Child labor is a world problem.

The number of child workers was estimated at 218 million worldwide in 2006, according to a report from the International Labor Organization.

With the rapid development of China's private economy, child labor workers under the age of 16 has become an increasingly serious issue. The number of child laborers was estimated at between 2 and 3 million at the end of 1999.

Child labor deprives children of childhood and of their rights to education.

Worst of all, child labor prohibits children from healthy growth both physically and psychologically.

The Chinese government imposed the most severe ban on the employment of children in 2002. Any person who introduces a child to an employer faces a fine of 5,000 yuan (US$640). The fine for the employer is 5,000 yuan for using a child laborer for a month. Those found repeatedly hiring children will have their licenses revoked.

The efforts by the government and the elimination of illegal small private workshops have considerably reduced the number of child laborers nationwide.

But there are still children forced to beg, sell flowers on the streets or pickpocket. Some children of migrant workers quit school and do odd jobs for their parents and some work as housemaids.

It is difficult for governments or organizations to take action against such forms of child labor.

But exploiting children in labor such as begging does serious psychological damage to these children. Those dropping out of school will probably remain at the edges of society the rest of their lives. Most will never gain the knowledge and skills for jobs with decent pay.

Among other things, poverty is at the very root of child labor. Most children take menial jobs because their families are too poor to send them to school. Their earnings from simple labor or even such hazardous work as mining mean a great deal to their families.

Just as important as the intensive government efforts to make child labor illegal, the far-reacing policies of scrapping the agricultural tax, providing free nine-year compulsory education to all rural children, and preferential policies to increase rural residents' income will contribute to the eradication of child labor.

(China Daily February 8, 2007)