Most of them come from poor families where education is regarded as an extra cost that can be done away with.

However, some children are linked to bad company which corrupts them and makes them believe that employment is more important than education.

Statistics prove that more and more children in Africa, Asia and Latin America are giving up schooling for informal employment.

In Western Africa for instance, child labour is at 20 per cent, Asia 25 per cent and in Latin America, Peru to be specific 29 per cent. Moreover, some of them fail to realise that this informal employment is dangerous.

What is more shocking is that the parents/guardians of these children do not see the harm in allowing their young ones to work. Poverty has driven many families to demand that everyone chips in.

These children who come into contact with adults are exposed to many forms of exploitation and are subjected to untold suffering.

Girls, in particular, suffer the most as they are at times, if not all the time, sexually harassed by their male counterparts. They are forced into relationships so as to seek a good pay or certain favours such as a cup of tea during the day.

The worst injustice in this case is that at the people exploiting them sexually are at times old enough to be their fathers.

But, unfortunately poverty forces them into this situation where they end up with unwanted pregnancies and places them at a greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Child labour comes in many forms such as prostitution, production of pornography and pornographic material, drug trafficking and domestic workers.

These dehumanising tasks are viewed by some as actual day to day work activities.

Some of these children do not like to work and would rather go to school and lead normal lives as their agemates.

It’s high time human rights activists came up in arms against such practices as they are killing the children by not providing them with education.

IN this day and age, more and more children are being pulled into early employment and denied an education.

Most of them come from poor families where education is regarded as an extra cost that can be done away with.

What parents/guardians fail to realise is that education, and a good one for that matter, is important to children as they are the leaders of tomorrow.