According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), hazardous child labor can have adverse effects on children, particularly in their physical and mental health, and the social aspect of their lives.
Hazardous child labor, as defined by the ILO in Article 3 (d) of the ILO Convention concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999 (No. 182) as, “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”
According to the International Labor Rights Forum, the physical effects of children working in dangerous environments are impeded growth, malnutrition, and a higher chance of acquiring respiratory diseases due to the health risks that the children are exposed to such as harmful chemicals, and by doing tasks that a normal child should not be doing.
In the 2011 Survey on Children (SOC) conducted by the ILO and the National Statistics Office (NSO), it has been found that an estimated 2 million children are those who are under working in hazardous conditions.
A child’s social health is also affected by hazardous child labor wherein they lack time to spend with their families and people of their age, lose interaction skills that they need to bond with others around them, and are exposed to a higher risk of developing social problems like drug addiction due to the long hours of work that the children are exposed to.
Based on an article taken from the Industrial Psychiatry Journal entitled “Child labour issues and challenges”, some mental health issues a child experiences are brought about by hazardous child labor such as migraines, insomnia, irritability, enuresis (involuntary discharge of urine), asthenia (loss of strength and energy), and higher rates of lightheadedness, fatigue, impaired memory and depression.
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