Joining a host of Caribbean and Latin American countries, The Bahamas has pledged to eradicate child labor by 2020, signing a regional initiative with that goal in mind.
Labor ministers and government representatives from 25 countries signed the regional initiative at the 18th American Regional Meeting of the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Lima, Peru earlier this month.
Addressing the regional meeting, ILO Director General Guy Ryder stated that the signing represents a critical step in eradicating the "scourge" of child labor.
Ryder noted that Latin America and the Caribbean had proposed to eradicate the worst forms of child labor by 2016 and eliminate all forms of child labor by 2020.
However, representatives of the ILO acknowledged that those two goals might not be achieved on schedule, noting that the total eradication of child labor would likely take more than 40 years at the region's current pace.
The Regional Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean Free of Child Labour was launched last year in response to similar concerns of slow progress, arguing that the region could become the first in the developing world to fully eliminate child labor.
The ILO estimates that 12.5 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean remain entrenched in child labor, with more than 9.5 million of those engaged in hazardous work.
In recent years the number of children in child labor in the region has been reduced by 7.5 million.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian