How is child labor today
Child labor: Facts, FAQs, and how to help end it
About 160 million children ages 5 to 17 around the world are engaged in child labor, working in jobs that deprive them of their childhood, interfere with schooling, or harm their mental, physical, or social development. Nearly half of them — 79 million children — work under hazardous conditions. By definition, child labor is a violation of both child protection and child rights.
June 12 is the United Nations-sanctioned World Day Against Child Labor, a time to remember the young workers who have been robbed of their childhood, education, and the future they deserve.
FAQS: What you need to know about child laborGet facts about this issue, and learn how you can help end it.
- Fast facts: Child labor
- What is the definition of child labor?
- Where is it a problem?
- What is a primary driver of child labor?
- What are the worst forms of child labor?
- Has child labor increased or decreased over time?
- How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted child labor?
- What is World Vision doing to end child labor?
- How can I help end child labor?
- History of child labor
Fast facts: Child labor
- At the beginning of 2020, 63 million girls and 97 million boys were in child labor, accounting for about 1 in 10 children worldwide.
- About 70% of these children — 112 million — work in agriculture, mostly in farming and livestock herding.
- Across all age groups, boys are more likely to work than girls.
- 1 in 3 children in child labor are out of school.
- 86.6 million children are engaged in child labor in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by central and southern Asia with 26.3 million.
- Numbers are rising, particularly in the 5- to 11-year-old group, and the coronavirus pandemic threatens to reverse years of progress.
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What is the definition of child labor?
Child labor is the exploitation of children who are deprived of their childhood by work that prevents them from attending school or causes physical, mental, or social harm. Children are especially vulnerable to injuries in their early developmental years, even though physical and mental health problems may not be evident for years.
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Where is it a problem?
Child labor is concentrated in the world’s poorest countries.
It is also common in the most dangerous places where insecurity or armed conflict exist. Sub-Saharan Africa has 86.6 million child laborers, more than anywhere else.
Family poverty and ill-equipped schools are two major reasons children in low-income countries are in the labor force. However, child labor isn’t confined to low-income countries. It’s a problem in all countries, to some degree: More than half of all child laborers live in middle-income countries.
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What is a primary driver of child labor?
Poverty is the primary reason children are sent to work. Sadly, child labor keeps children from getting the education they need to break the cycle of poverty. According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), a U.N. agency, about 70% of child laborers work in agriculture. Others work long hours in factories, domestic service, or forced labor, such as child soldiers and children exploited in the commercial sex trade.
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What are the worst forms of child labor?
The ILO’s Convention No.
182 defines hazardous and morally damaging forms of labor and calls for their immediate and total elimination. Worldwide, the ILO estimates that 22,000 child laborers are killed at work each year. As defined by the convention, the worst forms of child labor include:
- Slavery or similar practices
- Child trafficking
- Forced recruitment into armed conflict
- Prostitution and pornography
- Drug production and trafficking or other illegal acts
- Debt bondage
- Hazardous work that can cause injury or moral corruption
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Has child labor increased or decreased over time?
From 2000 — when the ILO began monitoring this issue — to 2016, the number of children exploited fell by 94 million, a dramatic global reduction. However, the decline slowed between 2012 and 2016, and global progress was stagnant between 2016 and 2020 — the most recent reporting period.
The positive trend and stagnation have shifted negatively.
“Global estimates in 2021 showed an increase of 8.4 million children in child labor in the last four years and a 6.5 million increase in the number of children engaged in hazardous work. As these figures suggest, there are still far too many children in exploitive work,” reports the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs.
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How has the coronavirus pandemic impacted child labor?
Due to rising poverty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated 8.9 million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labor by the end of 2022. A strong global effort will be required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating all forms of child labor worldwide by 2025.
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What is World Vision doing to end child labor?
World Vision places children at the center of all our work to transform communities for good. We empower children to know their rights and work toward their own well-being.
And we work with their parents and communities to see that kids are protected and that their futures are not stolen by labor exploitation.
