Causes Of Child Labour In Crop Production
[A CASE STUDY OF BRICK KILN INDUSTRIES IN OYO DISTRICT]

INTRODUCTION

 Child labour is work that harms children’s well being and hinders their education, development and future livelihoods. Child labour is work which by its nature and/or the way it is carried out, harms, abuses and exploits the child or deprives the child of an education (ILO, 2006). Worldwide, agriculture is the sector where by far the largest share of child labourers is found-nearly 60 percent. According to ILO (2006) and ILO (2010), over 129 million girls and boys aged 5 to 17 years old work in crop and livestock production, fisheries, aquaculture and forestry helping supply some of the food and drink we consume and the fibres and raw materials we use to make other products. Agriculture is one of the three most dangerous sectors in terms of work-related fatalities, non-fatal accidents and occupational diseases. About 59 percent (or 70 million) of all children in hazardous work aged 5-17 are in agriculture. Child labour is a great concern in many parts of the world including Nigeria and it appears to be particularly widespread in the informal small and medium-scale sectors. It is important to distinguish between child labour and child work. Child work is considered to have essential socialization functions while child labour tends to take place outside the family and sometimes could be exploitative (Mendelievich, 1979). Child labour is considered as work performed by children under 18 years of age which is exploitative, hazardous or European Journal of Physical and Agricultural Sciences Vol. 2 No. 1, 2014 Progressive Academic Publishing, inappropriate for their age, as well as detrimental to their schooling, social, mental, spiritual and moral development. According to Akarro and Mtweve (2011), this shrinks their opportunities for schooling and also enslaves them and separate them from their families. In most cases, this practice is often violation of international laws and national legislation on children’s rights.