Eleven percent of Moroccan children are working, survey
Morocco, Culture, 11/29/2004

About 600,000 Moroccan children, aged between 4 and 15, are working, accounting for 11% of all Moroccan children, revealed a "national employment survey" conducted by the employment ministry and the international program for the abolition of children labor.

IPEC National manager in Morocco, Malak Benchekroun, told a press conference the total includes 58% of boys and 42% of girls.

Among boys, 13% work, 79% go to school and 8% have no activity, while 9.5% of girls work, 69% are schooled and 21% do not have any activity.

The survey also found that child labor is more spread in rural regions, with a rate of 19% as schooled kids barely exceed 57%, while in urban areas child labor affects 3% of children.

"child labor is found more in rural areas as 87% of working children are found there, compared to 13% in cities," says the study which ascribes the phenomenon to poverty, large families, rural exodus and the preference of young labor in several activities.

For the program manager, there are three categories of children labor that should be abolished. The labor of children below legal age, dangerous activities that can harm the physical, psychological, and moral health and degrading activities, she went on without elaborating.

She also stressed that the Moroccan legislation has introduced several amendments to children labor, taking into account principles of agreements adopted by the international labor organization and ratified by Morocco.

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