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Child labour: signs of success
According to recent figures from the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are, worldwide, 168 million working children. Although still far too high, this number has gradually dropped since the year 2000, showing that the practical efforts of governments, civil society and NGOs, of which Terre des hommes (Tdh) is one, are bearing fruit.
On September 2013, the ILO published a new report on the child labour around the globe. The study shows that nearly 168 million children are in a work situation, whilst there were 245 millions of them in 2000. The number of children engaging in activities that put their health, their safety or their moral development in danger has even been halved during the same period.
Mirela Schuteriqi, Tdh’s specialist in protection against exploitation and child trafficking, says: “This report confirms the validity of Tdh’s in-field strategy. It identifies Sub-Saharan Africa as the region where child labour is most widespread (one child in five), and it is in this area that most of our projects for fighting child exploitation are implemented.”
The report also shows that although the main proportion of children’s work is in agriculture, the number of children exploited in the sectors of service and industry is on the rise.
All over the world, Tdh protects working children
The fight against child labour is one of the pillars of Tdh’s programme for protection. Everywhere, all too many children are forced to do hard or dangerous work for a derisory or nonexistent wage. Our Foundation runs numerous programmes, in particular in Morocco, Haiti and Burkina Faso, to come to their aid.
“With these projects, Tdh seeks to assist the youngsters exploited in cotton fields, mines, stone quarries and markets, as well as young domestic workers. Our approach to offer socio-economic assistance and to encourage education is clearly recognized as the way to get things done, according to the report”, notes Mirela Schuteriqi.
The fight goes on
In spite of the encouraging results displayed by the ILO report, we may not forget that there are still 85 million youngsters throughout the world who are in a dangerous work situation. Our common aim is that, in the near future, this figure will fall to zero.
