Extreme poverty often forces children to work to help their families to survive. Work places that use child labour are often congested, dusty, inadequately ventilated and, in some instances, require the handling of chemicals.

It has been estimated that during 1997-98, some 250 million children five to 14 years old were toiling in economic activities in developing countries and almost 70 per cent of them work in dangerous environments with threats to their health, safety and cultural values. For close to half of them, this work was carried out on a full-time basis, while for the remaining half it was combined with schooling or other non-economic activities. As much as 69 per cent of working children were affected by various hazards, and from five per cent to more than 20 per cent of whom suffered actual injuries, with some forced to stop working permanently.

The primary illnesses and injuries were punctures, broken or complete loss of body parts, burns and skin disease, eye and hearing impairment, respiratory and gastro-intestinal illnesses, fever and headaches from excessive heat in the fields or in factories.

Half of working children laboured for nine hours or more a day, with up to four-fifths of these children working seven days a week. The child worker has a high risk of burns, falls, chemical poisoning, lung diseases, etc. Also, because their bodies are not fully developed and their young minds perhaps unaware of the dangers, they are more likely to be injured or to become ill.

The 1999/2000 Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) of 49 developing countries revealed that 23 per cent of rural children (5-14 years old) worked, as compared to 13 per cent in urban areas. Saharan African countries showed the highest proportion of children working.

Sources: Statistics on Working Children and Hazardous Child Labour in Brief. International Labour Organisation; and United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF End Decade Databases – Child work.

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