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.
The most recent International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) surveys conducted in Fiji and Papua New Guinea established that there are significant numbers of children in child labour, in particular its worst forms. The surveys found children in commercial sexual exploitation, especially child prostitution, drug trafficking and begging, working in hazardous conditions such as collecting and handling scrap metals, chemicals, carrying heavy loads, scavenging, working very long hours and in working environments where they are subjected to psychological, physical and verbal abuse. Many children dropped out of school and work below the minimum age of employment or in the worst forms of child labour. In PNG there were cases of child sex workers with HIV/AIDS.
Anecdotal reports of child labour as an emerging problem in Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu highlight evidence of children working as domestic servants, in the markets, in hotels, in subsistence agriculture, in coffee and tea plantations, and in commercial sexual exploitation. Estimates by the ILO suggest that child workers make up an estimated 19 per cent of the labour force in PNG and 14 per cent in the Solomon Islands. Extensive surveys and studies are needed to gain a more definitive picture.
The obvious vulnerability of working children also means that some face a further layer of exploitation - becoming victims of trafficking and sexual abuse.
If nothing is done about child labour the child labourers become young people with poor employment prospects who cannot lift their own families out of the poverty trap, cannot become parents able to give their children a better life, and cannot contribute effectively to national development.
Education therefore is the key. Through education and training economically and socially marginalized children and young people can lift themselves out of poverty and find ways to take a role in participate in their societies.
The ILO response
The ILO sees free, compulsory education up to the minimum employment age as a crucial element in each country’s efforts to tackle child labour and implement ‘education for all’ (EFA) initiatives. National time-bound programmes to eliminate the worst forms of child labour and regional programmes to combat trafficking in young women and children also make a positive contribution. ILO-IPEC, which works in more than 80 countries worldwide, seeks to integrate child labour issues into national development frameworks (including EFA initiatives). This ensures that preventing and eliminating child labour becomes a national development priority, and that education and skills training become effective ways of supporting this goal.