• NOVEMBER 7, 2009
PHOTO ESSAY PRINT  |   TEXT SIZE        |  EMAIL  |  SINGLE PAGE

Children at Work

While many children are now enjoying summer holidays from school, others are toiling away in sweatshops. Amid the Great Recession, more parents may be pulling their children out of school and putting them to work to supplement family income.

BY PREETI AROON | JUNE 25, 2009

At rock bottom: Across the world, about 166 million children ages to 5 to 14 labor in the workforce, which interferes with their ability to get an education and harms their chances of escaping poverty as adults. Above, 10-year-old Shyamoli hauls stones as a human mule near the Balason River in the Indian state of West Bengal on June 12. Children working at the river make about $8.25 per month.

DIPTENDU DUTTA/AFP/Getty Images

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Preeti Aroon is an assistant editor at FP.

 

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