Title: RIGHTS-MEXICO: Legions of Indigenous Children Work Without Pay

By Pilar Franco

MEXICO CITY, May 10 (IPS) - Around 170,000 indigenous children
aged six to 14 work for no wages in rural areas of Mexico, the
'Instituto Nacional Indigenista' (INI) reported Monday.

The INI's National Survey of Employment in Indigenous Zones
found that 87 percent of the 194,184 indigenous children who work
in Mexico are not paid because they work for their parents, other
members of their family or neighbours.

Indigenous people account for 10 percent of Mexico's population
of 96 million. The INI is the office that has determined the
government's policy on indigenous affairs since 1948.

More than 161,000 of the indigenous minors who form part of
Mexico's labour force are involved in agricultural activities.

Indigenous children in areas like the isthmus of Tehuantepec in
the southern state of Oaxaca, Tarahumara in the northern state of
Chihuahua, and the eastern mountains of Puebla responded that they
worked to help their families scrape by.

According to the governmental programme of Integral Attention
to Girls, Boys and Youth in Situations of Risk, more than 1.2
million 10 to 14-year-olds work in Mexico.

Of the total 11.1 million workers registered with the Mexican
Institute of Social Security last year, 29,075 were under 15 years
of age, and 1.4 million between the ages of 15 and 19.

Such figures have been signalled by organisations dedicated to
defending the rights of children as a demonstration of the growing
participation of minors in the formal economy.

National and international laws prohibiting child labour are
dead letter in Mexico, and legislation regulating the conditions
in which minors work is simply ignored, said Rebeca Pujol, a
researcher at the Metropolitan Autonomous University.

Mexico has around 65 laws and rules which contain, in a
scattered and unsystematised manner, norms referring to the rights
of children, said Pujol.

Legislation protecting children is inefficacious because it is
not enforced, she said, adding that Mexico has no family code
outlining a regime of domestic relations including the rights of
children.

Failure to comply with international conventions on the rights
of minors is due to a range of factors, Pujol pointed out.

More than 42,000 indigenous minors have dropped out of school
to work, mainly because they cannot afford to continue studying,
the INI survey found.

Of the total of 968,300 indigenous children between the ages of
six and 14 in Mexico, 17 percent dedicate their time to household
chores.

Thirty-five percent of those who work do so for less than 15
hours a week, 35 percent work 34 hours and 16 percent work 48
hours a week, according to the survey.

Social ills and marginalisation are worse in the areas of the
country where more than 70 percent of inhabitants speak indigenous
languages, according to the survey.

Mexico has more than 13,000 villages and towns whose residents
are mainly indigenous people. Forty-six percent of inhabitants of
such areas are illiterate, compared to a national illiteracy rate
of 12.4 percent.

Furthermore, around one-third of the indigenous population has
not finished primary school, 51.6 percent of housing in
predominantly indigenous areas lacks electricity, and 90.4 percent
of the housing lacks sewerage services, according to the INI.
(END/IPS/tra-so/pf/ff/sw/99)

Origin: Montevideo/RIGHTS-MEXICO/
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