The 2025 slogan for the World Day Against Child Labor, celebrated on June 12, was “Progress is clear, but much remains to be done: let’s accelerate our efforts!”.
A phrase that invites us to reflect on a persistent and painful reality that crosses the whole world. A reality that, from our Vedruna charism, we cannot ignore, because as a Family we are called to live with an open heart and to commit ourselves to the frontiers where life is most threatened.
Peru, like most Latin American countries, does not escape this problem, which continues to be invisible. Official figures reveal a drama that affects millions of children. According to UNICEF, more than 150 million minors worldwide are forced to work. The International Labor Organization reports that almost 8 million are engaged in domestic work, most of them girls. This gender inequality further aggravates the situation: it is girls who, unfortunately, lead the statistics on child exploitation.
In Peru, it is estimated that more than 700,000 children and adolescents work on the streets and in other informal spaces. If we were to extend this analysis to the whole of the Americas, the result would be scandalous: no country is free from this harsh and painful reality.
And we know that these figures represent just the tip of the iceberg. In rural areas of the highlands and, above all, in the jungle, thousands of minors are not even registered. They are invisible children, whose existence and suffering go unnoticed by the majority. It is estimated that 9% of Peruvian children and adolescents work in dangerous jobs, driven by structural poverty that is directly linked to failed policies in education, health, environment and governance.
Although there are more and more laws that “protect” children, this protection is often no more than a formality. In the meantime, children continue to live on the streets, in transportation terminals, begging or selling products, exposed to multiple risks. Others are victims of severe labor exploitation in agricultural fields, clandestine workshops, coca leaf cultivation and processing.
The Peruvian jungle shows the crudest face of this problem. There, many minors work as rafters, food vendors, in indiscriminate logging, illegal mining or, even more seriously, are sexually exploited and trafficked as if they were merchandise. In these remote areas, where the state is almost non-existent, hundreds of thousands of children have no chance of growing up in dignified conditions.
This situation is compounded by the geographical difficulties in accessing the jungle, which represents almost 60% of the national territory, and the historical neglect by governments, which have prioritized the extraction of natural resources over the welfare of its inhabitants.
The Chapter Document Born Again reminds us that life germinates and is cared for, especially when the dignity of persons is threatened. From the Vedruna charism, the defense of children, the accompaniment of the most vulnerable and the fight against the structural causes of poverty are part of our creative and prophetic mission. We feel called to join the networks of solidarity and to collaborate with other organizations to weave complicity and build bridges that give concrete answers to this social wound.
May the commemoration of this day not be an empty gesture. Let it be an urgent reminder that child labor not only deprives children of their right to education, but also compromises their physical, emotional and mental development.
Let us commit ourselves to be the eyes, ears, voice, feet and heart that denounce this injustice! And that, like Jesus, we place the children at the center of our pastoral and social action.
Sr. Isabel Miguélez, ccv
