United Nations says 168 million children still working as labourers

Nearly 168 million children still work as child laborers, the United Nations labour agency has said. The revelation was made in the International Labour Organisation (ILO) report released ahead of a Global Child Labour conference in Brasilia next month.

The report revealed that the number of child labourers worldwide has dropped by a third since 2000, but warned that much needs to be done. It hailed particular progress in cutting the number of youngsters doing hazardous work, likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children, which had fallen to 85 million from 171 million in 2000, news24 reports. ILO director-general Guy Ryder said that there are 168 million good reasons to do so step up efforst to end child labour.

While the numbers have fallen substantially, 11% of the world's children are still working instead of attending school - half of them doing hazardous work, stressed Constance Thomas, who heads the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (Ipec), the report added.

According to the report, the organisation has set a 2016 target of ridding the world of hazardous child labour, which includes dangerous work within a wide range of sectors including agriculture, mining and construction. The report noted that progress has especially been made in reducing the number of girls in child labour, with the number falling by 40% over the 12-year-period.