Child Labor in Colombia: A Burden on the Most Vulnerable
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Child labor in Colombia remains a crisis affecting the most vulnerable population. Although data from recent years shows this social scourge is not increasing, it remains stable and primarily impacts children in rural areas.
According to official data, the child labor rate in the country stands at about 2.9%, rising to 6% in rural areas distant from state control.
Child labor: Stealing the future of Colombia’s most vulnerable
Marking the International Day Against Child Labor, observed last Thursday, June 12, it was made known in Colombia that this scourge continues to affect segments of the vulnerable population, especially in rural areas.
In the last three months of 2024, there were 311,000 children under 15 working in Colombia, representing 2.9% of the country’s population in that age group.
The situation worsens in rural areas, where this rate climbs to 6%, double the national average. In this regard, the primary sector where these children work is agriculture.
For these minors, work is not an educational experience nor a way to earn a living, but a condition that compromises their overall development. Understanding the reasons and consequences of this reality is essential for formulating effective policies.
According to the official report published in Colombia, the main reasons motivating minors to work are: liking to have their own money (40.6%), the need to support the family’s finances (30.4%), and contributing to household or education expenses (20.3%).
The truth is that poverty is the main driver of this situation. When a family lacks basic resources, children feel they must contribute, which almost always forces them into work. In rural settings, where family income depends on subsistence farming, this situation becomes even more severe.
Furthermore, as many families in Colombia rely on informal jobs, child labor becomes an “emergency resource” to meet immediate survival needs.
A crisis at the crossroads: Home, school, and rural work
Child labor directly impacts education. In 2024, only 54% of working children attended school regularly; the remaining 46% were outside the educational system. This implies nearly half of these minors are out of school, deepening intergenerational poverty and limiting their future opportunities.
Many of these jobs, especially in rural areas, involve hazardous activities—such as agriculture, using sharp tools (machetes), applying pesticides without protective equipment, or handling chemicals—which endanger children’s physical and psychological health.
Nearly 42% of working minors dedicate 30 hours or more per week to work. In contexts where unpaid domestic work or family caregiving is also required, their workload can exceed reasonable limits, violating their childhood and leaving them almost no free time.
The consequences of all this are clear: educational setbacks for the affected child due to intermittent schooling or dropout, which significantly reduces their educational attainment and, long-term, limit access to better-paying jobs; occupational and physical risks; emotional and psychological harm caused by premature adulthood and potentially stressful work environments; and above all, the perpetuation of the cycle of poverty.
The challenge of detection and raising awareness
Despite the rural dimension of the crisis, its impact on cities is also serious — particularly troubling is the normalization of a reality that is not perceived as harmful by the child or their family.
In Medellin, a study conducted between 2024 and 2025 by the Combos Educational Corporation with 325 working children in central areas shows the problem also persists in urban settings.
Many minors do not recognize themselves as workers, despite performing activities like informal sales, window cleaning, or accompanying adults. Fifteen percent stated they were “not working,” a clear sign of how normalized this situation has become.
In the study’s data, of the total surveyed, 54% were boys and 46% were girls. Many girls performed domestic or caregiving tasks as live-in help, unpaid and mostly invisible work.
Forty percent expressed fear that something bad might happen to them during their workday. Additionally, 29% work between 2 and 4 hours per day, 20% between 5 and 8 hours, and 14% more than 8 hours.
Finally, it is notable that 51% of the minors involved in work were Venezuelan migrants, highlighting migration’s impact on family structure and exposure to child labor.
https://colombiaone.com/
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