PERSPECTIVE
Public health
Policy in child labour
1 Centre for International Child Health, Institute of Child Health, University College London, UK
2 Centre for Childhood Development and Learning, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, UK
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr T Hesketh
Centre for International Child Health, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford St, London WC1 N1EH, UK; t.hesketh@ich.ucl.ac.uk
The importance of health
Keywords: child labour; epidemiology; health
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) defines child labour as "all economic activities carried out by persons less than 15, regardless of their occupational status, except household work in parents/carers homes".1 By this definition over 200 million children, or a massive 20% of all children under the age of 15, are engaged in child labour. They are mostly concentrated in the poorest regions of the world: in Sub-Saharan Africa 29% of all children work, in Asia-Pacific 19%, and in Latin America and the Caribbean 16%.1 Children work across a range of employment sectors, including agriculture (which accounts for 70%), manufacturing, street trading, domestic work, and mining.2 Many children work because the benefits of working are perceived as greater than those of attending school. These benefits may include economic return, the opportunity to learn a skill, a sense of independence, and higher self-esteem.3 The family may also be unable to
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