By taking initiative in these areas, we help create a protective environment that cares for and supports all children:
- Providing educational services to enhance teaching quality and improve learning spaces
- Providing support for parents to improve their incomes and food security so that children don’t need to work
- Advocating for national child labor laws and their enforcement
- Promoting social accountability for communities, governments, and businesses
- Equipping communities — faith leaders, parents, and community groups — to monitor vulnerable children to keep them out of hazardous work and help their families survive without their child’s income
- Promoting decent work for youth who are above the minimum working age through training, life skills, and entrepreneurship, as well as access to savings and credit services
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How can I help end child labor?
- Pray for children trapped in work that puts them in danger or prevents them from attending school.
Ask God to protect them from further exploitation so that they may enjoy the physical, mental, and spiritual nurture they need to live life to the full. - Give to support World Vision’s work around the world to protect children from labor and other forms of exploitation, abuse, and violence.
- Sponsor a child. By investing in a child’s life, you’ll help them stay in school. You’ll also help build up their community so that there’ll be more job opportunities for them to pursue as adults.
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History of child labor
Throughout history, children have contributed to the economic upkeep of their families through farm labor and handicrafts. However, the growth of manufacturing and farm mechanization during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries led to many children working under dangerous conditions in factories and farms. This in turn prompted laws that not only regulated conditions for kids working but also mandated education.
Through the years:
1938: The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act restricts hours and types of jobs for children under age 16.
1973: The Minimum Age Convention, ratified by 172 countries, sets the minimum age for employment but allows some exceptions.
1989: The U.N. enacts the Convention on the Rights of the Child to guarantee the protection of children’s rights to grow and thrive.
1992: The International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) is founded to promote the global elimination of child labor and support countries in their efforts.
1999: The Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention, ratified by 186 countries, requires ending practices like slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor in armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, drug trafficking, and other illicit activities.
2021: The U.N. General Assembly declares this to be the Year for the Elimination of Child Labor.
2025: International commitment is set to end all forms of child labor this year under Target 8.7 of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
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Sevil Omer of World Vision’s U.S. staff contributed to this article.
Child labour | UNICEF
Programme
Nearly 1 in 10 children are subjected to child labour worldwide, with some forced into hazardous work through trafficking.
UNICEF/UN0263808/Lister
Economic hardship exacts a toll on millions of families worldwide – and in some places, it comes at the price of a child’s safety. Roughly 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19.
This accounts for nearly 1 in 10 children worldwide. Almost half of them are in hazardous work that directly endangers their health and moral development.
Children may be driven into work for various reasons.
Most often, child labour occurs when families face financial challenges or uncertainty – whether due to poverty, sudden illness of a caregiver, or job loss of a primary wage earner.
The consequences are staggering. Child labour can result in extreme bodily and mental harm, and even death. It can lead to slavery and sexual or economic exploitation. And in nearly every case, it cuts children off from schooling and health care, restricting their fundamental rights and threatening their futures.
Migrant and refugee children – many of whom have been uprooted by conflict, disaster or poverty – also risk being forced into work and even trafficked, especially if they are migrating alone or taking irregular routes with their families.
Trafficked children are often subjected to violence, abuse and other human rights violations. And some may be forced to break the law. For girls, the threat of sexual exploitation looms large, while boys may be exploited by armed forces or groups.
Children on the move risk being forced into work or even trafficked – subjected to violence, abuse and other human rights violations.
Whatever the cause, child labour compounds social inequality and discrimination, and robs girls and boys of their childhood. Unlike activities that help children develop, such as contributing to light housework or taking on a job during school holidays, child labour limits access to education and harms a child’s physical, mental and social growth. Especially for girls, the “triple burden” of school, work and household chores heightens their risk of falling behind, making them even more vulnerable to poverty and exclusion.
Key facts
- The number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of COVID-19.
- Progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.
- The incidence of hazardous work in countries affected by armed conflict is 50% higher than the global average.
- 30 million children live outside their country of birth, increasing their risk of being trafficked for sexual exploitation and other work.
UNICEF’s response
UNICEF/UNI281125/Herwig Children largely from the ethnic Dom community learn in a UNICEF-supported centre in Jordan, in 2019. With many of their families living in poverty, these children become especially vulnerable to negative coping mechanisms, like working on the street. Centres play a key role in identifying children who face challenges and helping them to enroll in formal and non-formal education.
UNICEF works to prevent and respond to child labour, especially by strengthening the social service workforce. Social service workers play a key role in recognizing, preventing and managing risks that can lead to child labour.
