamental and basic rights, and diminishing their opportunity to achieve their full potential. Child poverty provokes not only present development failures but affects future performance of an individual as what takes place throughout childhood is what shapes the individual's life in adulthood

( UNICEF, 2005)

Aside from all the deprivation a child in poverty faces, some of them, forced by their circumstances, and/or their parents, have to take part in informal economic activities to help support their families: child labor ( Alarcon, 2004)With money in short supply in the Highlands, women are left with little choice but to neglect their children's health and education. Most women simply cannot afford health care or schooling. Women are often left to send their children to work, allowing no time for school and an inescapable dependence on that child's income. Women, lacking education themselves, simply do no recognize the importance and choose to neglect their child's education.

In many cases, children are too far behind for their ages to begin school. According to the national Peruvian education system, children who are more than two years behind in their studies are not permitted to enter into school, leaving them to start jobs or resort to other activities as early as the age of 8. The Peruvian government has refused to acknowledge this prolific problem, leading to the growing number of uneducated children in Peru with no end in sight. Without health care, and education these children have little hope of escaping the poverty and if their own government will no support, who will?

"Children experience poverty with their hands, minds and hearts. Material poverty -- for example, starting the day without a nutritious meal or engaging in hazardous labor -- hinders emotional capacity as well as bodily growth. Living in an environment that provides little stimulation or emotional support to children, on the other hand, can remove many of the positive effects of growing up in a materially rich household. By discriminating against their participation in society and inhibiting their potential, poverty is a measure not only of children's suffering but also of their disempowerment " UNICEF, 2005

Key Words:

Poverty, Poverty Cycle, Child Poverty, Child Labor, Human Development, Peru, Social Policies and Programs, The Shining Path, Peru Government, and Children and Women Living in Poverty in Andean Highlands

Goals and Objectives

Helping the children and women of Andean Highlands is to provide a set of recommendations for a policy action to prevent and eradicate child labor while promoting the general development and well-being of poor children.

To recognize the different human and social-cultural dimensions of poverty that necessitates child labor as well to examine child poverty within the Andean Highlands.

To explore the reality of child labor who work on the streets in order to understand the impact of child labor on the development of both the child and the society;

To evaluate the implications of international polices in the national arena, as well as to analyze current social polices and programs tat the national and regional -- local levels that promote both child welfare and prevention and eradication of child labor.

Analytical Framework

In Peru, especially in Andean Highlands, poverty levels and rates of child labor have risen despite various strategies to alleviate poverty, including a few interventions led by public institutions and/or NGO that specifically target children. The poverty relief strategies have proven to be unsustainable and costly. On one hand they provide momentary relief and do not encourage the individual to be actively involved in her personal development nor that of her children; and lack of allocation of funding and targeting has limited their coverage (Moran, 2003).

Mothers, immersed in poverty, are unable to guarantee their children and adequate standard of living because of poverty, child labor and little or poor schooling have prevent mothers from accumulating capacities and skills that allow mother's to acquire adequate employment. Women are more likely to begin childbearing early and have a larger number of children. The Peruvian birth rate among the poor is five children per household while it is tow in the medium to high income families. With a large Peruvian family the needs are greater and children are affected the most as the lack of sufficient resources leads them to suffer from malnutrition, frequent illness, brain development, and from education. Girls are often affected more as preference for education is frequently given to boys while girls are more likely involved in household work and looking after the younger siblings. To make things worse, some parents induce their children to join the informal workforce which results in the child dropping out of school. The poverty cycle starts all over again with the child becoming young parents

( Moran, 2003, UNICEF, 2005).

Problem Statement

Peru has one of the most inadequate education and healthcare systems in the world. Every effort must be made to continue to promote poverty reduction. In Peru past, social programs repeatedly have failed to create sustainable development within the Peruvian neo-liberal model. The economic expansion experienced by Peru between 1991 and 1997 is factreduced poverty by several points. However, the subsequent 1998 to 2001 recession was a huge step backwards, suggestions that social programs in the 1990's failed to create sustainable development.

