World Day Against Child Labor: Just Say NO!

No to child labor in domestic work!

GENEVA (ILO News) – An estimated 10.5 million children worldwide – most of them under age – are working as domestic workers in people’s homes, in hazardous and sometimes slavery-like conditions, says the ILO.

Six and a half million of these child labourers are aged between five and 14 years-old. More than 71 per cent are girls.

According to the latest figures in a new ILO report, Ending Child labour in domestic work, they work in the homes of a third party or employer, carrying out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12 June, the World Day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.

Around the world, large numbers of children are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer. These children can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Their work is often hidden from the public eye, they may be isolated, and they may be working far away from their family home. Stories of the abuse of children in domestic work are all too common. On the 2013 World Day Against Child Labour the ILO calls for:

• Legislative and policy reforms to ensure the elimination of child labour in domestic work and the provision of decent work conditions and appropriate protection to young workers in domestic work who have reached the legal working age.
• Ratify ILO Convention No. 189 concerning decent work for domestic workers and its implementation along with the ILO’s child labour Convention. 1
• Action to build the Worldwide movement against child labour and to build the capacity of domestic workers organizations to address child labour.

Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute: Sponsor the Children Fund – The Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (GWEI) has a vision: provide the imperiled children of India with a safe place where they will be housed and fed while they receive training to prepare them for a life outside the prison of poverty.