Children, work and 'child labour' : changing responses to the employment of children

Working children and young people occupy a relatively weak and easily exploitable position in work relations and in the labour market. As a social group, they share this problem with various other structurally- disadvantaged social groups in society (examples are women, e!liiiic minorities or migrants and the disabled). However, they are the only-one among such groups whose exploitation is generally addressed by attempts to remove them completely from the labour market, rather-17 than by efforts to improve the terms and conditions under which they work. What is the basis for treating the 'child labour~,:p~oblem in such a different way: i.e. by demanding special laws and regulations excluding this category of persons from access to employment, rather than by demanding the abolition of discrimination against them?