United Nations Radio

More than 100 million girls are involved in child labour worldwide, the International Labour Organization (ILO) reports.

World Day against Child Labour

In a study launched on the World Day against Child Labour, observed on Friday, the ILO warns that the global financial crisis could push an increasing number of children, particularly girls, into child labour.

ILO expert Frank Hageman says while most child labourers work in agriculture, girls are employed in "more serious and dangerous places of work."

"If we look at some of the particular worst forms of child labour like prostitution, sex work; like forced labour, bonded labour; like jobs for which children have been trafficked, we see that girls are generally overrepresented: that girls actually are more to be found in some of these unconditional worst forms of child labour, as they are called, than boys."

The ILO report --Give Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future-shows that of the 100 million girl workers, more than half are under the age of 12.

It stresses the importance of investing in girls' education as a means to tackle poverty as educated girls tend to earn more, marry later in life, and have healthier children.

This is Dianne Penn for UN Radio.

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