BRUSSELS: May 6: Around 352 million children aged 5 to 17 remain engaged in employment of some kind throughout continents, despite efforts to fight child labour globally.

This was stated by the International Labour Office on Monday here in its report on the ‘Future Without Child Labour’.

It says the Asia-Pacific region harbours the largest absolute number of working children between the ages of 5 and 14, with some 127 million or 60 per cent of the world total.

Sub-Saharan Africa comes second with 48 million or 23 per cent of the total, followed by Latin America and the Caribbean with 17.4 million or 8 per cent, and Middle East and North Africa with 13.4 million or 6 per cent.

The report says that about 2.5 million or 1 per cent of the world’s child labourers work in industrialized countries, while another 2.4 million are found in transitional economies in eastern and central Europe.

“ Despite the increasing commitment by governments and their partners to tackle child labour worldwide, it remains a problem on a massive scale,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia.

“ While there has been significant progress towards the effective abolition of child labour, the international community still faces a major uphill task against this stubbornly pervasive form of work that takes a tragic toll on millions of children around the world,” Somavia added.

Some 8.4 million children are caught in “unconditional” worst forms of child labour including slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labour, forced recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution, pornography and other illicit activities, the ILO says.

It adds that a wide range of crises, including natural disasters, sharp economic downturns, the HIV/AIDS pandemic and armed conflicts are increasingly drawing the little ones into debilitating child labour. The new ILO figures differ from the previous accepted estimate of some 250 million working children aged 5-14 in the developing countries.

The ILO states that out of the 352 million children currently employed, about 106 million are engaged in types of work acceptable for children who have reached the minimum age for employment (usually 15 years) or in light work such as household chores or work undertaken as part of a child’s education.

But, it says, the remaining 246 million children are involved in child labour which the ILO believes should be abolished.