Child Labor: Despite the Acts and Laws, This Problem Just Won't Go Away

Too many people think that child labor is a problem of the past. However, a quick glance at recent statistics paints a very different picture.

According to one website*, the global problem of illegal child labor and exploitation has hardly disappeared. Indeed, as the population grows, so, too, do the numbers.


246,000,000 children qualify as child laborers (generally aged 14 and under)
73,000,000 are under the age of 10.
Of these, 2.5 million are in developed countries
Another 2.5 million live in Eastern Europe
Every single year, an estimated 22,000 kids will die in a work-related accident.
The great majority - 127 million - of these working children under fourteen live in the Asia-Pacific region.
In Sub-Sahara Africa, nearly 33% of children under 14 hold down jobs. This number totals 48,000,000!
The top two industries that employ these many millions of children across the globe are the agricultural and the Domestic services. However, these jobs are hardly as cushy as they sound...
Conditions in these countries generally mean danger in the fields or in the "domestic arena". It's no jump of the imagination to figure out what kind of domestic activities were preformed by the large population of little girls (who account for up to 60%) Many of them are exploited and go through fast-track training as prostitutes, black market baby machines, and all sorts of other terrible "careers".

Right now, lack of enforcement is the key obstacle to combating child labor. In many of the same nations and regions where child labor is rampant, the funding and infrastructure of regulatory agencies simply doesn't exist. Someone else is going to have to step in, show some courage and initiative and help to develop safer, sounder and empowering ways to put the families to work.

One of the ways that this is done is the use of micro-loan funding. Loans (almost all of which are less than $1,000.00US) are provided to men and women to fund their trades and businesses. This trend has already swept across many third-world countries and left a slew of success stories in it's wake.

However, this is only the beginning. Advocacy groups and non-profit organizations always need support of every different kind.

Each of us is certainly gifted with some talent, service or even contact that can make a difference in the lives of our children, and through them, the fate of our future.

So, earnestly ask yourself, "What can I do to put a stop to this terrible tragedy?"



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