The goods produced by the children include toys, electronics, chips used in cellphones, clothes, shoes, soccer balls and bricks.
The US Department of Labour found that the children from more than 140 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia are involved in the production of these goods.
India topped the list, with its children being used to make no fewer than 20 products, including bidis, bricks, fireworks, footwear, glass bangles, incense, locks, matches, rice, silk fabric and thread, and soccer balls.
It is followed by Bangladesh with 14 kinds of goods such as steel furniture, footware, bricks etc.
In Pakistan, North Korea and Burma children are forced to work in cotton and wheat fields and make bricks, cement and rubber.
In many countries like Bangladesh and India children are involved in inappropriate jobs from making cigarettes to pornography.
One-third of these countries have no laws or regulations to prevent children from hazardous jobs. Some nations have no minimum age for such work, and still more lack the means to monitor and enforce bans on dangerous child labour.
According to a report prepared by the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, the child labour employers in India make profit of a whooping Rs.1.2 crore annually.
In India the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Law was passed in 1986 to regulate the hours and the conditions of child workers and to prohibit child workers in certain enumerated hazardous industries. The law was also amended in 2006 banning the employment of children.
