The Hidden Threat of COVID-19: Examining Child Labour in the Midst of a Pandemic

Dec 5

Dec 5 The Hidden Threat of COVID-19: Examining Child Labour in the Midst of a Pandemic

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 of decent work and economic growth had set a target of eliminating all forms of child labour by 2025. While significant progress had been made toward this goal and child labour has been reduced by one third since 2000, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly unraveled years of progress made by the international community and humanitarian sector.

Before the pandemic began, child labour had been an ongoing crisis that the international community has worked for years to alleviate. In a 2017 research report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), it was estimated that approximately 152 million children globally between the ages of five and seventeen years old were trapped in some form of child labour. Moreover, the ILO indicated that the agricultural industry accounts for a majority of child labour (70.9 percent); another 17.1 percent of child labourers work in the services sector and 11.9 percent of child labourers in the industry sector. Children who are forced into labour often do so because of poverty, in which impoverished families are forced to pull their children out of school to earn an added income.

There is a direct correlation between the rise in poverty and increase in child labour, despite the interconnection varying by country. The elasticity of this relationship generally rests at 0.7, meaning that a one percent point increase in poverty rates results in a 0.7 percent point rise in child labour. As a result, the increase in poverty rates globally is followed by a rise in child labour.

A study by the International Journal of Health Sciences further indicated the correlation between poverty and child labour by compiling data on child workers in Karachi, Pakistan. The study concluded that 83 percent of children forced into child labour belonged to poor families, and only five percent chose to work out of their own volition. When families cannot find work or their wages are cut, children can often be rendered vulnerable to exploitation and labour.

Those who rely on informal and socially unprotected jobs have suffered countless economic hardships throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated four billion people globally do not have any social protections to safeguard them from the elimination of jobs or lowering of wages, and the number of people living in extreme poverty could skyrocket from 40 to 60 million this year alone due to the pandemic. With extreme poverty comes an increase in child labour as families utilize every possible means to survive. As a result of the prolonged economic recession and mass shutdown of businesses, many of the companies that have remained in business have decreased wages for those that still have jobs. As a result, parents are forced to enter their children into the workforce and add to the labour surplus. These children work for miniscule wages for companies that violate labour laws.

The global lockdowns that have resulted from the pandemic have only worked as a catalyst in increasing child labour rates. Since the start of the pandemic, 192 countries have shut down schools and left approximately 1.6 billion children without access to in-person learning. An additional 870 million children have still been unable to return to school in-person. This is shockingly detrimental considering the number of children globally who are without access to internet access or technology to engage in remote learning - which is more than 460 million children.

Within families where children do not have access to remote learning and the pandemic has disrupted or taken away their parents’ income, children are often forced into illegal unemployment. These jobs include working at construction sites and factories among other tasks, which is strenuous and often highly dangerous. The UN had previously set a goal to end child labour by 2030 but due to the economic lockdowns and global recession it is likely that many families will be forced to rely on their children for generating extra income.

Millions of children globally have already been forced into labour since the closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. The UN has already estimated that 24 million children may never return to their education as a result of the pandemic. This means that years of progress by the humanitarian sector in eliminating child labour could be reversed due to COVID-19. As children and their parents become dependent on their income, it becomes increasingly unlikely that the children will be able to return to school.

With the rise in child labour throughout 2020 as a result of the pandemic, the international community must look towards implemantable solutions. This includes mitigating damage to labour markets by providing protection for vulnerable workers, especially in regions where social protections are low. In addition, promoting education when schools reopen through active outreach and education campaigns can prevent children from permanently dropping out. The international community also cannot forget the close to 59 million children of primary-school age who were pulled out of school even before the pandemic began. The work of governmental and humanitarian organizations is critical at this time for ensuring childrens’ access to education and the prevention of child labour, as this issue increasingly becomes the hidden long-term threat of COVID-19.