Placing Children in the Division of Labour

Abstract

About 40 per cent of the world’s population are children under the age of 15, and within a few years there will be more than two billion children. By far the greatest proportion of them (maybe 80 per cent) live in less-well-developed areas of the world. Nearly sixty million of these children are registered as economically active in one way or another, but this figure is probably the tip of the iceberg. In most countries the gainful employment of children is against the law, the introduction of compulsory schooling being the main factor which triggered its illegalisation. Yet despite prohibitive laws childwork is still practised wherever it is felt to be advantageous.