2004-2-15
This is Robert Cohen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
The International Labor Organization says child labor limits
economic development. It says educating children instead of forcing
them to work would create huge gains for developing countries. The
International Labor Organization is part of the United Nations. The
agency proposes that child labor be substituted with education by
two-thousand-twenty.
A three-year study by the agency compared the costs against the
gains from ending child labor. Researchers found that paying for
education in developing nations could bring seven times the return
on investment.
The researchers also note the other gains that would come from
removing the worst forms of child labor. Ending slavery and the sale
of children for sex would reduce injuries and sickness.
The International Labor Organization estimates that about
two-hundred-fifty-million children are involved in child labor. Of
these, it says one out of every eight may be working with dangerous
chemicals, breathing poisons or selling sex.
The cost to replace child labor
with education is estimated at seven-hundred-sixty-thousand-million
dollars. But the U-N agency says the project should be seen as a
long-term investment. It says the costs would be higher than returns
mostly during the first fifteen years. For example, poor families
would have to live at first without the wages earned by their
children.
To help balance this problem, the labor agency proposes that
governments provide financial help to poor families with school-age
children. Several nations including Brazil and Mexico already have
support programs in place. The study says governments would also
need to invest in new schools, books, equipment, and teacher
training.
Juan Somavia is the director general of the International Labor
Organization. He says the proposal is not only a good social policy,
but also a wise economic plan. He says each additional year of
education for an older child adds eleven percent per year to future
earnings.
The labor agency says all parts of the world would gain by ending
child labor. The study estimates that countries in North Africa and
the Middle East would gain more than eight dollars for every one
dollar invested. Asian countries would gain more than seven dollars
for every dollar invested. And Latin American countries would gain
over five dollars.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Jill
Moss. This is Robert Cohen.