Every fifth child in Kyrgyzstan works on the streets for 8-12 hours a day, the public survey of the Children’s Protection Center, published in the collection of articles Children’s Situation in Kyrgyzstan – 2007 unveiled.
“Most of the children, 44 percent, work less than 5 hours a day, 35 percent work 5-8 hours, whereof 45 percent work without days-off, and only 15 percent have one day-off a week. 11.5 percent of children occupied in farming said that they work a regular 8-hour working day, 29 percent work all day, which proves that 40.8 percent of children are involved in the worst forms of the child labor, causing physical harm,” the survey showed.
The Children’s Protection Center’s activists questioned 117 working children in the southern region of the country and learnt that most of the children (36.7 percent) are wheelbarrow carriers at the age of 12-18, making 100-200 soms a day, 23 percent of children at the age of 6-14 collect carton boxes for 50-70 soms a day and 22 percent are shoe-brushers. Besides, children are regular householders and cattle breeders.
