UN: 115m children in dangerous jobs
Source: Agencies |
June 11, 2011, Saturday
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MORE than 115 million of the world's children and young teenagers, or more than 7 percent of the total, are engaged in dangerous and life-threatening jobs, the International Labour Organization said yesterday.
The United Nations agency, which sets standards for employment around the globe, said in a report that the industries involved included mining, metalworking, farming, shoe-making, flower-growing and the banana industry.
A UN investigator said child labor was in great demand by employers because it was cheap "and because children are naturally more docile, easier to discipline than adults, and too frightened to complain."
The report was issued to mark tomorrow's United Nations World Day against Child Labour.
The ILO, which defines children as anyone up to the age of 18, said the total number of young people in hazardous jobs was well over half of those known to be working - the overwhelming majority of them in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Extreme poverty drives practically all of them to take up both physically and psychologically dangerous jobs, sometimes where the effects from toxic substances they had to work with only emerge in later life.
Many as young as five were employed in such work although the numbers of small children involved has declined in recent years under pressure from campaign groups and public opinion.
But the total number of young people aged 15-17 engaged in such work had risen sharply, the report said.
Campaigning over the last decade had reduced the number of girls involved and now about 60 percent of the total under the age of 18 are boys.
The report said the largest numbers were in Asia, where more than 48 million children and young people - or some 5.6 percent of the total in the region - were earning their living in jobs fraught with danger.
The UN investigator into modern forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, said "unscrupulous employers" took advantage of smaller children in often illegal artisanal gold mining.
Boys were sent down through makeshift tunnels, at a high risk of fatal accidents, while both boys and girls had to handle toxic mercury to extract gold, exposing them to irreversible damage to their health.
They were also exploited in the flower, banana and palm oil production industries, and in cities in loading and unloading heavy goods or collecting waste in garbage fields where they were also exposed to physical and sexual violence.
The United Nations agency, which sets standards for employment around the globe, said in a report that the industries involved included mining, metalworking, farming, shoe-making, flower-growing and the banana industry.
A UN investigator said child labor was in great demand by employers because it was cheap "and because children are naturally more docile, easier to discipline than adults, and too frightened to complain."
The report was issued to mark tomorrow's United Nations World Day against Child Labour.
The ILO, which defines children as anyone up to the age of 18, said the total number of young people in hazardous jobs was well over half of those known to be working - the overwhelming majority of them in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Extreme poverty drives practically all of them to take up both physically and psychologically dangerous jobs, sometimes where the effects from toxic substances they had to work with only emerge in later life.
Many as young as five were employed in such work although the numbers of small children involved has declined in recent years under pressure from campaign groups and public opinion.
But the total number of young people aged 15-17 engaged in such work had risen sharply, the report said.
Campaigning over the last decade had reduced the number of girls involved and now about 60 percent of the total under the age of 18 are boys.
The report said the largest numbers were in Asia, where more than 48 million children and young people - or some 5.6 percent of the total in the region - were earning their living in jobs fraught with danger.
The UN investigator into modern forms of slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, said "unscrupulous employers" took advantage of smaller children in often illegal artisanal gold mining.
Boys were sent down through makeshift tunnels, at a high risk of fatal accidents, while both boys and girls had to handle toxic mercury to extract gold, exposing them to irreversible damage to their health.
They were also exploited in the flower, banana and palm oil production industries, and in cities in loading and unloading heavy goods or collecting waste in garbage fields where they were also exposed to physical and sexual violence.
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