Child Labor in the World – 10 percent of the world’s children, or 168 million

ILO estimates document that, from 2000 to 2012, child labor fell by 78 million or 30 percent, placing the most current estimate of child laborers at 168 million, of which 85 million are in hazardous work.(23) Behind these numbers are children wielding machetes to crack open cocoa pods; girls working as domestic servants in third-party homes doing laundry from dawn until dusk; and boys wading in puddles of mercury sifting for gold. The ILO also estimates at least 6 million children in forced labor, where they may be chained to looms to weave carpets, kidnapped to fight adult wars, mandated to leave school to pick cotton, or lured and sold to brothels by promises of a brighter future.

While the decline in child labor definitely signals a move in the right direction, it still means that 10 percent of the world’s children, or 168 million children, languish in situations that deprive them of their right to go to school without interference from work. It also means that the target of eliminating the worst forms of child labor by 2016, as embodied in international declarations to address child labor, such as the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor by 2016 (Roadmap) and the Brasilia Declaration on Child Labor, will remain an elusive goal—at least for now.(24, 25) Nonetheless, actions to eradicate child labor, especially its worst forms, must move forward.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor.