On World Monday against Child Labour, the International Workers’ Organization (ILO) shared these shocking numbers as a reminder of the urgent need to end this practice.
ILO Director General Gilbert Houngbo said that for the first time in 20 years, child labor is growing.
“Child labor does not usually happen because the parents are bad, or they don’t care. Instead, you originating from the lack of social justice,” he said.
Solutions: decent work, social security
Mr. Houngbo stressed on Twitter that “the most effective solutions” to the child labor emergency are decent work for adults, so they can provide for their families, and improve social security.
He also emphasized that combating the things that cause child labor is legal
ending forced labor, creating safe and healthy workplaces, keeping workers organized and to let their voices be heard, and to end discrimination, since child labor often affects those who are marginalized the most.
A staggering number for sub-Saharan Africa
More than half of all are subject to child labor – some 86.6 million – is in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a joint study by the ILO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
About 24 percent of all children in the area, or close to one in four, is in labor.
Most of the children work in agriculture
Most of those in child labor in Africa, and indeed in the world, work in agriculture. The World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday that agriculture Accounts for 70 percent of child labor in the world and the number of young people working in the sector is increasing.
FAO emphasizes that it is child labor three times more common among rural owners in farming, fishing or forest than in the city.
The agency emphasized that children often help their parents in growing crops, raising livestock or catching fish, “especially for the family’s food”, and although not all of this work is considered child labour. , “for many children, their work, especially in agriculture. , go beyond the limits of safety and well-being and transgressions towards work that may harm their health or educational opportunities “.
Children carry bundles of wood on the road in the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
‘Make sure children have childhood’
FAO stressed the need to address the issue “from the direct field to the global level, to ensure that children have childhood”.
The agency is working with partners on eliminating child labor in key sectors such as cocoa, cotton and coffee. Together with the ILO and the European Union, FAO has reached more than 10,000 women, men, youth and children in Burkina Faso, Mali and Pakistan as part of a project that aims to combat child labor in cotton value chains through improving the livelihood of families, empowering women. about economics, and raising awareness of the problem.
FAO has also developed a framework on ending child labor in agriculture, aiming to provide guidance to policy makers, and has supported countries such as Uganda and Cabo Verde in developing prevention policies.
