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Ending child labour

The International Labour Organisation's finding of a global decline in child labour between 2000 and 2004 suggests that the multiple strategies adopted over the past two decades to remove children from work are proving effective. But the report also highlights the huge challenge, especially in the agricultural sector that employs seven out of 10 children at work and in the arena of domestic work, that needs to be met. The End of Child Labour: Within Reach 2006, the second report of its kind, estimates that the world's 218 million working children (2004 figures) represent an 11 per cent drop from 2000. The 26 per cent decline in child workers engaged in hazardous occupations suggests that ending child labour in high-risk conditions is easier to achieve than the abolition of child labour under `normal' conditions. The ILO points out that the Latin American and Caribbean countries have actually freed two-thirds of working children from economic activity. But despite a steady fall in fertility rates, Asia and the Pacific region are home to the largest number of child workers (122 million) in the 5-14 age group. Shockingly, half of them are engaged in hazardous work. The situation in Sub-Saharan Africa has been made worse by the high population growth, regional conflict, and the loss of large numbers of people in the active age groups to the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Underlying the overall improvement are the progress made in the spread of compulsory school education and a concerted attack on mass poverty in several developing countries. China leads the field. Its rapid progress in school education and lifting millions of people out of poverty is an inspiring example of high economic growth, successful reforms, and well-targeted social policies combining to effect a huge decline in the number of the world's child workers.

The growing involvement of trade unions has been a critical factor in the campaign against child labour in countries such as India, given the well-known fact that the practice of child labour has the effect of depressing adult wages and also has a detrimental impact on productivity. At the same time, there is an imperative need to speed up the adoption of international labour standards, which continue to be viewed with scepticism by policy-makers in several developing countries. In the case of India, the failure of successive governments to ratify the two international labour standards that pertain to the prescription of a minimum age for entry into employment and the abolition of the worst forms of child labour — two of the core ILO Conventions — reflects poorly on the state's commitment to abolish child labour, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Abolition) Act notwithstanding. Continuing to accept the excuse of `harsh realities' and waiting for economic development to phase out child labour are also inimical to realising the constitutional guarantee of free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 14.

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