The Asia-pacific region has more child labourers than anywhere else in the world, said a International Labour Organisation (ILO) report. However, it says that the number of child labourers around the world is on decline. “In absolute terms there is decline of child labour (between the age group of 5-14 years) which is 26 percent - 122.3 million to 96.4 million across the world.”

The report titled – ‘Accelerating Action against Child Labour’  says that Asia-Pacific region has the highest number child labourers at 113.6 million (aged 5-17 years) compared to sub-Saharan Africa (65.1 million) and Latin America and Caribbean (14.1 million).

The report has no reason for cheer for India as the number of child labour employed here is much higher than even China. “India has 445 million children, Bangladesh 64 million, and Pakistan 70 million, as compared to, for example, China's 348 million,” the report added.

The Geneva based organisation said that 42 percent of children were employed in hazardous work.

Read the report