BRASILIA, 30 Nov 2017:
About 1.8 million children and young people between five and 17 years of age were working in this country in 2016, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
About 30,000 children between five and nine years of age were already working, as well as approximately 130,000 boys between 10 and 13 years old, the agency said.
Within the total universe of minors who are already forced to work, most of them (64.1%) were black or mulatto; a percentage that rose to 71.8% in the age range from five to 13 years old.
The IBGE report stated that about 81.4% of the children and adolescents who attend school also attended school last year; 94.8% did it in public schools and 5.2% in private education centres.
The main activity for children from five to 13 years old was agriculture, concentrating 47.6% of the total. Meanwhile, the main occupation from those between 14 and 17 years of age was commerce (27.2%).
About 66% of the last group was employed as employees, while 73% of children aged five to 13 worked to help their families.
– Bernama