The Andean Highlands has among the highest rates of maternal-child mortality and chronic child malnutrition in Peru. Although the government has established primary health care facilities in these Andean Highlands, the indigenous communities do not use them due to distance and poverty combined with language and cultural barriers.

Trends in Peru's economic and social state over the past 15 years

Profitable policies, but largely for the elite. Unfortunately, as the country's economy grew, so did its inequality. This trend is especially evident in contrasting Peru's coastal region with the Andres, with most of the increase in personal income being concentrated in Lima, and other coastal urban areas. This can readily be seen in the luxurious beach clubs to the south of Lima, which epitomize the often fabulous wealth of the Peruvian elites. In contrast, Peru's National Statistics and Information Institute

( INEI) recently reported that rural highlands were the least successful areas in reducing poverty during 2007. Many communities there still practice subsistence agriculture and suffer from extreme poverty; even through the region is rich in mineral resources- Peru's main export.

The significance of this injustice leads to public dissatisfaction, which in turn contributes to the country's instability. Public dissatisfaction with uneven growth was manifested in Toledo's approval ratings, which were the lowest in South America.

Sendera Luminosos ( The Shining Path)

During the 1980s, cultivation of illicit coca was established in large areas on the eastern Andean slope. Rural terrorism by Sendero Luminoso (SL) and the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) increased during this time and derived significant financial support from alliances with the narcotic traffickers.

Economic mismanagement by the Garcia administration led to hyperinflation from 1988 to 1990. Concerned about the economy, the increasing terrorist threat from Sendero Luminoso, and allegations of official corruption, voters chose a relatively unknown mathematician-turned-politician, Alberto Fujimori, as president in 1990. Fujimori implemented drastic orthodox measures that caused inflation to drop from 7,650% in 1990 to 139% in 1991. Faced with opposition to his reform efforts, Fujimori dissolved Congress in the "auto-coup" of April 4, 1992. He then revised the constitution; called new congressional elections; and implemented substantial economic reform, including privatization of numerous state-owned companies, creation of a more investment-friendly climate, and much improved management of the economy. Fujimori fled the country and resigned from office in November 2000. He currently resides in Japan, amid controversy regarding his involvement in corruption scandals and human rights violations during his tenure as President.

Implications for Improvement

Being strategic in breaking the poverty cycle means fostering strategies that encompass coordination of efforts in a more efficient and integrated manner to promote the full capacities of a mother and child. Shifting policy effort to a bottom-up approach with more responsible and active participation of the different social actors allows for more efficient provision of better education systems, nutritional programs for mothers, and children, health care assistance to prevent and eradicate child labor and child poverty.

Limitations

Some public institutions which this leaner contacted for the purpose of this research paper did not agree to provide information on the current polices or programs. This represents a limitation to the study as it creates a barrier for accessing primary data and further evaluation reports. There has not been a national or regional census in Peru since 1993, and all the data is based on statistical projections or small scale studies conducted separately by different public institutions. This creates confusion scenario as statistics do not match among various sources.

Conclusion

Poverty among women and children in Andean Highlands is a complex and widespread phenomenon. Economic and social inequities have widened due to the fact that the benefits of a greater GPD are shared by only 20% of the population, leaving the other 80% far behind ( Save the Children, 2002). The possibility to be and/or remain poor is linked to the geographical living area and the cultural background. People who live in rural areas have more than twice the tendency to be .and/or / remain poor ( INEI, 2005 ). For example in 2001, from the 23% of the national estimated population that resided in the Andean rural areas, 83.4% were poor; while Lima, the biggest city in Peru held 40% of the total national population and had 32.3% of them living in poverty ( INEI, 2005). The migratory patterns in the country are Andes / Jungle to Coast and/or rural to urban which means that the population is the most isolated and deprived areas of the country. At this time it is important to establish that there are no welfare programs or unemployment benefits systems implemented in the country. This leads to increase of the vulnerabilities of the populations to become economically poor. Poverty diminishes children's present and future living standard, and has an inclusive and productive performance within a society ( UNICEF, 2005). Child welfare needs to be recognized and addressed not as priority but as a necessity in the process of developing strategies to combat poverty in a more effective way. Helping children to develop to their full potential fosters a self-reliance grow and lessons future dependency on social programs .