165 million kids in child labour
Thursday, 12 Jun 2008 08:34
More than 165 million children aged between five and 14 involved in child labour, United Nations claims
More than 165 million children aged between five and 14 are involved in child labour, the United Nations has claimed.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) said millions of children were working long hours, often in dangerous conditions.
As ILO holds its world day against child labour, the organisation is advocating universal education as the correct way to work against the practice.
Previous figures have shown that 75 million children who do not start primary school education begin working at an early age.
ILO remains committed to eradicating the worst forms of child labour by 2016, and says quality education is critical to these goals.
"We must work for every child's right to education so no child has to work for survival," said its director general Juan Somavia. "The goal is quality education for children and decent work for adults."
Mr Somavia added that for millions of children and their families, education was an "abstract concept".
According to UN statistics children from rural areas and girls remain the most disadvantaged, with the latter struggling from a double burden of work inside and outside the home.
"More than 70 million primary school aged children are not enrolled in school," Mr Somavia continued.
"Many of these and other out of school children start working at an early age, often well below the minimum age of employment. And when a family has to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school, it is often the girl who loses out."
A spokesman at the Department for International Development (DfID) said getting children into schools was not the "only solution" to ending child labour.
Speaking a day after the government announced a flagship £150 million partnership with the Indian government to enrol all children in India into primary school by 2010, the DfID representative said wider social aspects also had to be considered.