Introduction
Child labour remains a major global human rights and development challenge. In 2024, an estimated 138 million children worldwide were engaged in child labour. While agriculture accounts for the largest share, services –including domestic work in third-party households– represent a significant and under-acknowledged proportion of child labour globally accounting for approximately 27% of all child labour worldwide (ILO/UNICEF, 2024).
Child domestic work is not accidental; it is structurally produced. Poverty, exclusion from labour law protections, lack of maternity protection, childcare services and migration regimes that separate families create the conditions under which children enter domestic work. Taking place behind closed doors, child domestic labour remains largely invisible to labour inspection and public oversight.
Children engaged in domestic work frequently experience long working hours, isolation, denial of education, and heightened exposure to physical, psychological and sexual violence (ILO 2021d). Ending child domestic labour is inseparable from achieving decent work, social protection, and rights for adult domestic workers.
Data on Child Labour in Domestic Work
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 7.1 million children aged 5–17 are engaged in domestic work globally. Of these: 4.1 million are children aged 5–11; 1.1 million are aged 12–14; and 2.0 million are aged 15–17.
Children in domestic work face high risks of abuse, exploitation, and violence. In many countries, domestic work is recognized as hazardous ork for children under national lists developed in line with ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour. In addition, many children are denied access to education and basic social services. Because domestic work occurs in private households, child domestic labour is systematically underreported and difficult to monitor.
Current global estimates also fail to capture the full impact of domestic work related to migration on children. Millions of children are left behind when domestic workers (predominantly women) migrate internally or across borders –and are not included in official child labour statistics. Domestic workers’ children are left to be cared for by other family members and often experience emotional distress, disrupted education and heightened vulnerability to exploitation.
The absence of maternity protection, childcare services, and social policies for domestic workers contributes directly to child labour and to negative mental health outcomes for both working children and children left behind. Under-reported negative impacts include anxiety, emotional distress, and long-term developmental impacts.
IDWF Position
IDWF affirms that:
- Every child has the right to childhood, education, protection, and mental well-being.
- Children must not be employed in domestic work below the legal minimum age.
- Child domestic work is a hidden and harmful form of child labour that isolates children and exposes them to abuse and exploitation.
- Laws must be strong and enforced: The persistence of child domestic labour is closely linked to poverty wages, informality, lack of social protection, and the exclusion of domestic workers from labour law protections.
- Families need support: Preventing child labour requires ensuring decent work for domestic workers, including fair wages, maternity protection, and access to childcare services.
What Must Be Done Globally
To eliminate child labour in the domestic work sector, coordinated and data-driven action is required:
- Strong Legal Frameworks: Governments must prohibit child domestic labour in law, in line with ILO Conventions No. 138 (Minimum Age) and No. 182 (Wors Forms of Child Labour). This must be accompanied by the ratification and full implementation of ILO Convention No 189 and Recommendation No. 201 (Domestic Workers). Effective enforcement requires labour inspection and monitoring mechanisms adapted to the domestic work sector, as provided for under Convention 189.
- Universal Access to Education: All children should have access to free, quality education, including children of domestic workers and children left behind due to labour migration. Barriers like school fees, transport, must be removed.
- Universal Social Protection: Governments must ensure access to social protection systems, including maternity benefits, child benefits, and childcare services.
- Data Collection, Evidence and Monitoring: In line with the Durban Call to Action (P23), governments and international organizations must improve data collection on child labour in domestic work and services, including the impacts of parental migration and care deficits on children.
- Awareness Campaigns and Public Accountability: Public campaigns –including governments, unions, employers associations, and civil society– must challenge the social normalization of child domestic work and promote ethical employment practices.
Responsibilities and Actions
A. Governments
Governments must:
- Ratify and implement ILO Conventions No. 138 (Minimum Age) Convention No. 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour), and Convention No. 189 (Domestic Workers), as well as Recommendation No. 204 on the transition from the informal to the formal economy.
- Domesticate international labour standards into national law and ensure enforcement.
- Strengthen laws to protect children and enforce them with labour inspections.
- Invest in education, health, and child protection systems.
- Support community programs that reduce child labour and assist families.
- Implement data-driven policies to prevent child labour, as called for in the Durban Call to Action.
B. Employers of Domestic Workers
Employers must:
- Ensure no child below the legal minimum age is employed in domestic work.
- Respect the rights of domestic workers, including fair wages and decent working conditions in their homes.
- Support and promote safe, legal employment practices.
- Comply fully with national labour and child protection laws.
C. Communities and Civil Society
Community leaders, trade unions, and civil society organizations should:
- Reject the employment of children in domestic work.
- Support families to keep children in school.
- Promote awareness through community, faith-based, and educational institutions.
D. Domestic Workers and IDWF Affiliates
All IDWF affiliates commit to:
- Strengthening organizing to build worker power and collective voice.
- Strengthening collective bargaining agreements to explicitly prohibit child labour.
- Campaigning for ratification and implementation of ILO Convention No, 189 and Recommendation No. 201.
- Support efforts to protect children from exploitation.
- Providing training on workers’ rights, human rights, child protection, and reporting mechanisms.
IDWF Demands
IDWF calls on all governments , employers, and international partners to:
- Eliminate child domestic labour, which affects an estimated 7.1 million children globally, through strong laws, effective enforcement, and accountability mechanisms adapted to private households.
- Ratify and fully implement ILO Convention No. 138, No. 182, and No. 189, and Recommendation No 201 & 204, without exemptions that allow child labour to persist.
- Recognize that decent ork for domestic workers is essential to preventing child labour.
- Ensure universal access to social protection systems, with equitable and sustainable financing, particularly for women domestic workers.
- Improve data collection on child labour in domestic work and on children affected by labour migration, in line with the Durban Call to Action.
- Uphold every child’s right to education, mental well-being, and safe childhood.
Eliminating child labour globally is impossible without addressing child labour and care deficits in domestic work! This is one of the most feminized and least protected sectors worldwide.
Promoting decent work for domestic workers in not only a labour rights imperative; it is a necessary condition for ending child labour and safeguarding children’s futures.
