Child labor: developing country estimates double.

Some 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working in developing countries, nearly double the previous estimates, the International Labour Organization (ILO) says in a new report. Of this total, some 120 million children are working full time and 130 million work part time says the ILO report, Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable.

Some 61 per cent of child workers, or nearly 153 million, are found in Asia; 32 per cent, or 80 million, are in Africa; and 7 per cent, or 17.5 million, live in Latin America.

There is evidence that child labour also exists in many industrialized countries, including Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. The problem is also emerging in many East European and Asian countries that are in transition to a market economy.

The results of an ILO survey published earlier this year showed that some 73 million children between the ages of 10 and 14 years were working full time in some 100 countries. The latest estimates are based on a new and more accurate methodology recently tested by the ILO which takes account of part-time as well as full-time work and covers all working children between the ages of 5 and 14.

Children may be crippled physically by being forced to work too early in life. For example, a large-scale ILO survey in the Philippines found that more than 60 per cent of working children were exposed to chemical and biological hazards, and that 40 per cent experience serious injuries or illnesses.

In addition, a comparative study carried out over a period of 17 years in India, on both children who attend school and those who instead work in agriculture, industry or the service sector, showed that working children grow up shorter and weigh less than school children.

Gender differences

Girls more often work in domestic labour and boys work in construction, fields and factories, leading to gender differences in exposure to hazards.

Girls, because of their employment in households, work longer hours each day than do boys. This is one important reason why they receive less schooling. Girls are also more vulnerable to sexual abuse and its consequences, such as social rejection, psychological trauma and unwanted motherhood. Boys, on the other hand, tend to suffer more injuries resulting from carrying weights too heavy for their age and stage of physical development.

The ILO survey focuses on unsafe and abusive working situations for children. Examples include:

* Slavery and forced...