The World Day Against Child Labour began yesterday with a series of appeals to reverse the conditions that force 246 million children around the world to work, nearly three-quarters of them in jobs that put their lives at risk.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that one child in eight - about 179 million children from the ages of five to 17 - is caught up in the worst forms of child labour, which endanger their physical, mental or moral well-being.
The US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned that about 70 per cent of the world's child workers were working in agriculture and were exposed to long hours in harsh conditions, often breathing toxic chemicals, such as pesticides. "Children working in agriculture far outnumber the kids weaving carpets and stitching soccer balls, who get the most media attention," Ms Jo Becker of HRW said.
In a report on child labour in agriculture, the human rights group estimates that of the 15 million bonded child labourers in India, at least half are tending crops or herding cattle "and performing other tasks for their masters" for up to 17 hours a day.
In Ecuador, 600,000 children as young as eight work in banana plantations and packing plants, while seven-year-olds are working on pest control in cotton fields in Egypt. In the US, children begin working in farms from the age of 12, for about 14 hours a day during the harvesting season. - (AFP)