There were almost 78 million fewer child labourers at the end of this period [in 2012] than at the beginning [in 2000], a reduction of almost one-third. The fall in girls in child labour was particularly pronounced -there was a reduction of 40 per cent in the number of girls in child labour as compared to 25 per cent for boys. The total number of children in hazardous work, which comprises by far the largest share of those in the worst forms of child labour, declined by over half. Also progress was especially pronounced among younger children, with child labour for this group falling by over one third between 2000 and 2012.
More detail -
At the turn of the millennium in 2000 - or, alternatively, in the last Year of the Dragon before 2012 - the ILO's first report estimated that 245.5 million children aged 5-17 were in child labor.* 186 million child laborers were 14 or younger - that is, about 10 percent of the 1820 children 14 and below. In turn, 111 million boys and girls in this younger child-labor group were engaged in "hazardous work," which the ILO defines this as "work in dangerous or unhealthy conditions that could result in a child being killed, or injured and/or made ill as a consequence of poor safety and health standards and working arrangements."
One turn of the Chinese calendar later, the children born in 2000 are finishing 5th grade. They are much less likely to work than were their elder siblings and cousins a decade ago. The ILO's newest estimates, from Monday's report, find the number of child laborers worldwide down to 168 million. This includes 120 million children 14 or younger - about 6.5 percent of a slightly larger total population of 1860 million. Fully half the decline in this especially young work came between 2008 and 2012, meaning that the decade's decline in child labor not only survived the financial crisis, but accelerated. The number of younger children in hazardous work, finally, has fallen fastest of all - dropping by fully two-thirds, from the 111 million of 2000 to 38 million in 2012.
Remarkably good news, then. Why? Three hypotheses, not mutually contradictory, include demographic change, the retreat of poverty, and deliberate policy choices by governments.
(1) Demographics: Child labor is most common in rural areas, and the world's rural population is slowly falling. Ninety-eight million of today's 168 million child workers are in agriculture - still a majority, but a 50-million drop from the 2000 estimate of 148 million agricultural child laborers. The ILO considers agricultural labor particularly dangerous for children, and the sharp decline in rural child labor thus helps explains why "hazardous" child labor has fallen faster than child labor overall. Rural child labor is falling fast in part because of some good policy ideas (for which see below), but also just because there are fewer rural children relative to city children than there were in 2000. Rural populations accounted for 53 percent of the world's people in 2000, and now 49 percent. Urban parents are more likely to have wage income, urban children are more likely to have nearby schools, and urban local governments are more able to provide basic services; therefore, some natural decline in child labor.
(2) Economics: Poverty has receded quickly since the millennium. Then, by the World Bank's count, 1.7 billion people lived in "absolute poverty," meaning at $1.25 per person per day. By 2010 there were 1.2 billion. With fewer families at bare subsistence levels, fewer parents must feel forced to sacrifice children's education for modest household income gains; more low-income parents, on the other hand, can afford to keep their children in school.
(3) Policy: Innovative government programs, pioneered in Latin America and copied worldwide, help accelerate the decline in child labor. Brazil's bolsa escola program, set up during the presidency of Fernando Cardoso in the 1990s and extended as bolsa familia under President Lula, is a leading example. It pays about 11 million low-income families small stipends - averaging $35 per month - to keep children in school. ILO credits this with raising Brazilian primary school attendance from 86% to 97% since the mid-1990s, and increasing high school enrollment as well.
* As distinct from "children in employment," which includes child labor plus some part-time after-school work in family businesses, apprenticeships, and other light work, limited to 14 hours or less, viewed as acceptable under the ILO Child Labor Conventions. The number of children "in employment" but not in "child labor" was 106 million in 2000, and 97 million in 2012.
**: By sector, the ILO divides child labor into "industry," "agriculture," and "services." Child labor in "industry - including manufacturing, quarrying, mining, and construction - is a much smaller phenomenon than agricultural child labor, but is dropping about as fast. The ILO's 2000 estimate was 17 million in 2000, and the estimate for 2012 is 12 million. By contrast, the count of children working in basic urban services - as maids, cooks, hotel-workers, messengers, sweepers, and so on - has fallen dropped only slightly, from 56 million in 2012 to 52 million in 2000.
