Five years in­to the ap­point­ment of a Na­tion­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee for the Pre­ven­tion and Elim­i­na­tion of Child Labour in Trinidad and To­ba­go, not much progress has been made to treat with poli­cies as it re­lates to child labour in this coun­try.

Mean­while, it’s be­com­ing near im­pos­si­ble to tra­verse the coun­try with­out see­ing chil­dren beg­ging on the streets.

Whether it’s mi­grant chil­dren on the high­way in Ch­agua­nas, na­tion­als un­der 18 hus­tling to clean wind­shields in West­moor­ings and in St Au­gus­tine, or chil­dren work­ing in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties opt­ing in­stead of at­tend­ing school to as­sist as a bread­win­ner for their fam­i­lies, child labour con­tin­ues to be an ob­vi­ous prob­lem fac­ing this coun­try.

But with­out up-to-date da­ta on child labour or an ac­tive na­tion­al chil­dren’s reg­istry, the process of get­ting laws to pre­vent cru­el­ty against chil­dren re­mains at a stand­still.

Dur­ing a Joint Se­lect Com­mit­tee (JSC) meet­ing yes­ter­day, mem­bers of the Min­istry of Labour, the Chil­dren’s Au­thor­i­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (CATT), Gen­der and Child Af­fairs in the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), were quizzed on the sta­tus of these poli­cies.

JSC mem­ber Kei­th Scot­land asked, “What’s the sta­tus of that pol­i­cy? How close are we to that? Is it go­ing to be first quar­ter? Last quar­ter?”

Re­spond­ing to some of these ques­tions, Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Labour Na­tal­ie Willis could not give a def­i­nite an­swer.

Willis said, “The de­vel­op­ment of the pol­i­cy is on­go­ing at this time.”

Mon­i­tor­ing and Eval­u­a­tion Co­or­di­na­tor in the Gen­der and Child Af­fairs Di­vi­sion, Makan­dal Cae­sar, said, “I be­lieve that a draft pol­i­cy may be pos­si­ble clos­er to the end of the year.”

While all par­ties saw the need for child labour laws, what was al­so ev­i­dent was that the process has been mov­ing too slow­ly.

So what’s been the keep-back?

In ad­di­tion to hav­ing no up-to-date da­ta on child labour, Chief Labour In­spec­tor Spe­cial­ist Farouk Mo­hammed said the min­istry has been hav­ing trou­ble hir­ing a con­trac­tor.

Mo­hammed said, “We em­barked on a project to en­gage a con­sul­tant to do re­search on child labour to un­der­stand the cir­cum­stances of child labour, which would then feed in­to the child labour pol­i­cy. We tried on three oc­ca­sions be­tween 2020 and 2022 to en­gage a con­sul­tant but we were un­suc­cess­ful in find­ing an ap­pro­pri­ate con­sul­tant.”

Ac­cord­ing to the laws of the land, it is il­le­gal to em­ploy a child un­der the age of six­teen.

This car­ries penal­ties for em­ploy­ers of a fine of $25,000 and three years im­pris­on­ment. For par­ents, the fine is $5,000 if they are found guilty.