June 12 – The day against child labour

Child labour, or child labor, refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries.

According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labour worldwide, excluding child domestic labour.

Here are some images ..

Children aged 5–14 engaged in child labour (%), by region (1999-2008)

Poor families often rely on the labours of their children for survival, and sometimes it is their only source of income. This type of work is often hidden away because it is not always in the industrial sector. Child labour is employed in subsistence agriculture and in the urban informal sector; child domestic work is also important. In order to benefit children, child labour prohibition has to address the dual challenge of providing them with both short-term income and long-term prospects.

According to the ILO’s latest estimates (2006), the number of child labourers fell by 11 percent globally over the past four years and the number of children in hazardous work has decreased by 26 percent. While this is encouraging, there are still 218 million child labourers worldwide, 126 million of which are engaged in hazardous work.

Unfortunately, I am unable to find the latest statistics on Child labour, however here are some statistics from “Global Child Labour Trends (2000-2004) published by International Labour Organization.(According to ILO there are 165 Million children(Age 5- 15) involved in Child Labour in year 2008)

CHILD LABOUR BY REGION

Children aged 5–14 engaged in child labour (%), by region (1999-2008)

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