Sucre Ethique - Child Labour on sugarcane plantaiton in Bolivia

jeudi 1er janvier 2009

This research questioned to what extent child labour in the sugar cane sector in Bolivia can be
categorised as a worst form of child labour, and explored various existing interventions that have
taken place to eradicate children’s work from the sector. Fieldwork was carried out in the sugar
cane regions of Santa Cruz and Bermejo during October and November 2008.

The research makes acomparison between the situation encountered by ILO in 2002 and the current situation, and so therefore IREWOC fieldwork was carried out in the same locations of the 2002 ILO research.

The situation described by ILO is summarised in Box I. The sugar cane regions of Las Gamas and
Chira/Nueva Esperanza in the department of Santa Cruz were visited in October, while the regions
of Arrozales, Porcelana and Campo Grande in the department of Bermejo were visited in November.
The specific locations are described in paragraph 2.3.

The most important aspect of the investigation consisted of interviews that were held with children
and their parents in the research areas. To gain real insight in the way people live and work in the
sugar cane harvest, the researcher lived with the harvester families in the migrant camps in both
Santa Cruz and Bermejo. By spending full days with the families, living the way they live,
accompanying them to the fields and helping them to harvest sugar cane, the researcher tried to
gain their trust.

This way an attempt was made to understand their daily problems and long-term
concerns. Usually, interviews were of an open character ; talking to children while they walked to
the fields or back from school, conversing with adult harvesters while they took a rest during work
or chatting with women while washing clothes. Also, drawings were made with children to
understand their way of looking at their surroundings, as children sometimes find it easier to
express themselves creatively rather than in words. As most interviews were unstructured and
informal it was often the case that more than one child or adult harvester took part in the
conversation.

Besides interviewing the harvester families, conversations were held with plantation
owners, representatives of the Federation of Harvesters, employees of the Ministry of Labour and
NGO workers involved with interventions.

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