Categories

Dependent workers

This category is made of groups of children and teenagers that work in domestic places. They are children that help their parents or another person, working in their shops, stalls or workshops. They do not have contracts and most of them do not earn money also they work all day long. This category of work is very hard to identify and to quantify since it often takes place in a closed place, socially, culturally and legally hidden.

Another part of this category is made up of children working at other families' places. These families employ children to do all home tasks like washing, cleaning, cooking, ironing and watching after the children. Most of the children involved in this kind of work are girls recently arriving from the countryside. The adaptation process to urban life is hard for these girls used to a very different lifestyle. Moreover, the majority works "bed inside" (which means they sleep where they work), which raises the isolation and facilitates all types of exploitation. Many of these workers do not have holidays or even time off. They sometimes go back to their villages during the harvest but these will be as many unpaid days. The lack of transparency of these kinds of works worsens the situation preventing from actions in case of exploitation that could go until slavery with violence problems or discrimination.

Independent workers

The independent workers are the NATs who get out on the streets to make a job to survive or help their families with the basic needs. Some children start working when they are 6 years old, but most of them are between 10 and 13 years old. Girls are less numerous in this sector. In September 1999, an enquiry realized by the Juana Azurduy centre said there were 915 independent NATs in Sucre.