Untitled - Terre des Hommes

They work with machetes, exposing them to a high risk of injury and receive blows and fractures
from falling fruit, which can be fatal. They are also exposed to insect, snake and scorpion bites and
attacks by wild animals. 145
The CNNA explicitly forbids the use of children for the harvesting of Brazil nuts, as it considers the
activities involved to be dangerous and unhealthy. However, a study by the Ministry of Labour,
Employment and Welfare, in collaboration with UNICEF and HIVOS (2009), indicates that 49% of all
children from seven years onwards were involved in some kind of activity related to the collection of
Brazil nuts. Seventy-three percent of adolescents and 60.9% of children between 10 and 13 years old
were engaged in this labour. Furthermore, this study states that 4600 children who accompany their
parents to the barracks end up working during the harvest. Ninety-eight percent of the Brazil-nut
harvest is exported, making this industry heavily dependent on shifts in international demand and
prices.
Mining
Mining takes place in the least developed areas of the country: northern Amazonia, Oruro and
Potosí. 146 Children make up almost 50% of population living in these areas and about 10% of the
38,600 people currently working in the mines. 147 Children younger than twelve are often paid in kind;
in exchange for a percentage of the load or the remainder of the extracted minerals. Adolescents can
earn Bs200, or roughly €20 per month, constituting, on average, 14% of the total domestic income.
There are no regular inspections of working conditions or employment practices in the mines.
There are more than 6500 children working in the mining sector in and around Potosí; an estimated
1200 to 1500 inside the mines. Poverty is the main contributing factor to child labour in the mines.
Most of the children are migrants from the countryside, with low levels of education and few
alternatives to work; their parents also suffer a lack of employment opportunities. 148 About 800
children and adolescents work at the Cerro Rico mines. The majority of them are from mining
families going back generations. 149 Children generally do not go to school due to a lack of access to
educational materials, large distances to school, malnutrition, abuse and discrimination by teachers
and other students and the many possibilities of work in and around the mines.
Mining families are large; contraception is rarely used in this macho culture. The father often dies at
young age from occupational illnesses, such as silicosis, leaving the older children to take on the
responsibility of providing for the household. Some parents see mining as a way of giving their
children a skill to rely on in the future, while others view it as dangerous and regretful, but see no
other choice for their children.
The older boys will work alongside their fathers and the other men in the mines, while the younger
children, from the age of six, carry rocks and tools out of the mines or work on the edge of the mines
collecting rocks. Sometimes children from the ages of 8 to 12 are sent down small mine shafts to carry
tools, extract minerals and to set up and explode dynamite. Boys and, in some instances, girls move
the full mining carts out of the mines or carry the heavy loads on their backs inside the mines without
carts, taking it to be processed.
Young boys, girls and women are primarily employed in the processing stage, which is largely done
by hand, with the exception of the largest mines. The tool used for processing is a crescent-shaped
145
Silvia Escobar dne Pabon (El Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario(CEDLA))
146
Silvia Escobar dne Pabon (El Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario(CEDLA))
147
Patricia Benvenuti (UNICEF)
148
Roberto Fernandez (KinderNotHilfe)
149
Ana Maria Janco (CARE)
58