PART THREE Child Labour: Definitions, Data and Misconceptions
Child Labour and its Interaction with Modern Slavery
Child labour is often seen as a sub-set of modern slavery and therefore is not treated as a stand-alone risk.
Modern slavery, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), consists of two types of exploitation; forced labour and forced marriage. In 2022, the ILO and Walk Free estimated a total of 49.6 million people were in modern slavery, with 27.6 million in forced labour and 22 million in forced marriage (see diagram below).
Of the 27.6 million people in forced labour, defined by the ILO Forced Labour Convention 29, the ILO estimates that 3.3 million are children (see Page 17 of ILO Global Estimates of Modern Slavery). These children are defined as 'forced labour of children', indeed, a subset of Modern Slavery. However, these 3.3 million children are not the only children in exploitative labour conditions; they are in a particular set of exploitative conditions known as forced labour (see the ILO definition of forced labour here).
Infographic showing the definitional breakdown of child labour and modern slavery, and how they overlap. (Source: HACE).
Other forms of exploitative child labour exist and are extensive, with 79 million children in ‘hazardous work’, for example. The diagram above shows how child labour is broken down in to different groups. The definitions of these groups (“child labour”, “worst forms of child labour” and “hazardous child labour”) can all be found in our previous blog post A Global Definition of Child Labour.
Based on these global definitions, the overlap between child labour and modern slavery are the 3.3 million children classified as ‘forced labour of children’, meaning there are a further 156.7 million children under the definition of ‘child labour’, not ‘modern slavery’.
Latest estimates state there are 160 million children in child labour globally, which is 5.8x higher than the total number of forced labourers. Additionally, for every 1 child in forced labour in the world, there are 47 children in non-forced child labour.
What does this mean in practice?
Not all child labour is forced child labour, therefore all child labour does not sit under the classification of modern slavery
Both hazardous work and forced child labour are categorised as the Worst Forms of Child Labour, but they are separate groups.
2.06% of child labourers are in forced child labour. This is the only overlap between child labour and modern slavery.
49.3% of child labourers are in hazardous work.
48.5% of child labourers are neither in forced labour nor hazardous work.
Child labour is defined conceptually by the ILO here, but in practice, it is defined by a combination of:
The child's age
The child's activity or type of work
The hours worked by the child, both the number of hours and the time of day.
The minimum age for work according to national labour laws is important in determining whether a case is child labour or not, but children can still be in child labour even if they're over the minimum age of work.
Examples
The minimum age for work in Country X is 13. A 15 year old child is spraying pesticides on a family tobacco farm with no PPE. The child is in non-forced, the child is over the age of minimum working age, however they are performing hazardous work and therefore this case is categorised as child labour, not modern slavery.
The minimum age for work in Country X is 13. An 8 year old child is working for 35 hours a week on a family cotton farm watering crops. The child is in non-forced child labour and the child is not performing a hazardous task but they are under the minimum age of work, and therefore this case is classified child labour and not as modern slavery.
PART FOUR: Child Labour in Global Supply Chains expected 25th January.