Adolescent and child labor: the challenges of inter-sector work and the role of the Unified National Health System

This paper presents the role of the public health sector and the intersectorial action in the issue of the child labor, considering the experience of the Worker’s Health Study Center of the State Department of Health in the Bahia State Program for the Child Labour Prevention and Eradication, period 1997 to 2001. Some aspects are pointed out, as the child labour invisibility to health services, the fragmentation between surveillance and health care, the different compliance and participation of the institutions in the program, the relevance of the role of communitary and non-governamental organizations on the management and supervising public policies. It is concluded that is necessary to build the concept of child labour as an object of public health, and to improve intersectorial planning practices by means of creating empowering and sharing spaces and joining interests, learnings and practices from the various organizations.

Child labour; Intersectorial action; Worker’s health; Public policies