The chart shows the employment sectors for male and female child laborers from age cohorts 5-14 and 15-17. The information is drawn from national child labor surveys in sixteen sample countries. It is based on nationally representative household surveys conducted between 1999 and 2007. The data comes from a study IPEC Statistical Information and Monitoring Programme on Child Labour (SIMPOC). (Geneva, ILO, 2009). The sample countries and the dates of data in the survey were Colombia (2001), Ecuador (2006), El Salvador (2001), Guatemala (2006), Burkina Faso (2006), Malawi (2002), Mali (2005), Senegal (2004), Cambodia (2001), Mongolia (2002), Philippines (2001), Sri Lanka (1999), Azerbaijan (2005), Kyrgyzstan (2007), Turkey (2006) and Ukraine (1999).

The statistics provide a more detailed picture of global child labor than what had been available previously. The chart shows that the majority of children were employed in agriculture, a significant portion employed in services, which can include everything from shoe-shining and windshield washing to street vending and hauling. A minority of child laborers are employed in shops, craft production and manufacture, which can include construction, mining, quarry work and the like, all hazardous jobs for children.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) established the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992 with the goal of progressively eliminating child labor, through research, building countries' capacity to deal with the problem, and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labor. For statistical purposes, a child is considered to be involved in child labor under the following classification: (a) children 5-11 years of age who did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work during the week preceding the survey, and (b) children 12-14 years of age who did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 28 hours domestic work during the week preceding the survey. Whether or not particular forms of "work" can be called "child labor" depends on the child's age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries.

IPEC classifies acceptable and unacceptable types of child labor. Acceptable work includes children helping parents around the home, earning pocket money after school and on holidays, and even helping in a family business. Such activity is viewed as beneficial to children's development and socialization. Unacceptable child labor, in contrast, is harmful to physical and mental development, to children's dignity, and "deprives children of their childhood." Child labor should be eliminated if it is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; if it interferes with their schooling by preventing them from attending school, obligates them to leave school prematurely, or requires excessively long and heavy work as to compromise children's ability to attend school or learn effectively. The most extreme forms of unacceptable child labor include enslavement or bonded labor, separation from their families, exposure to hazards and illness, or being forced onto the streets of large cities to sleep and work for a living.

The chart shows summative data for several world regions and types of countries on the subject of child labor. The figures refer to the percentage of children 5-14 years of age involved in child labor, meaning as a percentage of the total population of children in a country or region. The complete chart, showing all reporting countries can be accessed at http://www.childinfo.org/labour_countrydata.php. For statistical purposes, a child is considered to be involved in child labor under the following classification: (a) children 5-11 years of age who did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work during the week preceding the survey, and (b) children 12-14 years of age who did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 28 hours domestic work during the week preceding the survey.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) established the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992 with the goal of progressively eliminating child labor, through research, building countries' capacity to deal with the problem, and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labor. Whether or not particular forms of "work" can be called "child labor" depends on the child's age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is performed and the objectives pursued by individual countries.

IPEC classifies acceptable and unacceptable types of child labor. Acceptable work includes children helping parents around the home, earning pocket money after school and on holidays, and even helping in a family business. Such activity is viewed as beneficial to children's development and socialization. Unacceptable child labor, in contrast, is harmful to physical and mental development, to children's dignity, and "deprives children of their childhood." Child labor should be eliminated if it is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; if it interferes with their schooling by preventing them from attending school, obligates them to leave school prematurely, or requires excessively long and heavy work as to compromise children's ability to attend school or learn effectively. The most extreme forms of unacceptable child labor include enslavement or bonded labor, separation from their families, exposure to hazards and illness, or being forced onto the streets of large cities to sleep and work for a living.

