CHILD LABOUR IN AGRICULTURE

Poverty is the main cause of child labour in agriculture, together with limited access to quality education, inadequate agricultural technology and access to adult labour, high hazards and risks, and traditional attitudes towards children’s participation in agricultural activities.

Progress in eliminating child labour in agriculture has been slow due to the sector specificities. Limited coverage of agriculture and family undertakings in national labour legislations, limited unionization, fragmentation of the labour force, low capacity of labour inspectors to cover remote rural areas, majority of child labourers working as unpaid family labour without formal contracts, continuity between rural household and the workplace, and traditions of children participating in agricultural activities from a young age make the problem difficult to address.

The ILO Minimum Age Convention No. 138 (1973) , ratified by 161 out of 183 Member States, sets the minimum age for children to work generally at 15 years of age and not lower than the end of compulsory education (however, the convention allows for certain flexibilities in specific circumstances, including 14 years for developing countries). For work considered hazardous, the minimum age is 18 years. Convention No. 138 leaves many decisions to national level (e.g. some set the minimum age at 16). 

Access to quality education in rural areas is key to keeping children out of child labour. Rural areas however are often characterised by a lack of or poor quality of schools and infrastructure, high turnover rates of teachers (especially in remote areas), limited pedagogical materials, curricula with little relevance for rural lives, poor and variable rates of rural school attendance, and lower levels of educational performance and achievement. In addition, children may also have to walk long distances to and from school. Girls face further obstacles, such as traditional attitudes that do not value girls’ education. They also may face the risk of abuse during long commutes.