The number of child workers in the world has fallen by 11.39 per cent — from 246 million in 2000 to 218 million in 2004. The decline is an impressive one-third for children in hazardous work in the 5–14 age group, says the latest global report of the International Labour Organization (ILO) on child labour.

The report titled The End of Child Labour: Within Reach, the second ILO global report on child labour in six years, does not have any data for India, which has the highest child labour force in the world, though the National Sample Survey 1999–2000 figures say child labour is on the rise in the country.

According to the ILO report released worldwide on 4 May 2006, the number of child workers in the 5–14 age group dropped by 20 million, from 206 million to 186 million, and in the 15–17 age group by 7 million. The substantial decline in children engaged in harmful work has raised cautious optimism that elimination of the worst forms of child labour by the target of 2016 is indeed possible.

There is a 26 per cent decline (44 million) in child labour in the 5–17 age group in hazardous work, from 170 million in 2000 to 126 million in 2004 against the 33 per cent drop in the 5–14 age group. “The more harmful the work, the faster was the decline,” says the 90-page report. The fastest progress in reducing the number of working children has been recorded in Latin America and the Caribbean (11.7 million) while it has been marginal in Asia and the Pacific (5 million), says the report.

The progress has been the least in Africa, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, where only 1.3 million children were taken off work during the last four years. “Far more than a compilation of statistics, this report is a story of dignity and hope. It tells us that more girls and boys around the world are on the path from workrooms to classrooms:
out of exploitation toward real opportunity,” says ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia.   

The biggest employer of children is the agricultural sector, which has 7 out of 10 working children, followed by the services sector, such as restaurants and shops (22 per cent) and industry including mining, construction and manufacturing (9 per cent), says the report that has for the first time included agricultural and domestic child labour.

The new estimates suggest that there were 317 million ‘economically active children’ aged between 5 and 17 in the world in 2004, 218 million of whom could be regarded as child workers. More than half of them, or 126 million to be precise, were engaged in
hazardous work, says the report. According to Indian anti-child labour activists, the number of working children in the country has risen marginally since the 1999–2000 NSSO survey. “No food grain, no cotton and no building is made in India without child labour,” says Shantha Sinha, a Magsaysay Award-winning activist from Andhra Pradesh. The NSSO 1999–2000 figure had put the number of working children in the country at 8.4 million. The actual figure could be many times more with 85 million children out of schools. India has yet to ratify the ILO’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention and the Minimum Age Convention though it has its own law, the Child Labour (Prohibition) Act, which bans child labour in hazardous industries, and regulates it in others.

The ILO is also worried about the impact of HIV/AIDS on child labour and the growth of an informal economy. “The countries can’t rely on economic growth alone to bring about an end to child labour. Economic growth and the right policy mix are needed,” states the report. The report says governments must concentrate on universal education, improved earning opportunities for adults, increased awareness of laws and enforcement to eliminate child labour by 2016.