Brazil is on the right track for resolving the country’s nearly chronic child labor problem. According to the representative of Unesco in Brazil, Jorge Werthin, the government is adopting strong measures and creating well-formulated and efficient programs to resolve the problem.
Werthin asserts that the School Grant program is one of the principal reasons for the drop in child labor indices recorded in the National Household Sample Survey (Pnad). “It removed children from their habitual entry into work activities,” he says.
The Unesco representative explains that the Family Grant program was also significant. “This succession of programs was fundamental.”
But Werthin warns that it is necessary for students to do their part. “Students have the obligation to attend class and learn,” he affirms.
Werthin also underscores the importance of parliamentary action. According to him, the Congress denounced the “existence and unacceptability of the situation.”
Finally, he pointed to the role of the media, which, in his view, awakened public consciousness.
“These elements help to keep the indices of child labor down. But the Pnad data should serve to arouse us sufficiently to maintain these low levels,” he concludes.