The International Labor Organization's most recent surveys indicate that 73 million children between the ages of 10-14 are in the labor force, more than 13 percent of all children in this age group. No one knows how many children under the age of 10 are working. This means that potentially hundreds of millions of children work under the conditions just described. There are many reasons why children enter the labor force. Within the family, it is generally a practice born of tradition and sustained by necessity.
Poverty is the primary motivation for sending children outside of the home to work.
This, in turn, often breeds exploitation. According to experts, the prime reason that employers find child workers so attractive is precisely because they are easily exploited. They are more docile. They work fast and they don't tire easily, so more work can be extracted out of them. If they are cheated in wages or subjected to dangerous working conditions, most are powerless to defend themselves.