How many children are involved in child labour

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 labor

Get 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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

BACK TO QUESTIONS

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.

Resources

Child slavery: every 10th child in the world is exploited: Society articles ➕1, 07/23/2021

There are many more victims of child labor on the planet than the inhabitants of Russia. Half of them are employed in its most dangerous forms. The number of child laborers has steadily increased over the past five years, and the COVID-19 crisis could make things worse. Plus-one.ru chose the main points from the latest International Labor Organization (ILO) report on the successes and failures in the global fight against child labor.

At the beginning of 2020, there were 160 million victims of exploitation on the planet (every 10th child between the ages of five and 17). Nearly half of them—79 million children—were involved in the most dangerous forms of child labour, doing work that directly endangers health, safety, or moral development.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the world has made significant progress in solving this problem. In 2000, there were one and a half times more victims of child labor than today (and twice as many victims of its most dangerous forms).

The latest ILO data shows that progress stopped five years ago and has been steadily reversing since then. From 2016 to 2020, for the first time in the history of statistical monitoring, the number of victims of child labor did not decrease, but grew: by 8.4 million in four years, and almost 80% (6.5 million) of these children were involved in the most dangerous forms of labor.

The exact definition of child labor has been revised several times. At the moment, the wording adopted by the ILO in 2008 has been adopted for statistical estimates. According to it, victims of child labor include:

children aged 5-11 involved in any form of employment;

children aged 12-14 working 14 or more hours per week;

children aged 5-14 engaged in unpaid domestic work 21 or more hours per week;

children aged 5-17 working 43 or more hours per week;

children aged 5-17 who are employed in certain hazardous industries or certain hazardous jobs (their lists include dozens of items, from mining or construction jobs to certain forms of unpaid domestic work).

The last three items describe victims of the most dangerous forms of child labor. As you can see, the ILO is not at all opposed to children working. Let's say a 12-year-old child can do housework for an hour a day, and a 15-year-old can work for hire for eight hours, five days a week, in a non-hazardous industry. In these cases, they will not be included in the statistics of victims of child labor.

Freedom, equality, slavery

What is the scale of human exploitation in a world that fights for human rights

The world has been making efforts to eliminate child labor for almost 50 years. In 1973, the ILO adopted the Convention on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, according to which, in the 173 states that have ratified it, official employment is possible only from 16 or 18 years. Numerous similar documents have appeared before (since 1919, the year the ILO was founded), but all of them covered only certain industries.

In 1999, the Convention on the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor was issued. These, according to the document, include slavery, forced labor, prostitution, military service, production of pornography, distribution of drugs, work at high or low temperatures and other work that endangers the health, safety or morals of children. In 2020, this convention became the first document in history to be ratified by all 187 ILO member countries.

In September 2015, the UN member states adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 8 included the target “by 2025, end child labor in all its forms”. Even then, it seemed, to put it mildly, optimistic: in 10 years it was supposed to put somewhere more than 150 million victims of child labor, while over the previous 15 years their number was reduced by 100 million. Against the backdrop of regression in recent years, target 8.7 looks unfeasible.

Its obvious cause is poverty. In low-income countries, more than a quarter of children aged five to 17 are involved in the labor force, while in middle-income countries it is less than 10%, and in high-income countries it is less than 1%. However, poverty comes in many forms and is ubiquitous in varying degrees. Nearly 60% of all victims of child labor (93.4 million children) are in middle-income countries.

More than half of all victims of child labor (86.6 million children) live in sub-Saharan Africa. In this region, every fourth child aged 5-17 is involved in child labor.

However, this was not always the case. At the beginning of the 21st century, most of the exploited boys and girls were in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. From 2008 to 2020, there has been continuous progress - the number of victims of child labor has decreased by 65 million people, almost 2.5 times. Another region in which the situation continues to improve, albeit at a less impressive pace, is the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the opposite is true. The number of those involved in child labor in this region stopped declining in 2012 and has been continuously growing since then. Moreover, the pace of this growth completely overlaps the progress in other regions combined.

Boys are involved in child labor more often than girls: 97 million male children (11. 2% of all boys on the planet) versus 63 million female children (7.8% of all girls). Among children aged 5-14, the gender gap is half as large, as girls are much more likely to have to do more than 21 hours of housework per week.

More than 3 million girls undergo genital mutilation every year

11 facts about practices that injure women and children

More than half of all victims (nearly 90 million children) are in the 15-17 age group. Children aged 5-11 make up one-fifth (35 million) of those involved in child labor, as do children aged 12-14. From 2000 to 2016, the number of child labor victims declined among all three age groups. But in the last five years, in the 12-14 and 15-17 year old groups, this progress continued, and in the 5-11 year old group, it began to reverse. By 2020, the number of children of this age involved in child labor was 16.8 million more than in 2016.

Most child labor victims (112 million) are employed in agriculture. About a fifth (32 million) is in the service sector (including unpaid domestic work). 16.5 million children (one tenth) work in industrial enterprises. Child labor is three times more common in rural areas (122.7 million victims) than in cities (37.3 million victims).

72% of all victims of child labor and 83% of victims aged 5-11 are exploited by relatives. Most of these children work on family farms or micro-enterprises. Contrary to the popular perception of the family as a safe working environment, one in four children aged 5-11 and almost half of children aged 12-14 in their own families are engaged in work that is harmful to their health, safety or moral development.

