The President of National Commission Against Child Labour (KNTI) Aniceto Leto Soro said the commission has started conducting a national research program to determine the number of child currently working in Timor-Leste.
He added that KNTI was established in 2014 but its activities have not been adequately implemented because it needs statistics that will enable them to develop a national plan of action against child labour in the country.
“We are working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and with the National Directorate of Statistics of the Ministry of Finance to undertake child labor research across the country,” said the President of KNTI in Kaikoli, in Dili.
He added the research project will be undertaken across the whole territory because most child labour takes place in the rural areas, no in the urban centers.
He said the results of the study will be published shortly and that research has already been conducted in the municipalities of Baucau, Ermera and Aileu. The study is looking in particular at children involved in dangerous work, child rights and on the types of labour that cannot be undertaken by children.
Meanwhile the Director of the Youth Communications Forum (FKJ) Madalena da R. Pinto Baptista said child labour takes place in Timor-Leste because dire circumstances force them to and that to end child labour in the country, first social problems need to be addressed, including poverty.
“We speak to parents and they say their children need to work as well to help cover basic needs. The parents don’t have jobs,” she said.
She said based on FKJ’s outreach data, in 2015, it identified more than 223 children selling products on the side of the city’s streets.
