El trabajo infantil desde un abordaje de trabajo social en la ciudad de Cuenca

Abstract

This document analyses a social issue that affects some countries and specially Latin America: the child labor. Poverty and social exclusion forces families to involve children in economic activities for cover basic needs. In the Ecuadorian case, a high percentage of children and adolescents are part of workforce, many organizations are focused on eradicate or reduce this problem. In Cuenca, public and private organizations works on this issue with the reduction of the number of working children and adolescents, but the problematic persist. Is well accepted that child labor produces negative consequences in the normal growing of the children and adolescents, slowing down his/her mental and physical develop and undermining basic rights. In Ecuador despite the public policies, that promotes the prevention and eradication of child labor, some social sectors even proposes the regularization of this activity. This topic is complex and responds to a structural problem of society, is fundamental the intervention of a professional social worker as change agent by using standardized methods, guides, techniques or even activating public/privates assistance networks in order to empower families and communities to transform themselves into change agents.