Eight in ten Moldovan children are involved in housework

Eight in ten children in Moldova are engaged in household activities, with nine of them believing this is normal, says a recent study by the National Bureau of Statistics. The children also perform dangerous work, including in quarries and at building sites. In some of the cases, the children work for more than 13 hours a week, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the study, half of the children aged between 5 and 17 work for less than seven hours a week. But the average for all the children is 10 hours a week. The children aged between 5 and 11 constitute about one fourth of the working children. After the study was conducted, the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family launched the national plan of action for preventing and eliminating the worst forms of child labor for 2011-2015. In a roundtable meeting, Deputy Minister of Social Protection Vlad Sainciuc said the document contains measures aimed at preventing and combating child labor. The primary objective is to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in Moldova by 2015. The normative framework on child labor is to be adjusted to the international standards. The study of child activities was carried out in Moldova for the first time, with support from the Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor of the International Labor Organization.