Addis Ababa — Representatives of local and international organizations and ministry offices, who gathered to mark the World Day against child labour at a farm in Akaki sub- city of Addis Ababa on Tuesday urged community members across the nation to ensure that their children do not carry out hazardous work in their daily life.

Even though tasks appropriate to a child's age that do not interfere with schooling and leisure time can be a normal part of growing up in rural development, parents should not let their children perform tasks which can threaten the well being of the child, they said.

Marking the day under the year's key message "Harvest for the Future: Agriculture with out child labor," and highlighting the fact that agriculture is one of the most dangerous sectors especially perilous for children, the representatives call upon communities to be concerned at the wide spread practice of using child labour especially on agriculture.

"Although not classified in the working group, of Ethiopian's child population in 2006, of some 32 million or 43% of the country's population, most were rural and many of them will have been used as part of farm labour.", FAO representative said.

"No one can be against the inclusion of children in agricultural activities where the intent is to offer skill-transfer apprenticeship opportunities, where working hours are reasonable, where farm work does not deny the children the opportunities for education which at their age they should also be receiving.", he stressed.

The ILO- International Programme on the Elimination of child labour (IPEC) has put not all work that children undertake in agriculture is bad for them or would qualify as work to be eliminated under convention No.138 or convention No.182. But many children carry out tasks which can threaten their lives, limbs, health and general well being.

"The hazard they face run the gamut from the mixing, handling and applying of toxic pesticides to using dangerous cutting tools, to work in extreme temperatures, operating powerful farm vehicles and heavy machinery and working long hours.", ILO elaborated.

After mentioning how pivotal are child survival, health development and appropriate protection to the healthy future of any society, State Minister of Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA), Zenebu Tadesse said at the event the right and prosperous future one can long for could be realized only by giving due attention to the child.

"So children need to be accorded with the necessary care and protection from the possible practices that bring irreversible effects in their physical, emotional and psychological development in the country to mitigate the problem.

"Based on the provisions of the labour law proclamation 377/2003, the government has also insured and is accordingly implementing a directive that specifies a list of activities that are categorized as hazardous and dangerous for the children between age of 14-18 referred as young workers as per the law." World wide, agriculture is the sector where by far the largest number of working children, an estimated 70% of whom 132 million are girls and boys aged 5-14, can be found, according to the ILO.

These children are helping to produce the food and beverages for consumption.

Their labour is used for crops such as cereals, cocoa, coffee, fruit They also work in livestock raising and herding, and in the production of other agricultural materials such as cotton and cottonseed.