Voices of children and teenagers working at market places in Ibagué

Child labor is a "socio-economic phenomenon" always present in contemporary societies. This research aims to identify and understand how children currently working at two market places Ibagué construct social representations of the practice of child labor. It intends to “hear” the voices of children who face this condition concerning the sense of being a working child. To this purpose the starting point was the category of social representations on child labor in order to investigate the conception of work of children themselves. With this, a rights approach was encouraged. With a qualitative methodology including semi-structured interviews to focus groups, it was found that there are mechanisms of legitimation among children that allow child labor to become a reality in their lives. On the other hand, it was clear that lack of a strong presence or materialization of rights by the state, family or society that encourages children to put themselves outside of the markets or the adult logics of survival.