These photographs were taken on April 5, 1975 on one of the Pan Am passenger planes that airlifted Vietnamese orphans and Amerasian children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women for Operation Babylift. In the final weeks before the fall of Saigon in April 1975, President Gerald Ford authorized the operation as a gesture to repatriate children who would be American citizens if recognized by their American fathers, ultimately allocating two million dollars to airlift 2,700 orphans to the United States. Children were also airlifted to Australia, Europe, and Canada in separate efforts. Volunteers, soldiers and military nurses accompanied the children on the flights. The first flight, a cargo plane carrying 330 adults and children, crashed shortly after take-off, killing 154 passengers, including 87 of the children. President Ford himself met the first flight that landed safely and carried an infant onto U.S. soil. Accommodations also included cargo planes with rows of cradle boxes strapped to the floors, children arrayed on benches meant to transport goods or soldiers, and harried adults who made do with too little food and supplies for the trip. Some of the participants went on to adopt children from the group. Operation Babylift children, some of whom were disabled, and many of whom suffered from malnutrition, were adopted by American families. When they grew to adulthood, many of the orphans visited Vietnam and sought information about their birth parents, experienced reunions, and learned more about the land and culture of their birth. Today there are support groups both online and in person for the parents and children who shared this experience. These organizations still support individuals seeking knowledge and contact with their birth parents and siblings. The cross-cultural experience of these children both as orphans and as reminders of a foreign war can be compared with the wartime experiences of children in other places. In the case of the Amerasian children, there is significant longitudinal research material from the time of their childhood to their current adulthood, including accounts of their journey’s home, and their efforts to connect with others who share this heritage.

According to Vedic philosophy, the life span of each person is divided into four stages, or ashrams. The word ashram means "shelter," referring to the protective nature of these phases against the turmoil of life. These stages are Brahmacharya, Grahasta, Vanaprastha and Sanyasa, each of which has a specific purpose and guidelines defined in the Vedas, and are intended to order the lives of male members of the highest three castes.

The ashram called Brahmacharya is the stage of the celibate student. Entry into this phase involved initiation, which was prescribed for Brahmins (priestly caste) between age 5 and 16, for the Kshatriyas (warrior caste) between age 6 and 22, and for the Vaisyas (merchant caste) between age 8 and 24. Failing to undergo initiation during these age spans would mean loss of caste, or social status.

The Brahmacharya stage was a rigorous time of learning, when the high-caste boy was expected to acquire both religious knowledge and a craft or trade. A boy would wear the sacred cord around his chest to signify that he had entered Brahmacharya, and he would live in the teacher's house, serving him and treating him with utmost respect. In return, the boy's development was the responsibility of the guru. The student was to remain celibate so as not to be distracted from study. Among the goals of learning during this stage, memorization of Vedic texts was a priority, but archery, astrology, music, martial arts, and music were included. This selection is from a text that may date to the 5th century B.C.E. that prescribes proper behavior during each life stage.

This photograph, dated 1880, shows Chinese children in a procession in the Tjap Go Meh Festival in Makassar, the largest city on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Tjap Go Meh is a Chinese festival that takes place 15 days after the Chinese New Year and marks the beginning of spring. It is also known as the Lantern Festival. People celebrate with parades and performances, such as acrobats.

In this image, a child dressed in festive costume sits under an umbrella while riding a fantasy animal with long ears mounted on a cart. Other children wearing costumes with conical hats and false beards pull the cart with ropes. The decorations appear to be made of paper maché, straw, and fabric. Tjap Go Meh was widely celebrated among the many Chinese immigrants in Indonesia, and the festival became popular with the local Buddhist and Muslim population as well. The festival was banned for many years, but has made a comeback in cities such as Jakarta as an expression of ethnic and religious diversity. The photograph is the product of a professional studio in Batavia (Jakarta) founded by Britons Walter Bentley Woodbury (1834-1885) and James Page, expatriates from Australia who emigrated to the Dutch East Indies in 1857. The Woodbury & Page studio made portraits of wealthy Europeans and local elites, but also traveled in the countryside to create ethnographic images and photograph the variety of life in the Dutch East Indies.

These two terracotta heads of smiling children stem from excavations at Bulandi Bagh in Patna, India. The molded figures, about 10 cm. (4 in.) high, are rare and significant, both because of their naturalistic facial expressions and technical artistry. Among the figurines and other sculptures from the site are several smiling boy and girl statues with elaborate headdresses, identified by art historians as such because they clearly show the physiognomy of children. Other statues include dancing figurines with elaborate headdresses, animal figurines, and other artistically excellent pieces. The heads were produced from molds, a technique that reflects Hellenistic influence stemming from the invasion of Alexander the Great. Art historians question whether the molds were imported or whether the artisans were exposed to prototypes, to what extent Indian court artisans who produced these pieces fused foreign influences with unique Indian elements. They have been dated to the 3rd century B.C.E., during the Mauryan Period. The location is part of the modern city of Patna, containing the site of the ancient city of Pataliputra.

