"Punitive strategies are not adequate for addressing child labour"

BUENOS AIRES (OIT Noticias) — Juan Brasesco played a central role in the management of the Comisión Provincial para la Erradicación del Trabajo Infantil (Provincial Commission for the Eradication of Child Labor - COPRETI) of Buenos Aires. At the time of this interview, he was in charge of its coordination. But beyond this executive role, he has been committed for years to the development, research, planning and intervention around public policies to prevent child labor.

His testimony is part of a series of six audiovisual stories 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!". These stories make visible the problem of child labor, 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.

Brasesco pointed out the importance of having an information system that allows targeting interventions within the framework of the Programa Provincial para la Erradicación del Trabajo Infantil (Provincial Program for the Eradication of Child Labour). "It became a necessity as we went along," he explained. This is how the management portal developed in conjunction with the ILO Argentina's Offside project came about. Within this framework they also promoted the development of collective mapping of child labor, in conjunction with six COPRETI nodes.

The objective of these initiatives was to map, by systematizing information together with the families, the daily factors that may be conditioning factors for the existence of child labour, such as, for example, the distances and barriers to access to educational and health centers, care spaces, among others. According to the referent, the mappings have to do with "looking at the territory and the value chain from the perspective of children, adolescents and the most vulnerable workers".

The management portal is a tool for "greater effectiveness and targeting of policies in critical areas of child labour," Brasesco explained. "Many times we think of solutions that are not adequate. Punitive strategies are not adequate for addressing child labour when it occurs in a family context," he added.

For the official, in a territory where most child labour is inscribed in family subsistence strategies, understanding the dynamics of the problem, without ignoring that it is prohibited by law, implies assuming that prevention is also related "with investments to take care of boys and girls, so that they can attend school, transportation, for example".

In this sense, Brasesco said he was proud of COPRETI's achievements: "We are transforming the lives of boys and girls, of male and female workers. We see how, for the first time, many people have the possibility, through these projects, to know what decent work is.

Offside: ¡Marcando la cancha!

Led by the ILO office in the country and with the participation of a broad institutional network, the project "Offside: ¡Marcando la cancha!" aims to generate knowledge and public policies to eradicate child labour in rural areas of Argentina. The program, which focuses on the garlic, tomato and cotton production sectors in the provinces of Buenos Aires, Mendoza and Santa Fe, is funded by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL).