The International Labor Organization (ILO) has estimated that 250 million
children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries—at
least 120 million on a full time basis. Sixty-one percent of these are in Asia,
32 percent in Africa, and 7 percent in Latin America. Most working children in
rural areas are found in agriculture; many children work as domestics; urban
children work in trade and services, with fewer in manufacturing and
construction.
It Depends:
Child
labor ranges from four-year-olds tied to rug looms to keep them from running
away, to seventeen-year-olds helping out on the family farm. In some cases, a
child's work can be helpful to him or her and to the family; working and
earning can be a positive experience in a child's growing up. This depends
largely on the age of the child, the conditions in which the child works, and
whether work prevents the child from going to school.
Children
who work long hours, often in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, are exposed to
lasting physical and psychological harm.
Working
at rug looms, for example, has left children disabled with eye damage, lung
disease, stunted growth, and a susceptibility to arthritis as they grow older.
Children
making silk thread in India dip their hands into boiling water that burns and
blisters them, breath smoke and fumes from machinery, handle dead worms that
cause infections, and guide twisting threads that cut their fingers.
Children
harvesting sugar cane in El Salvador use machetes to cut cane for up to nine
hours a day in the hot sun; injuries to their hands and legs are common and
medical care is often not available.
Of
nearly 250 million children engaged in child labor around the world, the vast
majority—70 percent, or some 170 million—are working in agriculture. Child
agricultural workers frequently work for long hours in scorching heat, haul
heavy loads of produce, are exposed to toxic pesticides, and suffer high rates
of injury from sharp knives and other dangerous tools. Their work is grueling
and harsh, violating their rights to health, education, and protection from
work that is hazardous or exploitative.
According to the ILO's new report on child labor, the number of children
working in agriculture is nearly ten times that of children involved in factory
work such as garment manufacturing, carpet-weaving, or soccer-ball stitching.
Yet despite their numbers and the difficult nature of their work, children
working in agriculture have received little attention compared to child labor
in manufacturing for export.
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