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'Child Labour' is work performed by a child that is likely to interfere with his or her right to education, or to be harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. All work done by children under the age of 15 and dangerous work done by children under the age of 18 is illegal. Child labor is prohibited under international treaties and agreements.

Child labour in numbers

According to estimates by the International Labour Organisation (2017), there are 152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, subject to child labour.

Almost 1 in 10 children between the age of 5 and 17 years old have to work

About 4.3 million children aged below 18 years are in forced labour

70.9% works in agriculture

17.2% in the service sector

11.9% in heavy industry

Most child labour takes place in the informal sector

Nearly 70% of the children does unpaid work supporting their family

Causes & Consequences

Poverty is often cited as the main cause of child labour. It is widely believed that families will not be able to cope if their children do not work. In practice, however, the poverty argument does not hold water. Precisely the opposite is true: child labour maintains poverty.

Experience shows that deeprooted social norms, the violation of workers' rights, discrimination against certain groups, and a poorly-functioning education system are the main reasons why children aren't attending school.

Because children are easy to exploit and are cheap labourers, they are hired in preference to adults. Child labour thus leads to lower wages and higher unemployment among adults. Children who work and do not go to school will end up in low paid jobs later, and so will their children - and so the vicious cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

Child labour exists because:

people accept it and invent excuses for it;

children's rights are not respected;

governments do not provide compulsory, free and accessible education;

international agreements and conventions are not observed;

the education system excludes poor and vulnerable children;

consumers worldwide demand cheap products;

employers can benefit from cheap labour;

there is no decent work for adults;

we have not done enough to stop it.

Together we can stop child labour

By no longer accepting it, not in mines, not on fields, not in factories, not in domestic settings and not in the products we buy...

Child labour is a global problem that requires a global solution. In India, Africa and Latin America, local authorities, teachers, employers, parents and children in child labour free zones work together to get children out of work and into school. They are all convinced that no child should be working: every child should be in school. These child labour free zones are successful and are continuing to spread to other areas and countries.

But real change requires more. This is why we call on governments, businesses and consumers worldwide to shoulder their responsibility. And work together towards a child labour free world.

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'Child Labour' is work performed by a child that is likely to interfere with his or her right to education, or to be harmful to their health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. All work done by children under the age of 15 and dangerous work done by children under the age of [...]

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Newsela | Senators call for ban on imports of cocoa produced by forced child labor

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Two Democratic senators are calling for a ban on cocoa imported from the Ivory Coast, citing "overwhelming evidence" of the use of forced child labor on the country's cocoa farms

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COCHABAMBA, Bolivia - Benjamin Obando is surrounded by death.

The 11-year-old boy works at a cemetery, praying, singing and fetching water for relatives of the dead.

"I bring money home for my family, to give them food," said Obando, who earns about $3 a day.

He isn't afraid to work among departed souls, but said he hurries to leave the graveyard before 7 p.m. because that's when "little ghosts appear."

In 2014, Bolivia lowered the age children could work for themselves or their families to 10, the lowest minimum age for labor. Children can work for others when they are 12. Previously, Bolivia's minimum working age law in all cases was 14.

The United Nations, the International Labor Organization and other groups have urged Bolivia to repeal the law, arguing it lacks strong protections for the young child laborers.

But in a country with a 39 percent poverty rate - despite an economic turnaround in recent years - the children's wages can be a lifeline for their families, pitting their safety against their own survival or that of their families.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has resisted calls for repeal, saying children have the right to work.

Last week, he reiterated his support for children and adolescents and unveiled new decrees to protect them.

One decree gives free legal aid to victims of violence. Another mandates paid leave for parents if their children are critically ill. A third order requires the news media to spread - free of charge - "messages of love, affection, respect, appreciation and dignity toward children and adolescents and against violence."

Morales, who herded llamas at 6, told reporters that the government has a duty "to protect the greatest treasure that is the future of Bolivia. We have to take care of future generations."

Critics said Morales' additional rules aren't enough.

"Many laws are written that aren't followed," said Marcos Gandarillas, a sociologist in Cochabamba in central Bolivia.

The debate is taking place in a economically improved Bolivia, which government supporters say Morales has helped make better for children since taking office in 2006.

Poverty has declined over the past decade. And in 2017, the Bolivian economy grew by 4 percent, higher than any other South American nation, according to the World Bank.

"Bolivia is experiencing the longest period of democracy in its history - 35 years," said Hernan Rico who helps enforce the laws to protect children.

