84,000 children and adolescents, mostly girls, do domestic work in Brazil

About 84,000 children and adolescents aged between five and 17 were performing some type of domestic work in 2019, says a study prepared by the National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor based on data from the Pnad (National Household Sample Survey) Continuous Yearly.

They worked mainly as caregivers for other children (48.6%) and performing domestic services (40.3%).

Since 2016, when the group first analyzed data on this type of work, the number of child and adolescent domestic workers has dropped by 22%. From 107.5 thousand in 2016 to 83.6 thousand in 2019.

Katerina Volcov, executive secretary of the Forum for the Eradication of Child Labor, says the face of child domestic work reflects what she considers the colonial way and the slavery legacy of domestic reproductive work.

“Child labor reproduces the gender imbalance, that these roles are destined for women.”

Domestic child labor is mainly female and black, reproducing, at the same time, the gender imbalance pointed out by Volcov, and structural racism. In 2019, 85.2% of children and adolescents in these activities were women, and 70.8% were black.

According to the study, 66.2% of child domestic workers were between 16 and 17 years of age, and the majority (63.3%) lived in a household where the head of the household had no education.

The entities also consider child labor when the activity is performed by adolescents. According to article 7, item XXXIII, of the Constitution, minors under the age of 16 cannot work (the exception is professional apprenticeship from the age of 14).

The study shows that children and adolescents dedicated 22.2 hours a week to housework. The average salary was R$ 3.10 per hour. In 2019, the minimum wage was R$998, and the hourly wage was R$4.54.

In addition to the right to childhood, which is violated when the child has to work, this type of obligation can have an effect on the level of education, but, according to Volcov, indicators are insufficient to say how much work interferes with learning.

“Some of them are in school, but we can’t even know if the child is in the appropriate year for their age, or if they’re learning. Education indicators can’t make this relationship either,” he says.

“We know that it causes harm, either because they will not be able to fully exercise their childhood, or for other reasons, such as taking physical risks. Can you imagine a child cooking beans in a pressure cooker?”

According to the study by the National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor, the incidence of unpaid child domestic workers was low compared to the total contingent, but a little higher in some regions. While it was 1.7% in the national average, it was 9.9% in the North region.

The data on which the study is based are from 2019. Almost three years later, in 2022, the forum does not expect the situation to be better. However, data that allow an evaluation are lacking.

“This is a difficulty that we have, which is the lack of updated data, something common in all airlines that violate rights, but this should not prevent us from thinking about public policies”, says Volcov.

For her, the retrospect since 2019 allows us to raise some hypotheses about the conditions of child domestic work today. “The federal government has changed and, since then, there has been a reduction in investments in all social areas”, she says.

Then, the pandemic that started in 2020 worsened several economic indicators, such as food insecurity –33 million people are hungry, according to the Penssan Network (Brazilian Research Network on Food and Nutrition Sovereignty and Security)– and informality at work –39.3 million were in that situation in the quarter ended in August.

“For sure, given this scenario, the number must be higher”, says Volcov. Social vulnerability, according to her, is an important influence for the increase in this type of work.

For Volcov, many families still do not understand that the type of work assigned to sons (and especially to daughters) constitutes child labor. The average family income of 81% of children and adolescents performing child labor is up to 50% of the minimum wage.

“We don’t need to criminalize poverty,” he says. The executive secretary of the Forum for the Eradication of Child Labor defends the need to advance public policies for children and what she calls intersectoriality.

“If a mother had day care available, she wouldn’t need to have a child taking care of other small children,” he says. According to her, many in vulnerable situations see domestic work as a type of opportunity to improve their lives.

“The mother and father send the child to someone else’s house, to become a child domestic worker. The family sees that as an opportunity for her to have a house, food, a hot bath.”