Our efforts develop and support the workforce to identify and respond to potential situations of child labour through case management and social protection services, including early identification, registration and interim rehabilitation and referral services.
We also focus on strengthening parenting and community education initiatives to address harmful social norms that perpetuate child labour, while partnering with national and local governments to prevent violence, exploitation and abuse.
With the International Labour Organization (ILO), we help to collect data that make child labour visible to decision makers. These efforts complement our work to strengthen birth registration systems, ensuring that all children possess birth certificates that prove they are under the legal age to work.
Children removed from labour must also be safely returned to school or training. UNICEF supports increased access to quality education and provides comprehensive social services to keep children protected and with their families.
To address child trafficking, we work with United Nations partners and the European Union on initiatives that reach 13 countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
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Resources
We need to see the difference between child labor and child slavery
About half a million children work in Kyrgyzstan. Such data are indicated in one of the reports of the International Labor Organization. At the same time, our state speaks of a little more than two and a half thousand minors who are forced to earn their livelihood. Why is there such a discrepancy in numbers and what is the real situation in our country, we decided to find out on the World Day against Child Labor from the head of the Child Protection Department of the Ministry of Social Development Marina Dzhaparkulova.
Marina Kadyrbaevna, what is the real situation with the exploitation of child labor in Kyrgyzstan?
According to our social development departments, last year there were 2,552 working children under the age of 18.
If we compare these figures with 2012, the number of working children has decreased by 72.2%. At the same time, unfortunately, child labor continues to be widely used, especially in agriculture, trade, and service stations. But we also note that with fewer juveniles working, the number of those involved in the worst forms of child labor increases. That is why, since 2005, a project has been operating in the republic to eliminate child labor in the tobacco industry. At first it covered two districts, then four more.
At the same time, Kyrgyzstan has adopted a very strong legal framework against the exploitation of children. We were the first in Central Asia to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. That was exactly twenty years ago. The Constitution and the Labor Code prohibit child labor. By law, work under the age of 14 is generally prohibited, a child from 14 to 16 years old can work no more than 5 hours, and up to 18 years old - only seven hours. Those who combine study and work, aged 14 to 16 years old, can work only 2.
5 hours a day, up to 18 years old - 3.5 hours. But international standards allow work from the age of 15. Hence the different figures, and in general - a different understanding of the children's there. Indeed, in our country, from time immemorial, children have helped their parents with housework, and teaching labor has never been exploitation. Another thing is if it harms the child, his health, interferes with his studies.
According to the same International Labor Organization, today in many countries there is a similar problem.
Child labor is indeed a problem not only in our country. Around the world today, according to various sources, from 215 to 250 million minors are exploited. Moreover, in poor countries, child labor is used by well-known international manufacturers. For example, human rights activists talk about the use of labor by more than one hundred thousand children of the Ivory Coast by Nestlé. China-based Pegatron Group, which assembles Apple products, is also accused of this.
The labor of children from 7 to 17 years old is used by the largest tobacco companies in the United States. Because under American national law, the work of children from the age of 12 is allowed if there is parental consent. In general, in the world, the average age of working children is from 5 to 10 years.
– You said that various laws on the protection of children have been adopted in Kyrgyzstan, but in reality we see children who trade in bazaars and kiosks all day long… We try to bring them back to school as much as possible. Since these are often children from dysfunctional families, our specialists work not only with them, but with the whole family. Plans are being drawn up for individual work with a family that finds itself in a difficult life situation.
Last year, 3,931 plans were carried out throughout the country, and every second one was implemented. That is, families were assisted in finding employment, solving material, legal, medical and social problems.
After all, children can go into the streets to earn money not only from poverty, but also because of domestic violence, abuse, risks of divorce, alcoholism, drug addiction, parents' gambling, etc. This is another factor in the growth of juvenile delinquency. According to recent statistics, up to 16% of thefts are committed by teenagers.
At the same time, society does not have a clear understanding of which child labor is useful and which is crippling. For example, collecting scrap metal or waste paper, as it was in the Soviet era, or cleaning around the school, is a certain form of education that is recognized by many educators and psychologists. But today, when many parents are forced to leave for work, the whole burden of household work falls on the shoulders of teenagers. Especially in rural areas, where we have 70% of the population.
