13. For the past 50 years or more, the activities of his Crganisation in that area had had two main objectives: to try to assist Goverments and responsible authorities in restricting and reducing child labour, the ultimate aim being its complete abolition; and in the immediate future to try to protect children at work and to improve their well-being at their places of work. The International Year of the Child had provided an opportunity of expanding those activities in several directions. In the first place, ILO was attempting to reduce child labour by promoting the relevant standards which it had established and, in particular, Convention No. 138, which the International Labour Conference had adopted in 1973 with a view to the replacement of all previous relevant instruments or, in other words, the establishment of minimum standards applicable to all sectors of activity, It was also attempting to combat the causes of child labour through research on poverty, unemployment and the conditions for satisfaction of the essential needs of the most disadvantaged categories of the population. In addition, it was endeavouring to protect children at work by encouraging the adoption and, in particular, the implementation of adequate regulations, it was seeking to develop the preparation of children for work by means of vocational training, in particular in co-operation with UNESCO, and it was trying to improve the standard of care given to the children of working mothers by intensifying programmes for the protection of female workers and by strengthening the social infrastructures intended for female workers.
14. In 1979 his Organisation would be publishing a study on child labour in order to provide a picture of the actual situation. It would consist of a collection of specific data based on the information available to ILO and the information compiled in 10 specially commissioned national monographs. Document CONDI/T/1979/12/F (revised), which he would be pleased to make available to members of the Sub-Cormission, constituted a short introduction to the subject pending the publication of the complete study. It summarized briefly the situation with regard to child labour and the action taken by ILO in that field. It showed that child labour continued to exist in virtually all countries of the world, although the nature and extent of the phenomenon had changed during the past 50 years. A point of particular note was that the industrialized countries had gradually put an end to certain practices which had been common a century ago. It was difficult to define the problem of child labour precisely, however, since information and, in particular, statistical data were lacking. According to ILO estimates prepared on the basis of statistics provided by Governments, some 55 million 15-year-old children had been working throughout the world in 1975. A figure three to four times greater would, however, appear to be closer to the truth.
15. The nature and conditions of child labour and its effects on the physical and mental development of children were perhaps more important than the actual numbers at work. The essential point was undoubtedly the situation of children at work and their relations with the employer. His Organisation divided working children into six categories: wage-earning children, children working with craftsmen, children serving apprenticeships, paid mother's helps, children working independently or semi-independently, and unpaid family workers. A proportion of those children were "adopted", or rather hired out, which constituted the most serious form of exploitation: the children were handed over to third parties who employed them as domestic servants or agricultural labourers.
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