Across the world, millions of children do extremely hazardous work in harmful conditions, that prevents them from getting an education or is harmful to their health or to their physical, mental, or social development. Every day, an estimated 215 million boys and girls work as child labourers, in the farms, fields, factories, homes, streets and battlefields. They face hunger, hardwork, ill-health and poverty.

Of this total, a staggering 115 million are engaged in hazardous work, which is illegal. Hazardous child labour is work in dangerous industries or in workplaces, where children are likely to meet  exploitative situations by nature or circumstances of work. Some hazardous conditions that children work in are: 

• Working in mines
• Working with chemicals and pesticides in  agriculture

The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, potential and dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. It refers to work that:

• is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and
• interferes with their schooling by:
• depriving them of the opportunity to attend school;
• obliging them to leave school prematurely; or
• requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.

In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. Whether or not particular forms of “work” can be called “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries. The answer varies from country to country, as well as among sectors within countries.

According  to  International  Labour  Organization  (ILO)  Convention No. 182, “the worst forms of child labour” include:

• All  forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom, and forced or compulsory labour, including forced  or compulsory recruitment of children for use  in armed conflict;
• The  use, procuring, or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography, or for pornographic performances;
• The  use, procuring, or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
• Work which, by its nature or the circumstances  in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
  
  

At least 2 million children are trafficked annually for child labour and sexual exploitation. Most child labourers are in the informal economic sector, where they are not protected by laws and regulations. The worst forms of child labour are illegal and must be eradicated immediately.