It can be said that the family in our time is a victim of the economic situation. The number of parents whose all thoughts are directed only at feeding their children, and not at their proper upbringing, is still too large.
In total, there are 2 million 66.3 thousand children in Kyrgyzstan. The Ministry of Social Development pays monthly allowances to 336,000 children from low-income families, which is why their family income is less than 640 soms per person. These children, and they make up more than 16%, are obviously at risk, they can be involved in various types of work. But in 10-20 years they should become the main force of society. And the only way to help these children realize themselves is through education.
Due to internal migration, many children who moved to Bishkek with their parents are undocumented and therefore unable to go to school. Are there accurate statistics on them and what is being done to improve the situation?
As I have already said, the territorial subdivisions of the Ministry on a regular basis identify dysfunctional families, children in difficult life situations, including working children and children without documents. Yes, 2012-2013 showed a 23% increase in the number of children without a birth certificate.
But at the same time, the number of recovered documents increased by more than a third.
Of course, our ministry tries to cover such children as much as possible, as well as working and any others who find themselves in a difficult life situation. And here the whole society must act together. Comply with the law and not hire minors, notify the relevant authorities in time about children who are not studying. Parents, society as a whole must learn to see the boundary between child labor, which forms a person, and slavery, which deprives little Kyrgyzstanis of their childhood and the country of its future.
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Why clothing factories use slave labor
MC IN TELEGRAM
In a new report on forced labor, Prada, Hermès and Louis Vuitton perform poorly. Adidas, Lululemon and GAP use the least slave labor in their supply chains.
We often talk about slavery as if it were something from the past, terrible acts of another era, committed by people who are completely different from us.
But in fact, slave labor still thrives. And a new report from non-profit organization KnowTheChain indicates that your wardrobe is likely to be teeming with forced-labor clothing.
Slave labor today looks very different from what it was a hundred years ago. It is now affecting poor people in developing countries who are trying to find work in clothing and footwear factories and end up being exploited.
Take the case of a woman from India. KnowTheChain learned that she left her village in search of work in Bangalore, a major city in South India. An employment agent found her a job at a garment factory in exchange for a fee, but the details of the amount were not fully agreed. And after that, the agency began to take all of her wages until she paid the full amount of the collection. For six months of work, she did not receive a single salary. Worse still, the agent promised her free room and board, but when she arrived, she found that none of this would be provided to her.
Much of the clothing sold in the US is made in India. It is quite possible that one of the readers of this article became the owner of the thing that this woman made. However, few of us have any idea of the suffering, exploitation and forced labor that are also part of the clothing we wear every day.
Why clothing and footwear factories use slave labor
Approximately 24.9 victims of forced labormillion people around the world. The lion's share of them - 16 million people - are exploited by companies for profit, and not by individuals, as is the case, for example, in the case of the sex trade. One of the largest sectors relying on slave labor is the $3 trillion apparel and footwear industry, according to a KnowTheChain report. An estimated 60 to 75 million people are employed in this global sector. While most of us are aware that these workers are paid very little, the reality is that some of them are not paid at all.
There are many reasons why slave labor is so common in the production of clothing and footwear.
One is that people in rich and developed countries such as the US, UK, Canada and France are too addicted to cheap clothes. This is partly because global free trade agreements make it easier for brands to manufacture their products in places where labor is cheaper and then transport them to the other side of the world. Because of this, fast fashion has entered the trend. Brands like Zara, H&M and Century21 have built their entire business around selling runway looks at low prices. As a result, as the KnowTheChain report shows, “competing for low prices and chasing fast-changing trends” has led to “complex and murky supply chains.”
KnowTheChain has developed a scoring system to measure how the world's major apparel and footwear companies, from Gap to Louis Vuitton to Nike, are doing when it comes to treating their employees. As shocking as it sounds, the average score (out of 100) was a low 37. In other words, many of the brands we buy clothes and shoes from don't pay enough attention to treating their factory workers with respect.
Companies that can easily disclose their activities to reduce forced labor—for example, they hire workers directly rather than through recruitment agencies—score well. But many companies either do not implement such measures or cannot disclose them because they are not sure what these measures are exactly. This is because supply chains can be very confusing: a brand can work with a factory that outsources some of its work to other factories, and so on. But ultimately, KnowTheChain proves that no matter where in the supply chain the exploitation of workers occurs, the responsibility lies with these companies.
