BRASILIA – Poverty forces some 1.4 million Brazilian children ranging in age from 5 to 14 to work, according to official figures released Tuesday on the World Day Against Child Labor.

The figures were made public by the National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of Child Labor, prepared with the support of the International Labor Organization and based on Brazil’s 2010 census.

According to the study, the majority of those children work in rural areas, where poverty prevails and schools are few and far between.

In the urban areas, child workers are employed mainly in selling knickknacks on the street, a job where – according to the National Forum – they are exposed to drug trafficking and other types of criminal activity.

On the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labor, the ILO and the Brazilian government announced the start of a campaign to “definitively” eradicate the practice which will include a demonstration to promote the entry of children into the educational system.

According to the Social Development Ministry, the campaign will be conducted on the national level, with social workers, educational personnel and public health employees involved in it, and it will have the slogan “Doing away with child labor in defense of human rights and social justice.” EFE