A Child Activity Survey to Capture Data on Child Labour in Belize

Diana Castillo-Trejo

Across the country, you often times come across primary school aged children selling fruits and other produce and you question whether it is child labour. There are traditional cultural factors that are taken into consideration, but the Government of Belize has been working to end child labour in Belize. Director General of the Statistical Institute of Belize, Diana Castillo-Trejo says that the last data showed that child labour is minimal in Belize. She says that a child activity survey is due as it has been ten years since one was conducted.

Diana Castillo-Trejo, Director General, Statistical Institute of Belize

“The labour force survey wouldn’t capture child labour simply because the cut-off point for collecting information on unemployment would be fourteen. So child labour would be persons younger than that. However, we have just had some discussions this week with the labour department about conducting another round of the child activity survey. The last one was done ten years ago in 2013 and that is the survey which would give us more information on child labour. The percentage from the last one was rather small. We saw it was concentrated in industries like agriculture and in certain areas of the country. But that data is ten years old so we are hoping that we can partner with the labour department to do another round of that next year.”