10.5m children in domestic work —ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) said, on Monday, that an estimated 10.5 million children worldwide, most of them under-age, are working as domestic workers in people’s homes, in hazardous and sometimes slavery-like conditions.
Addressing a pre-World Day Against Child Labour press conference at the United Nations House, Geneva, Director, ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour, Constance Thomas, said the situation was worsening in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
Specifically, she pointed out that there was an increase in child in domestic work in sub-Saharan Africa last year, even as she declared that there was a very good statistical base to support this.
She stated that 6.5 million of child labourers are aged between five and 14 years, while more than 71 per cent are girls.
Quoting the figures in the new ILO report entitled, ‘Ending Child Labour in Domestic Work,’ Mrs Thomas said the vulnerable children work in the homes of a third party or employer, carrying out tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, gardening, collecting water, looking after other children and caring for the elderly.
“There are worsening situation of child labour in Nigeria, just as in other African countries. Child labour is a general problem in Africa percentage wise and there are some countries in Africa where one out of four children is in child labour and many of those are in child domestic work,” she said.
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