Employment of children in the urban informal sector is an enormous problem in many parts of the world. This is especially true in areas where poverty, unemployment and inadequate opportunities for education and training are widespread. It is estimated that nearly 145 million children in the world are economically active. Their labor force participation in the age group 10–14 is 33% (Bouhdiba, 1982:5). In 1979, the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that there were 52 million child workers in the world. A majority of these children (80%) are unpaid family workers. Rates of child employment are highest in Africa, followed by Asia and Latin America. Roughly 98% of the working children are concentrated on these three continents, mostly in the rural areas. It is difficult to know the exact magnitude of child labor in the urban areas because many of them are not taken into account in the census or other surveys. The figures given by different agencies vary significantly depending on the method of survey and the definition of “child labor”. However, many surveys have revealed physical, social, economic and sexual exploitation of children is higher in the urban areas where children take up self-employment, a paying job, or family labor.