Next year, the budget to address the problem of child labor in Costa Rica will be officially increased to 375 million colones, through the delivery of a subsidy to people under 18 years of age to boost their entry or re-entry and their continuity in the educational system.

This action was carried out with the signing of an agreement between the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MTSS) and the Mixed Institute of Social Assistance (IMAS) with the aim of protecting minors in child labor, but it is also in line with the actions carried out within the framework of the National Bridge to Development Poverty Reduction Strategy.

This economic incentive will contribute to meeting the basic needs of families with children and adolescents who work due to their condition of poverty or extreme poverty, risk or social exclusion; and it will help them cover study expenses.

The IMAS will be in charge of socially assessing, according to the parameters of extreme poverty or basic poverty, the beneficiaries identified by the Office of Attention to Child Labor and Protection of the Working Adolescent Person (OATIA) of the MTSS.

Among the advantages of the agreement, it stands out that the regionalization of the IMAS will allow a greater approach to families and expand the coverage of the underage working population served. Likewise, it facilitates the allocation and conditional cash transfer in a timely and agile manner.

Child labor in Costa Rica

According to the National Household Survey (ENAHO 2011), in Costa Rica there are more than 40 thousand children and adolescents in child labor, which represents 4% of the population; of this group, 9% perform hazardous work.

According to the USDOL report , Costa Rica is one of the eight countries in the region that presents considerable progress in its fight against child labor and its worst forms. In addition to the implementation of the “Bridge to Development” strategy, among the advances it stands out the updating of its Roadmap “Make Costa Rica a Country free of Child Labor and its Worst Forms” and social programs such as “Casas de la Alegría” which has allowed the extension of services to indigenous boys and girls vulnerable to child labor in areas where coffee is grown, which, like cattle ranching, is one of the activities where hazardous child labor predominates.

It should also be noted that Costa Rica is one of the 27 countries in the region that have been part of the Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Initiative free of child labor since 2014 . Since its accession, the country has taken the opportunity to facilitate the exchange of experiences with other member countries of Central America, with the aim of reinforcing its action in favor of working children and adolescents and the protection of adolescent labor. permitted.