Child labor is a major barrier to education. 35% of all victims do not go to school, among children aged 5-11 this figure is 27.7%, among children aged 15-17 - 53.2%. Lack of basic education severely limits the prospects for a decent job in youth and adulthood. Those children who manage to combine work with school suffer from the need to find compromises between them, most often not in favor of studying. At the same time, they are practically deprived of the right to leisure.

in 2019There were 582 million children worldwide living in low-income families worldwide. In 2020 alone, the pandemic crisis has increased the number of such children to 724 million. All of them are now at risk, as, having lost their sources of income, many families turn to child labor as a way to survive.

The closure of educational institutions during lockdown periods increases the risks: children from low-income families freed from the need to attend school are more likely to start working. And not everyone is able to return to school.

Principles and beggars

What stands in the way of ending poverty

Thus, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further undermine the already stalled global progress in the fight against child labour. An ILO analysis shows that, unless urgent additional social support measures are taken to support low-income families, by the end of 2022 the number of victims of child labor will increase by almost 9 million. More than half (4.9 million) of them will be among children 5-11 years old.

In the worst case scenario, if the coverage of social assistance not only does not expand, but also decreases - for example, as a result of austerity measures during the crisis, then 46 million more children will be involved in child labor in 2022 than in 2020 . This will throw the world back 20 years, to the indicators of the early 2000s.

On the other hand, with the proper expansion of social support measures, by the end of 2022, it is possible to achieve a reduction in the number of victims of child labor by 15.1 million, which will fully offset the negative effect of the pandemic.

Modeling these scenarios, the ILO experts did not operate with money, but with indicators of social support coverage. In low-income countries, 11% of the population use such measures, in middle-income countries - 30-50%, and in high-income countries - 78.1%.

To reduce the number of victims of child labor by 15 million by the end of 2022, social support coverage should be increased to 11.7% of the population in the poorest countries, to 36-60% in middle-income countries, and to 9 in the richest7.9%. Whether this is possible and how much money it will require is to be determined by the governments of the countries of the world.

Subscribe to our channel at Yandex.Zen .

Author

Ilya Arzumanov

Illustration

Konstantin Chernov

Almost 80 million children in the world are engaged in hazardous work. Is the pandemic to blame?

What is child labor?

Surprisingly, not all work performed by children falls under the definition of child labour.

How many children are involved in child labour?

According to the UN, between 2000 and 2016, the number of working children and adolescents in the world fell by 94 million. But since then, the process has stalled. The proportion of children involved in child labor as a share of the total number of children in the world over the past four years as a whole has not changed much. But in absolute terms, the indicator increased by about 9 million, to 160 million people by the beginning of 2020.

And the pandemic has done its bit. In the short term, it led to a decrease in the level of child labor, but only because the labor market basically sank. It lost four times as many jobs last year as it did during the 2009 financial crisis.year, the ILO found out.

But in the medium term - by the end of 2022 - the number of those involved in child labor risks growing by another 9 million people, UNICEF estimated.

Who are the working children?

In terms of gender, boys are more involved in child labor than girls, at any age: 97 versus 63 million.

But this is only if the definition of child labor does not take into account housework, which sometimes takes up to 21 hours a week. As soon as the concept is expanded and everyday tasks are taken into account in the calculations, the gender gap is halved.

The majority of working children are under 11: 89.3 out of 160 million people fall into this category. And it is precisely this number that is growing, while the employment of children aged 12–17, on the contrary, is declining.

In addition, working children often do not go to school - more than a third of them do not receive any education. And this, of course, limits their ability to find better-paid jobs in the future. Plus, the older the children, the more difficult it becomes for them to return to school. After all, families are increasingly dependent on the income they bring.

Where do most working children live?

More than half - almost 87 million - are in parts of Africa south of the Sahara, about 61 million - in North Africa and the Asia-Pacific region (APR), the rest - scattered around the world.

At the same time, if in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America and the Caribbean, progress has been made in recent years and there are fewer working children, then in the African region, the picture is completely different.

In the southern regions of the continent, population growth, regular crises, poverty and inadequate, according to UNICEF, social protection measures of local authorities, on the contrary, have led to the fact that the number of children involved in child labor has increased by 16.6 million over the past four years.

For example, about 40% of sub-Saharan Africa's population lives in extreme poverty. Although, according to the UN, this figure has been reduced recently.

Why do children have to go to work?

As early as early 2020, UNICEF and the ILO warned that the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis put many already vulnerable families at risk of losing income, forcing children to enter the labor market much more actively. And often they will be forced to accept the worst forms of child labor.

What do working children do?

Child labor is most common in rural areas. It is in agricultural production (agriculture and animal husbandry) that 70%, or about 112 million, of children are employed. Another 20% (31.4 million) work in the service sector, and 10% (16.5 million) in industry.

Most of the working children are employed on family farms and micro-enterprises - 72%. And this may turn out to be even more dangerous for them than working for an outside employer. Indeed, in the eyes of society, the family is traditionally considered a safe environment for the child. And this is not always the case.

Moreover, 79 out of 160 million work in hazardous conditions that directly threaten their lives and health.