Rico is the leader of the government's Delegation on Children and Adolescents in Cochabamba. He said child workers helped write the 2014 law, which established harsh penalties for bullying, harassment, sexual violence and infanticide.

The law also called for registering child workers as a way of tracking and protecting them, but that system isn't yet in place.

Rico acknowledged the law has faced "administrative difficulties," but said the government is progressing.

"The most difficult part is not the children, but the openness of adults" toward allowing children to work, said Peter Strack, a sociologist in Cochabamba. "The law has lost momentum," he said.

According to UNICEF, some 850,000 children work in Bolivia. Keeping them safe is a daunting task, child advocates say. Crime, violence and other perils threaten many young people, especially the poor.

Natalia Calahumana said she sold candy and gum on the streets at age 7 after her father abandoned the family.

"I learned to shine shoes at 8," she said. "At 9, I started to weave."

She said she didn't like living at home because it was painful to see her mother cry all the time over money troubles. So at night she curled up in a cardboard box on the street.

Back then, she said she ate whatever she could find, including restaurant leftovers.

At 11, Calahumana said a stranger drove up and asked her to come work for her. "I believed everything the señora said. I would be fine. I would have something to eat. I would have clothes."

So she climbed into the woman's car.

"I didn't want to be on the streets anymore," Calahumana said. "I took care of a little girl she had. I cleaned all the bedrooms. I cooked."

And it was fine - at first. But the job turned into a nightmare when the woman locked the child in her house and forced her to work for no pay.

"The señora disconnected the phone so I couldn't call anyone. The only thing I wanted was to escape. She told me, 'You were on the streets. You'll steal from me. You have to be shut in with a key.' I told the señora, 'Yes, I was on the street, but I would never rob you.'

'No,' she told me, 'you'll steal everything. I have jewels. Everything is gold.'"

One day, Calahumana said, she accidentally broke a plate. The woman picked up a shard of glass and cut her with it.

"She would cut my hand to say 'you'll never break anything again.'"

Calahumana finally escaped after the señora forgot to lock the door.

Now, more than two decades later, she has three children of her own.

"My dream is that my children be something in life, not like me," said Calahumana, 34, who lives in El Alto, Bolivia's second-largest city. "That's why I work. I wash clothes. I shine shoes. I sell newspapers, gum, candy. I do everything so my children don't have to do what I do."

Some experts question whether Bolivia has the resources and capacity to protect child workers. Bolivia had only 12 child labor inspectors in 2016 and up to a fifth of country's municipalities lacked a child protection advocate, U.S. officials said.

Bolivia reported that it carried out "250 targeted child labor inspections" in 2016. That was "inadequate to address the scope of the problem, particularly in rural and hard to reach areas," the U.S. Labor Department said.

The Bolivian government did not disclose statistics on child labor investigations, violations, prosecutions or convictions, according to the department.

Bolivia's Ministry of Labo r had been expected to release the results of a child labor survey in 2017, but publication was postponed over disagreements about how to interpret the data, a source told NBC News on condition of anonymity.

Child advocates hope the results will help identify workers most in need of protection.

In 2008, 60 children died in accidents and caveins at Bolivia's Cerro Rico mine, National Public Radio reported in 2013.

The number of Bolivian children working in mining and construction, another hazardous occupation, rose from 2001 to 2012, Bolivia's National Institute of Statistics reported in May.

The average monthly wage for children and adolescents was $201 in 2014.

Many Bolivians shun low-wage earners, workers say. Shoe shiners often wear ski masks so they won't be recognized.

A masked shoe shiner who goes by the nickname "Universal Soldier" said he started working at age 7. His family needed the money after his parents divorced.

At 9, he worked for a carpenter, making and sanding chairs. But he said he wasn't paid a wage for five months.

"He only gave me lunch," Universal Soldier said. "But I worked all day - 14 or 15 hours per day. It wasn't fair."

After he told the employer he was going to report him, the carpenter threatened to kill his brothers.

"Since we were just children, we were afraid we'd never see our younger brothers again," said Universal Soldier, now 20.

So he kept his mouth shut.

Despite such episodes, he has no regrets.

"A child who starts working very young appreciates what he earns with the sweat on his brow," he said. "You learn to appreciate life, to appreciate every cent that you earn."
This report was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center.
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Bolivia wrestles with protecting child workers as young as 10

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Boliva President Evo Morales added new protections to a law that lets children as young as 10 work, but critics say existing safeguards aren't well enforced.

