Understanding the health impact of children’s work

Reducing children’s involvement in work that arms their health, safety and moral development is the global community’s most urgent child labour challenge. The study reviews available data on occupational injuries and illnesses as part of a broader effort to guide efforts in this regard.

The study brings together information from a wide variety of nationally representative household surveys in an attempt to shed additional light on the health effects of children’s work within and across less-industrialised countries and on which types of children’s work pose the greatest risk of ill-health.

The analysis shows that a number of important insights can be gained from the available household surveys, especially in terms of relative risk. Yet the analysis of information from available household surveys also points to important outstanding knowledge gaps, particularly in terms of the causal link between specific children’s work activities and children’s health outcomes. Other kinds of information and analyses are necessary to address these gaps.