Asia-Pacific enjoys a reputation as a vibrant economic zone, but it is also home to more working children than any other region in the world; an estimated 122 million children aged 5-14 years are compelled to work for their survival. Millions are not enrolled in school at all.

Although there has been progress in reducing child labour in many countries in the region, the problem persists. Research by the ILO’s International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has found working children in a number of economic sectors, including domestic labour, seafood processing, garment and footwear factories, mining and quarrying, pyrotechnics, rag-picking and scavenging, rubber and sugar-cane plantations, entertainment and other services. This list is not exclusive but it gives an indication of the efforts being made to document the many and varied forms of child labour.

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