168 million work as child labourers –UN

The United Nations has said that an estimated 168 million children, between the ages of five and 14, around the world, including Nigeria, , work in conditions considered being hazardous to their health.More than half of the 168 million are engaged infull-time work, the UN says.In a statement to mark the ‘2015 World Day Against Child Labour,’ the global body called for the international community to invest in quality education as a key step in the fight against childemployment.According to the UN International Labour Organisation, child labour keeps young children out of school and ensures that their hopes for a more prosperous future remain unrealised.The ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder, said, “As things stand, the aspirations of many parents for their children and of children themselves for a decent education will remain unfulfilled dreams.“Many girls and boys have no chance to attend school. Some try to combine school and work, but all too often must drop out of school well before reaching the legal age of employment and become child labourers.”Despite some dramatic improvements, which have seen the total number of child labourers reduced by one-third since the year 2000, the statement noted that the situation on the groundnevertheless remained grim.“As a region, Asia and the Pacific still have the largest total numbers at 78 million but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labour with some 59 million, or over 21 per cent of the child population, engaged in work which, more often than not, entails long hours in agricultural and services industries,” Ryder said.He noted that the child labour situation was alsobeing further aggravated by the prevalence of conflicts and crises around the globe as schoolchildren, educational facilities, and teachers suffered undue hardships caused by incessant violence.He added that children were often forced to travel alone, “embarking on paths that frequently lead to child labour and exploitation.”“Without adequate education, former child labourers are more likely than others to end up in poorly paid and insecure work as adults or to be unemployed.And there is a high probability that they will live in poverty and that their children will share the same fate. A collective challenge and responsibility is to enable all children, girls and boys, to have access to education, quality education.Second-class education perpetuates second-class citizens,” the ILO director-general said.