Ngadiman, an underage worker on a Sumatran fishing platform - 101 East
101 East

Child labour in Asia

122 million children in the Asia Pacific region work for a living.

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Panudda Boonpala and Laurence Gray 

One-hundred-and-twenty-two millon children in the Asia Pacific region, between the ages of five and 14, work for a living. That is about half the global total, according to the International Labour Organisation.

 
The good news is that between 2000 and 2004, those numbers fell by 11 per cent and the ILO says the end of the worst forms of child labour is in sight.

101 East

depicts the slave-like life of Ngadiman, an underage worker on a Sumatran fishing platform, and asks why child labour still exists in Asia.

Teymoor Nabili hosts a discussion on whether Asia’s rapid economic growth will finally eliminate the need for child labour.

 
Panudda Boonpala, the Southeast Asia child labour specialist for the International Labour Organisation, Laurence Gray, World Vision’s Asia director of regional advocacy and child protection, and Myra Maria Hanartani, the director-general of manpower development and domestic placement in the ministry of manpower and transmigration, Idonesia, join the discussion.
 
Watch this episode of 101 East here:

Part 1:

Part 2:

This episode of 101 East aired from 20 April 2007

101 East airs at 16:30GMT every Thursday on Al Jazeera English and is repeated during the week.

 


 
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