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Sri Lanka makes progress in reducing child labour: survey

Xinhua, February 23, 2017 Adjust font size:

Sri Lanka has made progress in the reduction of children employed in some forms of economic activities, according to a survey out on Thursday.

The survey conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) last year shows that only about 2.3 percent of children aged 5 to 17 years old were found engaged in some kind of economic activity or working.

"This is a decline of 10.6 percentage points from the 12.9% reported in 2008/09," the department said.

The survey was conducted upon request by the Ministry of Labour and Trade Union Relations and the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided assistance.

This is the third in a series of Child Activity Surveys (CAS) conducted by the DCS. The previous rounds were conducted in 1999 and 2008/09, also with the assistance of the ILO.

The data collected in the CAS-2016 includes demographic characteristics, school attendance, economic activities, health and safety, housing, household characteristics and perception of parents/guardians on working children, and other characteristics pertaining to the children aged 5-17 years old.

This is a household survey, covering all children aged 5-17 years old who are usually living in households, but some information was collected on children who are living away from the households as well, the survey says.

The total number of children in the age group of 5-17 years old in Sri Lanka in 2016 is estimated as 4.6 million. The survey estimates that 90.1 percent of the children were attending school during the survey period. Endit