Over 10 million children involved in domestic labor - ILO

USPA News - Over 10 million children are involved as domestic workers worldwide, the International Labor Organization (ILO) on Wednesday reported. According to a new ILO report titled `Ending Child Labour in Domestic Work,` 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.

Six and a half million of these child laborers are aged between five and 14 years-old, and more than 71 percent are girls. The report revealed that these 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. In addition, they are often isolated from their families, hidden from the public eye and become highly dependent on their employers, becoming vulnerable to physical, psychological and sexual violence and abusive working conditions as well. Furthermore, the report said many might end up being commercially sexually exploited. Constance Thomas, Director of the ILO?s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), stated that the situation "not only constitutes a serious violation of child rights, but remains an obstacle to the achievement of many national and international development objectives." While the report called for concerted and joint action at national and international levels to eliminate child labor in domestic work, Thomas stressed on the need of a "robust legal framework to clearly identify, prevent and eliminate child labor in domestic work, and to provide decent working conditions to adolescents when they can legally work." Child domestic work is not recognized as a form of child labor in many countries because of the blurred relationship with the employing family, the report says. The child is "working, but is not considered as a worker and although the child lives in a family setting, she or he is not treated like a family member." This familial and legal "care vacuum" disguises an "exploitative arrangement," often characterized by long working hours, lack of personal freedom and sometimes hazardous working conditions. The hidden nature of their situation makes them difficult to protect, the report warned. ILO Director-General Guy Ryder added that "there is no place and no excuse for child labor in domestic or any other form of work."