Considerable difference exists between the many kinds of work  children do. Some are difficult and demanding, others are more hazardous and even morally  reprehensible.

The term “child labour” is often  defined  as work that deprives children of their childhood, their  potential  and their  dignity and that is harmful to physical and mental  development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and interferes  with their school by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school.

Recent  findings have shown that the number of working children under the age of 14 in Nigeria  is estimated at 10 million. The high level  of diverse and  tedious job that children execute in dangerous circumstances is particularly worrisome. These  jobs include  street hawking, bus conductoring, bricklaying and all sorts of work that are physically challenged.

Research has also shown that child  workers display poor educational achievements. One of the  worst practices is the use of children as  domestic servant especially   girls. Major causes of child labour are widespread poverty, break in nuclear family  which in most cases leads to the  dropping out of school.

These children  who work suffer from fatigue, irregular attendance at school, lack of comprehension and motivation, exposure to risk of sexual abuse and very high likelihood of being involved in crime. In its most extreme  forms, child labour  involves children being enslaved, separated  from their families, exposed to serious hazards  and illness or left to fend for themselves  on the streets of large cities  often at a very early age.

Child labour  takes many different forms,  a priority is to eliminate without delay the worst forms of child labour as defined by Article  3 of International Labour Organisation (ILO).

These include the following:- (i) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt  bondage  and serfdom,  forced  or compulsory labour including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict.

ii) The use, procuring or offering of a child for prosecution, for the production of pornography  performances.

iii) The use, procuring  or offering of a child for illicit activities,  in particular for the production  and trafficking of drugs as defined  in the relevant international treaties.

iv) Work which, by its  nature or the circumstances in which it is carried  out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

So also, labour that jeopardizes  the physical, mental or moral well-being  of a child, either  because of its nature or  because of the condition in which it is carried is known as “hazardous work”.

The International Labour Organisation estimates that 215 million children between the ages  of five and 17 currently work under conditions that are considered illegal, extremely exploitative. Underage children work all sorts of jobs around the world usually because they and their families are extremely poor. Largely numbers of children work in commercial agriculture, fishing, mining & domestic service.

Increasingly, children are bought and sold  within  and across national  border. They  are trafficked for sexual  exploitation, for begging and for work on construction sites.

All these are child abuses and must stop outrightly. But these forms of human abuses can only stop if government all over the world put all necessary machineries in place to make life meaningful for their citizens especially mothers and children.

Azubuike is an intern with The Tide.

Azubuike Maureen Black