Minister to launch ILO report

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