Rabat – Nearly 123,000 children aged between 7 and 15 years old are working as child labourers in 2011, that is 2.5% of the overall children in this age bracket, Morocco’s statistics office, the High commission for planning (HCP), said in a study issued on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour.
This rate dropped from 9.7% in 1999, the same source said, noting that child labour is more prevalent in rural areas where it affected 5% of children (113,000) in 2011 down from 16.2% (452,000) in 1999.
In cities, 0.4% children of the same age bracket are at work (10,000) compared to 2.5% (65,000) in 1999.
Six out of ten children at work are boys, said the same source, adding that 24.9% of those children work and study at the same time, 53.9% dropped out from school and 21.2% never went to school.
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