1.4 Million Colombian children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years of age worked in 2011, “in order to have their own money or participate in family economic activity,” according to the director of the National Department of Statistics (Dane), Jorge Bustamante, who released the results of a study carried out at the national level.
The investigation revealed that in 2011 some 13% of the child population ( a total of 11.2 million), whereby 856,000 worked in the city and 593,000 in rural areas, mainly household farms; some 23% of them did not attend schools.
Monteria, capital of the department northwest of Córdoba (18.1%), and Bucaramanga, capital of Santander, in the north-east (14.4%) turned out to be the cities where there are the greatest numbers of working children. The lowest index of child labor, rather, was noted in Santa Marta and Sincelejo, on the north coast.
