With rap music and pinwheels, marches and solemn statements, numerous organisations across the planet marked the third World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June this year with a specific focus on efforts to spare young people from working as domestic servants, the United Nations Labour Organisation (ILO) said.

As part of the commemorative events, the agency launched a new report in Geneva entitled, "Helping Hands or Shackled Lives? Understanding Child Domestic Labour and Responses to It."

The ILO said that most children employed in other people's homes were "grossly exploited and abused." While the practice is sometimes rationalised as a "better" alternative for children from poor families, the study recommended feasible and realistic action to help these youngsters.

"It is vital that child domestic labour, so often neglected because exploitation and abuse takes place behind closed doors, receives attention," said June Kane, the report's author. "We have to remind ourselves that children are not just doing 'odd
jobs;' they are in a workplace - even if it is someone else's home."

Among the global activities planned to mark the Day are a rap music performance by children in Niger as well as a special march in Brazil, the ILO said. Nepal will use the occasion to launch a major social mobilization campaign to change general
perceptions about child labour.

[Source: UN News Centre:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=10911&Cr=child&Cr1=labour]