Today is World Day Against Child Labour
T
ODAY, June 12, has been designated “World Day Against Child Labour”, by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The ILO said that despite significant progress in the global campaign to abolish child labour, it remained a major problem. “In particular, the magnitude of child labour in its most hazardous and worst forms is far worst than was previously thought.”
A baseline study conducted last year by the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, in the fishing areas of Rocky Point in Clarendon and Old Harbour Bay in St Catherine, the informal sector of Spanish Town and the tourism areas of Montego Bay and Negril, revealed that approximately 500 children in the tourist areas were engaged in some of the worst forms of child labour, that is, prostitution and pornography, pushing hand carts in the market, modelling and working on the wharves.
The study also revealed that in the informal sector of Spanish Town, more than 1,220 children were found to be working in areas such as exotic dancing, street vending and handcart pushing.
Jamaica is a signatory to the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), to co-operate in developing and implementing a programme to progressively reduce and eliminate child labour in Jamaica.
