GENEVA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Urgent action is needed to tackle the economic root causes of child labor, International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder said Tuesday, pointing to global supply chains and unpaid family work in agriculture.
"The challenge is not just about globally-traded garments, tobacco and cocoa, it is also about local markets for sorghum, millet, bricks -- and it's about domestic work as well," Ryder said.
He was speaking at a panel held on the sidelines of the May 28 to June 8 International Labor Conference and ahead of the World Day against Child Labor on June 12.
The ILO head said that some 152 million children aged 5 to 17 are in child labor worldwide.
Between 2012 and 2016, there was "almost no reduction in the number of children aged 5 to 11 in child labor, and the number of these most vulnerable, youngest children in hazardous work actually increased," he said.
Ryder noted this is partly because child labor in agriculture, much of it unpaid family work, increased.
"These children typically begin child labour at the age of six or seven and they commonly perform hazardous work as they get older," said the ILO head.
