Minister to launch ILO report

JAKARTA: Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea was scheduled to launch the ILO global report on child labor at the Mandarin Hotel here on Monday.

According to the global report, titled A Future without Child Labor, some 179 million children worldwide between the ages of five and 17 are trapped in the worst forms of child labor that cause them not just physical and psychological damage but also endanger their lives.

The latest data set out in the report claims that out of the 179 million children trapped in child labor, 8.4 million are trapped in slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and other forms of forced labor like prostitution and pornography, according to a statement sent to The Jakarta Post by the ILO's media relations officer Gita Lingga.

The report further states that an estimated 352 million children aged between five and 17 are currently engaged in economic activity of some kind throughout the world. The ILO press statement, however, failed to identify the exact estimate of the number of child workers in Indonesia.

Alan Boulton, director of the ILO office in Jakarta, said child labor was part of a wider social reality at local, national and even international levels.

He said millions of children across all regions of the world, including Indonesia, were still forced to work. --JP