Child labor affects 4.2% of children in Cape Verde

Illegal child labor affects 4,900 children in Cape Verde, or 4.2% of the population aged between five and 17, authorities said this Wednesday.

The data was presented this Wednesday at the Government Palace in Praia by the National Statistical Institute (INE), in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Cape Verdean Institute for Children and Adolescents (ICCA).

The latest survey was from 2012 and found that 6.4% of children in the same age group were working in jobs that were being eliminated, but the data was collected using a different methodology and could not be compared with current ones, he said. warned INE.

In the panorama presented in this environment, most child labor corresponds to family production activities for own use and is carried out in a dangerous way, that is, for long periods of time or with excessive physical exertion.

The data also shows that more than 80% of households that use child labor consist of more than four people (41.4% of households have more than six people).

Although child labor is illegal and threatens health and education, information shows that almost 100% of affected children continue to attend educational institutions.

Fernando Elisio Freire, Minister of State for Family, Integration and Social Development, said at a ceremony this Wednesday that it is necessary to prevent the prevalence of the custom of child labor, recognizing the responsibility of the state in the fight against poverty so that it is not an argument in favor of children working.

The government official also announced the opening of 11 centers this year, funded by the Social Protection Fund (Fundo Mais), on different islands to keep children occupied during the day.

The goal is to end child labor in Cape Verde by 2030, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), he added.

The 2022 child labor statistics in Cape Verde presented this Wednesday were based on an INE survey conducted between November 2022 and January 2023 among 9,918 households (6.7% of households in Cape Verde).

Data indicates that Cape Verde has less child labor compared to other Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.

According to the ILO statistical system (Ilostat), the number of children affected in the same age group (5–17 years) is about 19.3% in Angola (2016 data), 17.8% in Sao Tome and Principe ( 2014) and 9.5%% in Guinea-Bissau (2019).

The system does not provide statistics for Mozambique.

According to the ILO, about 160 million children (that is, almost one in ten in the world) are subject to child labor and almost half are involved in potentially hazardous work.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), one in five children are affected by illegal work.