Global Child Labour Data Review

A Gender Perspective. (Vol. 3)

By Kolomiyets T
Published by: International Labour Office (ILO) 2004

This report provides an analysis of child labour disaggregated by sex. It reviews existing child labour data, specifically from a gender perspective, and provides a detailed review of and comparison between six countries, Ecuador, Ghana, the Philippines, Dominican Republic, South Africa and Turkey to look at general trends in child labour and sex differentials.

The report also presents an analysis of rapid assessments by sector, namely agriculture, child domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation, to find the root causes of child labour and the factors that push children into abusive situations in agriculture, domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation. Some main findings of the review include:

• There are more boy child workers in agriculture and there are more girl child workers in domestic child labour
• More girls are found in sexual exploitation, with the exception of Sri Lanka, where boys prevail. However, boys are involved in prostitution in four out of the seven countries where studies were undertaken
• Poverty is the principal cause of children being pushed into the labour market in the agricultural and domestic work sectors.