Daniel Berruezo, Secretary of Labour of Salta
From experiencing child labour to implementing public policies to eradicate it
Since he was seven years old he worked in tobacco crops. Today, Daniel Berruezo is the head of the Rosario de Lerma delegation of the Secretariat of Labour of the province of Salta. His personal experience is present in the responsibilities he assumes to help prevent and eradicate child labour.
4 May 2023
BUENOS AIRES (OIT Noticias) — Daniel Berruezo lives in Cerrillos, in the province of Salta. He worked from the age of seven until he was 22. His and his brother's childhood was marked by working in the tobacco industry when there was not yet the awareness, control mechanisms and policies that today provide other alternatives for families in Salta.
This story is part of a series of six audiovisual testimonies presented by the Country Office of the International Labour Organization (ILO) for Argentina, which were produced as part of the project "Offside: ¡Marcando la cancha!" (Offside: Making the difference!). These stories make visible the problem of child labour, which in Argentina affects 1 out of every 10 children and adolescents under 15 years of age. This figure doubles in rural areas of the country, where poverty and vulnerability levels are higher.
"I used to work in the fields, loading and unloading stoves, helping wherever we were needed and wherever we were needed," Daniel recalled. Together with his brother, they worked every summer to pay for the clothes and school supplies they used during the year. "It was our way of contributing to the family economy," he explained. At that time, for these children from Salta, the main thing was not to fulfill the school chores, but the ones that awaited in the crops. "Until we finished working, we didn't have the possibility to continue with our social life," Daniel said.
He never felt resentment or anger towards his parents. However, he recognizes the traces left by child labour: "Yes, one feels that a little bit of leisure, of playing, of sharing with the children was left behind". Today she has two children and wishes for them a "complete" childhood. When she thinks about her own life, she can understand the reality of many families and empathizes with the situation that thousands of children and adolescents still live: "Those things leave a scar on you".
In 2008 Daniel joined the Ministry of Labour of the province of Salta. "We saw the need for the Lerma Valley area to have a delegation of the ministry so that not only informal labor, but also child labor could be controlled," he said. In that way, he emphasized that his personal experience and knowledge of the industry gave him conditions to lead that space in a high-risk area for child labor, according to ILO and ECLAC data.
he was trained in the prevention of child labour and protection of adolescent labor in the agricultural sector with the project "Offside: ¡Marcando la cancha!", carried out by the Country Office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) for Argentina. The course he attended with agents from all over the country enabled him "to gain access to and begin to learn about different realities in other provinces and other sectors".
Daniel highlighted the achievements made in recent times in the prevention of child labour in the tobacco activity: "I believe that Salta is very advanced in this sense, due to the implementation of the Harvest Gardens carried out by the Tobacco Chamber together with different government agencies of the province, which allow the children to be contained during the harvest". At the same time, he acknowledged that the naturalization of child labour is still a challenge in many areas: "Many people think that work is the best thing that can happen to children".
Currently, Daniel promotes decent work and tries to change the reality of thousands of people through public policies. He dreams that "there will be no more children with obligations that belong to adults" and that they will also receive the necessary support from the State "so that they don't need to do it".