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10 Shocking Child Labor Facts - The Borgen Project

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Here are 10 child labor facts about the perpetuating cycle of poverty that results from depriving children of an education. These shocking facts about child labor demonstrate the detrimental effects of the practice on the countries which it plagues.

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How Iqbal Masih Inspires Another Young Activist

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How Iqbal Masih Inspires Another Young Activist

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Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Industry (Iqbal  Masih)

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Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Industry (Iqbal  Masih)

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.

The death of Iqbal Masih, 12, received worldwide publicity after a group that is fighting child labor blamed carpet industry owners. But residents of his village later said Iqbal was slain in a fight with a farm worker, and Pakistan's leading human rights group says there is no evidence implicating the industry.

Iqbal's case attracted attention because he had been to Sweden and the United States to speak at conferences denouncing child labor. He had worked as a carpet weaver from age 4 to 10.

Imran Malik, vice chairman of the Pakistan Carpet and Manufacturers and Exporters Association, estimates $10 million worth of orders have been lost since the April 16 shooting.

"Carpets that were once considered a piece of art are now looked upon as if the blood of children has been used to make them," Malik said.

*

The carpet industry, one of the biggest exporters in this impoverished country, was facing lean times even before Iqbal's death. Exports fell from $183 million in 1992 to $149 million last year, the government says.

The United States, the largest importer of Pakistani carpets, purchased $42 million worth last year, down from $55 million two years earlier.

"With this controversy, our wholesale carpet buyers don't want to take the risk and buy Pakistani carpets," said Abdul Latif Malik, a leading Lahore carpet dealer who says he has lost at least $300,000 in sales since Iqbal's death. He is no relation to the vice chairman of the carpet association.

Usman Ashraf of Usman Carpet House in Lahore said he has lost $80,000 in sales since mid-April. "It is all related to the young boy's death," he said.

Both dealers said Western buyers had contacted them to say they would not be making further purchases due to the furor over the killing.

But in New York, carpet dealers contacted by the Associated Press said they had seen no backlash against Pakistani carpets since Iqbal's death, although one said reports of child labor overseas had sparked questions from a few customers.

"There isn't a major scare that I'm aware of, but all carpets have not been selling as well because of the downturn in the economy," said Michael Harounian, a partner in the New York-based Harounian Imports.

Harounian and Larry Feldman, president of the Rug Warehouse in New York, both said they try to ensure they do no business with carpet makers who use child labor.

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Anti-Slavery International, a British-based group that campaigns against forced labor, estimates carpet makers employ about 500,000 children under 14 years old in Pakistan, 300,000 in India and 110,000 in Nepal.

Children are prized by carpet makers because their tiny fingers make small, tight knots, the sign of a truly fine carpet.

Hand-knotted carpets also are made in Iran, China, Afghanistan, Morocco, Turkey, Peru and some former Soviet states.

"Apart from the former Soviet Union, where we have no information, we have information to suggest that child labor is used to some extent in all these countries," said David Ould, spokesman for Anti-Slavery International.

It was the campaign against child labor that drew attention to Iqbal's killing.

The Bonded Labor Liberation Front, a private group in Pakistan, blamed the slaying on Pakistan's "carpet mafia," although it provided no evidence.

An AP reporter who visited Iqbal's village outside Lahore was told by numerous residents that the youth was shot by a farm worker after a petty dispute. Iqbal's cousin, who was wounded in the shooting, told the same story to police, who have arrested the farm worker.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, the country's most respected human rights group, said it found no evidence tying the carpet industry to Iqbal's death.

In dirt-poor villages where there are not enough schools, children are routinely sent out to find work in mills, brickyards and garages before they reach their 10th birthday.

The conditions are often filthy and dangerous and the daily pay can be as little as one rupee--the equivalent of three cents. But in such an impoverished region, many people accept child labor as normal, including the children.

"Children themselves say, 'We're earning a living.' The family says they need the money," said Shireen Khan, a spokeswoman in Islamabad for the International Labor Organization, a United Nations group.

Pakistan passed legislation in 1992 that says children under 14 are not allowed to work, but the law is not enforced.

If Pakistan does not show some progress, it could lose preferential tariffs on its carpet imports into the United States, Commerce Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said.

"It's like a sword dangling over our head," he said.

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Young Activist's Death Hits Pakistani Carpet Sales : Trade: Exports to West have diminished even though producers haven't been linked to death of 12-year-old who fought child labor.

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Already hit with sagging exports, Pakistani carpet dealers say they have lost more sales to Western buyers since the killing of a young activist who spoke out against child labor.