Slavery still exists: 160 million children are forced to work

For the first time in the last twenty years, child labor has started to rise again. Second the new joint report of the International Labor Organization and Unicef the number of children forced to work in the world has risen to 160 million with an increase of 8.4 million children in the last 4 years and the pandemic that puts others at risk.

From 2000 to 2016 the lchild labor it was steadily dropping. The report Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward, says the trend has changed. There is an increase in the number of children between 5 and 11 years old involved in child labor. 79 million young people are working, with an increase of 6.5 million from 2016 to 2020.

“The new estimates are a wake-up call. We cannot stand by and watch while a new generation of children is at riskSays ILO Director-General Guy Ryder. Another 9 million children around the world risk having to work by the end of 2022 due to the pandemic. This figure could reach 46 million if access to basic social protection coverage is not guaranteed.

In the months of the pandemic, that bulwark that is there was missing school and economic crises have hit already tried territories. Henrietta Fore, UNICEF Director General, explains that “in the second year of lockdowns, school closures, economic disruptions and shrinking national budgets globally” forced families to make difficult choices.

70% of children forced into child labor are employed in agriculture. They are 112 million. 20% work in services and 10% in factories. 28% of children between 5 and 11 and 35% of children between 12 and 14 forced into child labor do not go to school.

Children and adolescents forced into child labor risk physical and mental harm and it takes away the opportunities for the future that education can provide. Oil and Unicef ​​ask, among other things, to “promote decent work for adults, so that families do not have to resort to the help of children to generate a family income and put an end to dangerous gender norms and discrimination that have an impact on child labor ».

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