UNITED NATIONS: 168m children are labourers worldwide

The United Nations has said an estimated 168 million children around the world, including Nigeria, between the ages of five and 14, work, many full-time, and more than half in conditions considered to be hazardous to their health.

In a statement issued on Friday to mark the 2015 edition of the ‘World Day Against Child Labour,’ the UN called for the international community to invest in quality education as a key step in the fight against child employment.

According to the UN International Labour Organisation, child labour keeps young children out of school, ensuring that their hopes for a more prosperous future remain unrealised.

“As things stand, the aspirations of many parents for their children and of children themselves for a decent education will remain unfulfilled dreams.

“Many girls and boys have no chance to attend school. Some try to combine school and work, but all too often must drop out of school well before reaching the legal age of employment and become child labourers,” the ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, said.

Despite some dramatic improvements which have seen the total number of child labourers shrink by one-third since the year 2000, the statement noted, the situation on the ground nevertheless remained grim.

“As a region, Asia and the Pacific still have the largest total numbers at 78 million but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labour with some 59 million, or over 21 per cent of the child population, who engaged in work which, more often than not, entails long hours in agricultural and services industries,” it said.

Ryder noted that the child labour situation was also being further aggravated by the prevalence of conflicts and crises around the globe as schoolchildren, educational facilities, and teachers suffered undue hardships caused by incessant violence.

He added that children were often forced to travel alone, “embarking on paths that frequently lead to child labour and exploitation.

“Without adequate education, former child labourers are more likely than others to end up in poorly paid and insecure work as adults or to be unemployed. And there is a high probability that they will live in poverty and that their children will share the same fate. A collective challenge and responsibility is to enable all children, girls and boys, to have access to education, quality education. Second-class education perpetuates second-class citizens,” the ILO director-general said.