The monkey figurine shown in two views is mounted on a wooden platform for display, but it was apparently designed with the ability to slide down a string or thin rod so as to appear to climb or jump. The figurine is hand-modeled from terracotta and features a fully rounded body in a complicated, lifelike pose with a realistic facial expression, ears, and incised lines representing its fur. The monkey was excavated from the Indus Valley archaeological site called Mohenjo-Daro, dated to ca. 2500 B.C.E. Excavations from sites in the Indus Valley included many figurines made from terracotta, some of which were clearly for entertainment, including whistles shaped like birds, small animals including bulls with moveable heads and horns, and toy carts. Archaeologists classified the monkey figurine as a toy. The figurine is 5.5 centimeters (2.1 inches) high.

These photographs are among a series of fifteen taken in 1945 by U.S. soldier Glenn S. Hensley. Hensley was a professional photographer participating in aerial surveillance of Burma for the U.S. Army. The images illustrate an encounter between Hensley and four fellow U.S. airmen with the residents of the village of Kharagpur, West Bengal. Some of the photographs have significant annotations that reveal how they and the people they encountered felt about their interactions. The airmen had access to darkroom facilities, so they were able to show the results of the encounter to Mukta and her father, whom they report as being very proud. The response of the other villagers is shown in their gathering at the scene. The collection of nearly 600 photographs and notes were prepared by Hensley for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.

The photographs depict a Hindu cremation site, or burning ghat, in the city of Calcutta in 1944. The first photo shows the men of the family, including the deceased's sons, seated in front of the corpse, which lies shrouded and bedecked with flowers on a bier. The child sitting on one of the men's laps at the head is the youngest son, a child of no more than 4-6 years old. The photographer, U.S. airman Robert Keagle, stated that it was the duty of the youngest to light his father's funeral pyre. In the first photo the boy is wearing a shirt and some form of waist covering. In the second photo, the boy's head has been freshly shaven and he wears a white loin cloth. The photographer's annotation states that the turbanned man assisting the young child is his grandfather. The photographs are two in a series of over a half-dozen photographs taken on the same occasion by three different servicemen. This fact requires the viewer to imagine what is outside the camera's viewfinder; at least three foreign servicemen in uniform are snapping pictures of the same solemn scene, which appears to proceed as if no outsiders were present. Further, the photographer's annotation states, “Family assembles for photo with deceased relative before cremation at burning ghat.” The presence of the foreigners may have added a very untraditional element to the ritual occasion. We do not know whether the family received a print of the photos. These U.S. servicemen were stationed in South and Southeast Asia during World War II, were reconnaissance photographers for the military who often accompanied one another on photo excursions among civilians, and had access to darkroom facilities. Keagle stated that the prints were shipped home to the United States as personal possessions of the photographer.

The definition of an orphan for statistical purposes is a child under 18 years old who has lost one or both parents. A single orphan is a child who has lost one parent, a double orphan is a child who lost both parents. A maternal orphan is a child whose mother died, while a paternal orphan has lost the father. Crises such as disease or famine that affect children increase the rate of growth of orphans in the population. For statistical purposes, children are no longer considered orphans after they reach 18 years of age. Therefore, the number of orphans in a population group increases if the number of children losing their parents exceeds the number of orphans turning 18, causing the percentage of orphans in that population to rise also.

The data in the two charts were compiled and published by UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, drawn from numerous organizations concerned with the global AIDS/HIV epidemic. As the bar graph shows, while the number of orphans in Asia has declined during the period from 1990 to 2010 (the latter based on projections), and has remained fairly stable in Latin America and the Caribbean, there has been a steady increase in the number of orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data is not given for the number of children in Asia who have been orphaned by HIV and other causes, but that figure is likely significant.

Figures for Africa show that in the benchmark years of 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005, the percentage of children orphaned in sub-Saharan African countries as a result of AIDS rose sharply from 1% to 7% to 17% to 25%, and is projected to reach 30% of all orphans by 2010. Among them are over 10 million children who have lost both parents. AIDS is the leading cause of death among adults ages 15-59, and it has produced 12 million orphans in the region. The rates of HIV deaths are not uniform across Sub-Saharan Africa, but are much higher in southern Africa, where as many as 15% of all children are orphans. Behind these figures is a tremendous toll of human suffering. Older children may act as caregivers for their parents or siblings who are ill, or grandparents may have to raise their grandchildren. Poor nutrition, inability to attend school, inability to concentrate, emotional trauma and depression are among the most serious effects, and children whose families have been touched by AIDS may also be stigmatized by others, further worsening these effects.

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