Brasília, June 1, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - Instead of books and games, work. At an age when this kind of concern shouldn't exist, thousands of children work like adults. According to the most recent National Residential Sample Survey (PNAD), 2,988,294 Brazilians between 5 and 15 years old are already working.

To remove children from this type of activity, the Ministry of Social Development wants to take care of an additional 100 thousand boys and girls in 2004 through the Program for the Erradication of Child Labor (Peti). The program currently benefits 810 thousand children in 2,606 Brazilian municipalities. The Peti is designed to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, the ones considered dangerous, burdensome, unhealthful, or degrading, such as in charcoal kilns, brickyards, sugarcane fields, and tobacco plantations.

The Peti pays a grant to families with 7-15 year old children engaged in activities of this nature. In return, the family must commit itself to removing the children from work and enrolling them in school. Besides the grants, municipalities receive funds to implant the Expanded Schedule, which offers cultural, athletic, and tutoring activities during the hours when the children are not in the classroom.

According to the Ministry's National secretary of Social Assistance, Márcia Lopes, the intention of the government is to transform the Peti into a major national policy. "Our goal is the erradication of child labor. We want to be able to say in a few years that we have no more children working, because they are in school, in their communities, and are protected, and their parents are working," she said. Lopes therefore asks state and municipal governments to participate. "The more states and municipalities we have as our partners, the fewer working children we shall have," she stressed.

Lopes commemorated the reduction in child labor in recent years. During the period 1995 to 2002, the number of working children and adolescents in the 5-15 age bracket decreased 42.95%, which corresponds to a total of 2,159,670 children and adolescents freed from the obligation to work. "We are certain this will continue," she affirmed.

The secretary presented the program at a world congress on child labor last month in Italy. "One hundred and fifty children from around the world took part and made important declarations, saying that they want to attend school, play, learn a profession, and develop as citizens. It would be very important if world leaders, those responsible for the world's social and economic policies, realized this," Lopes remarked. According to her, during the congress child labor was regarded as the world's great scourge. "We want to end this great scourge," she asserted.

Reporter: Luciana Vasconcelos
Translator: David Silberstein