ILO: Child labor on rise following decades of progress

A ten-year-old Irene Wanzila breaking rocks with a hammer at the Kayole quarry in Nairobi, Kenya, Sept. 29, 2020. [AP Photo]

In observance of the World Day Against Child Labor, the International Labor Organization is calling for stepped up action to eliminate the use of children as workers, which is rising globally for the first time in 20 years.

The latest figures show 160 million children, nearly 1 in 10 worldwide, are engaged in child labor. Half this number are working in the most hazardous forms of child labor, such as agriculture, construction, mining, and domestic labor. The ILO says the children are forced to work long hours for low pay under dangerous conditions that can pose a threat to their physical and mental health, even leading to death.