REFLECTIONS ON CHILD LABOR: ABUSE OR SOCIAL CONSCIENCE?

Abstract

Child labor is a complex phenomenon, most of the speeches maintain that the practice of work activities of girls, boys and adolescents is inappropriate because it affects their general state and the proper development of the stage that is passing. In this work, we reflected on the existing positions regarding child labor as mistreatment or generation of social conscience. It is a documentary study where different research works related to the topic, conceptions, discourses and existing policies in the international and national scope were reviewed and analyzed from a critical perspective. Finally, it seemed that the possible abolition of child labor is closer to being a utopia than a reality because, for more rules that are created without guaranteeing equality and social equity, there will always be working children and adolescents in hiding. Only created a legal framework that regulates child labor, including the right to education, recreation, health and decent home, coupled with a true collective consciousness, could think of an activity not only necessary to remove the exploitation of children and adolescent workers, but in one that reinforces the formation of social conscience and that along with other factors, generates citizens.