Morocco Reports 26.5% Drop in Child Labor, Rural Areas Still Affected

According to the data published on the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labor, celebrated on June 12 each year, the phenomenon has declined by 26.5% compared to 2019, when there were 147,000 economically active children among the 7,469,000 children (girls and boys) aged 7 to 17 in Morocco.

Within the population of active children, 81% are rural, 79% male and 86% aged 15 to 17, the survey points out, also noting that 15.1% of them are in school, 80.9% have left school and 4% have never attended.

In terms of the geographical location of the phenomenon, the study notes that there are more working children in five regions that alone account for 77% of children in agriculture, forestry and rural fishing. These are the Casablanca-Settat region (25.6%) in the lead, followed by Marrakech-Safi (18.3%), Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima (13%), Rabat-Salé-Kénitra (10.4%) and Fès-Meknès (10.3%).

More specifically, nearly 8 out of 10 active children in rural areas work as family helpers, while in urban areas, 42.3% work as employees, 35.3% as apprentices and 16.9% as family helpers, the HCP experts detail. In terms of hours of employment, children worked an average of 33 hours per week, 4 hours less than people aged 18 and over.

In general, the phenomenon affects more large households and those whose head of household has a higher level of education, the same source points out, noting that the higher one advances in the social scale, the lower the number of working children.