04.07.2021
Covid-19 Pandemic Fueling Child Labour : 1 in 10 Children Worldwide Were Engaged In Labour
The unprecedented economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is pushing children into exploitative and dangerous child labour. Many children feel they have no choice but to work to help their families survive, but a rise in child labor is not an inevitable consequence of the pandemic. Governments and donors should prioritize cash allowances to enable families to maintain an adequate standard of living without resorting to child labor. Children described working long, grueling hours for little pay after their parents lost jobs or income due to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns. Many described hazardous working conditions, and some reported violence, harassment, and pay theft. The children worked at brick kilns, carpet factories, gold mines, stone quarries, fisheries, and in agriculture. Some work as mechanics, rickshaw drivers, or in construction, while others sell items on the street. More than one-third of the children worked at least ten hours a day, some seven days a week. Most were paid very little, if at all. More than a quarter said that their employer sometimes withheld wages or paid less than was promised. In Ghana, a 12-year-old said that he worked 11 hours a day carting fish to market, but was paid only 2-3 cedis per day (US$0.34-0.52).
There are 94 million child labourers in the Asia and Pacific region - almost one in 10 children. There are 69 million in sub-Saharan Africa (one in five), 16 million in Latin America and the Caribbean and 11.2 million in the Middle East and North Africa. Credit: Bloomberg
There are 94 million child labourers in the Asia and Pacific region - almost one in 10 children. There are 69 million in sub-Saharan Africa (one in five), 16 million in Latin America and the Caribbean and 11.2 million in the Middle East and North Africa. Credit: Bloomberg
Poverty deprives people of adequate education, health care and of life's most basic necessities- safe living conditions (including clean air and clean drinking water) and an adequate food supply. The developed (industrialized) countries today account for roughly 20 percent of the world's population but control about 80 percent of the world's wealth.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
Poverty and pollution seem to operate in a vicious cycle that, so far, has been hard to break. Even in the developed nations, the gap between the rich and the poor is evident in their respective social and environmental conditions.
