1. Introduction

It is common knowledge that data on child labour are extremely scarce. The reason for this is the absence of an appropriate survey methodology for probing into the work of children which, for the most part, is a "hidden" phenomenon. Consequently, the ILO designed special sample survey methodologies and experimented them in four countries. These were further refined and adopted for investigating at the national level the child labour situation in a number of countries.

The child labour problem being multi-dimensional, the information sought through the specialised survey approaches involved answers to the following questions, among others: Who are the working children and how many are there in the individual countries? How old are they when they start to work for the first time and how do they live? Why do they work and in which sectors are they engaged? What are their specific occupations and the conditions of their work? What types of exploitation and abuse they face at work? How safe are they physically and mentally at their workplace or in their occupations? Do they also go to school? If they do, what are the consequences of their non-schooling work? And if they do not go to school, what are the reasons? Who are their employers? Why do they use them? And how do they treat them in comparison with their adult workers? How many children are engaged on a full time basis in housekeeping activities of a purely domestic nature in their own parents' or guardians' households thereby sacrificing their education and also exposing themselves to various injuries and health hazards? What are the perceptions of parents about their working children? What are those of the children themselves and their employers?

Based on the findings of the experiments as well as the results of national surveys carried out since then using the newly developed methodologies and, also taking into account other demographic and socio-economic factors, the ILO produced estimates on the size of working children at regional and global levels which have been internationally accepted and quoted as ILO figures. Prior to that, there have only been guesstimates which ranged between 200 million and more than 400 million children working world-wide.

Level and distribution of working children: General level

According to the new estimates, there are some 250 million children 5-14 years old who are toiling in economic activity in developing countries. For close to one-half of them (or 120 million), this work is carried out on a full time basis, while for the remaining one-half it is combined with schooling or other non-economic activities. Among school going children, up to one-third of the boys (33%) and more than two-fifths (42%) of the girls are also engaged in economic activities on a part-time basis. The overall estimates of 250 million working children are exclusive of children who are engaged in regular non-economic activities, including those who provide services of domestic nature on a full-time basis in their own parents' or guardians' households.

The number of such children is relatively large (about 15%-20% of the total child population of the same age-cohort).

Gender

The data so far obtained show that more boys than girls work ¾ close to three boys to two girls, on average. It should be borne in mind, however, that the number of working girls is often underestimated by statistical surveys which usually do not take into account unpaid economic activity carried out in and around the household, including household enterprises.

Also more girls than boys perform full-time housework of non-economic nature - e.g., housekeeping in their own parents' household - many of them between 8-12 years old - in order to enable their parents or guardians to go to work, or to take care of sick or handicapped members in the household. Such work is reported to be the main reason for about one-third of the youngsters who do not attend school - they were either never enrolled or were obliged to drop out of school because of the full-time housework. If such full-time housework were taken into account, there would be little or no variation between the sexes in the total size of working children, and the number of girls could even exceed that of boys.

Regional

For obvious reasons, child labour is most prevalent in the developing regions of the globe. In absolute terms, it is Asia (excluding Japan), as the most densely populated region of the world, that has the most child workers (approximately 61% of the world's total as compared with 32 % in Africa, 7% in Latin America, and one-fifth of one per cent in Oceania excluding Australia and New Zealand). But in relative terms, Africa comes first in economic activity participation rate of children which is estimated at a little more than two children out of five (or 41%) of the total children 5-14 years old. The corresponding proportion in Asia is around one-half of the level in Africa (i.e., about one in five children or 21%), and it is one in six (or 17%) in Latin America, and one in ten (10%) in Oceania.

In all regions, more boys than girls participate in economic activity. The highest participation rate of boys is in Latin America and the Caribbean (46%) and in Africa (45%) as compared with the rates in Asia (22%) and Oceania (22%). The gender differential in the rates is greatest in Latin America and the Caribbean (46% for boys to 11% for the girls), followed by Oceania 22% to 9%), and Africa (45% to 37%, the latter is also the highest participation rate of girls by region). The differential between boys and girls participation rates is smallest in Asia (22% to 20%).

STATISTICS ON WORKING CHILDREN AND HAZARDOUS CHILD LABOUR IN BRIEF 1 By Kebebew Ashagrie, International Labour Office, Geneva. First Published 1997, revised April 1998