Outrageously high price of cheap goods
Slavery starts with hiring
The scoring system took into account how companies deal with various issues related to the payment of employees. But one of the most important areas to pay attention to is hiring, because that is when poor workers are most easily exploited.
Unethical recruitment agencies often defraud poor, desperate people by providing them with jobs in exchange for exorbitant fees to be deducted from their paychecks. They may withhold the employee's passport or other official documents until the employee has paid them the full amount of the fee. And if they also charge interest for the long payment of the fee, then the employee may never have enough funds at all to ever return their documents - which makes them slaves for life. In one audit, KnowTheChain discovered that a Taiwanese clothing company was charging migrant workers $7,000 to get a job at a factory. An audit of another Taiwanese factory showed that 82% of workers had their passports taken away.
Because migrant workers do not have a strong social support system—family and children—to protect them, they are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. They may also not understand their rights or how to file a complaint. In some countries, migrant workers make up the bulk of the labor force in the clothing industry.
In Jordan, 77% of garment workers are migrants, and in Mauritius, 44%.
All this is further exacerbated by gender issues. Two-thirds of workers in the clothing and footwear sector are women, who already face discrimination in many developing countries. These women, who tend to be low-skilled workers from rural areas, are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
Sportswear brands on the right track
At the very top of the list were two sportswear companies: adidas, which scored 92, and Lululemon, which scored 89. These businesses stand out because they pay close attention to recruitment and worker protection. migrants. For example, adidas provides training on ethical employment practices to 100 suppliers in Vietnam, Indonesia, China and Taiwan. Lululemon is actively working to ensure that workers in their supply chain can easily get their documents back, such as passports. Both companies have also completely eliminated recruitment agencies from their supply chains and are requiring factories to hire workers directly.
Lululemon also opened a hotline for workers to contact the company directly without involving the factory in the process.
Nike and Puma scored 63 and 61 respectively. In general, major sports brands were found to be more knowledgeable about labor issues than other industries. However, this, again, may be a response to consumer pressure. Back in the 1990s, there were many different stories about companies like Nike and adidas relying heavily on hard labor Asian businesses, which led to protests in the US at the time. (Protests and rallies still take place against these companies from time to time.) Consumer pressure has had the desired effect of forcing these companies to reconsider how they treat workers.
It is interesting to note that fast fashion companies have performed quite well, perhaps because they have been closely followed by both consumers and the fashion press over the past few years. . This may have prompted management to take a closer look at their supply chains.
Gap Inc, the parent company of Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, placed third on the list with a score of 75 points. Primark scored 72 and H&M 65. Walmart scored 44, which is a pretty low score, but it still scores significantly better than many luxury brands.
Many brands are doing well because they have implemented measures such as training programs that help employees learn about their rights. For example, H&M and Primark have mandatory "modern slavery" training at the factories they work with. However, these companies still have room to grow. The report says that even brands that are doing well should take a closer look at their supply chain in order to understand how much work is put into their raw materials. For example, the extraction and production of cotton is often associated with slave labor, which means that companies need to make all elements of their supply chain traceable.
Luxury brands are left behind
Many consumers believe that more expensive products are produced ethically in first-class factories.
However, this ranking showed that luxury brands have some of the lowest scores among all participants in the study. For example, Prada scored a shockingly low score of 5 out of 100, while Salvatore Ferragamo scored 13. LVMH, which includes brands such as Fendi, Celine, Rimowa and Christian Dior, scored 14. Not far gone and Hermes with his 17 points. Many of these brands make their products in Europe, but European workers are also exploited, according to KnowTheChain. For example, Chinese workers in Italy are sometimes subjected to forced labor in textile factories; in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldavia, Romania and Turkey, workers cannot take vacations and are forced to work overtime, going beyond legal limits on working hours, for extremely low wages.
However, some luxury brands ranked higher on the list. Burberry scored 52, Ralph Lauren scored 58, and Kering, which owns Gucci, Balenciaga and Saint Laurent, scored 45. But overall, the results of the KnowTheChain study showed that the luxury industry is literally riddled with labor-related issues.
