Eleven year old Kashmiri boy Tanveer arr

SRINAGAR, INDIA: Eleven year old Kashmiri boy Tanveer arrranges a display of apples on a roadside stall in Srinagar,02 October 2005. In South Asia, children make up over 40 per cent of the population -- around 539 million of more than 1.2 billion people are under 18 years old -- with 13.3 per cent of the total number being under five. Child labour in the Himalayan state has shown phenomenal increase during the past two decades. According to the 1981 census, the number of child workers (main workers) engaged in an economic activity for six months or more 109,000. In addition, some 149,000 children worked as marginal workers for less than six months. The state government in 1997 made a startling revelation that about 24,000 child labourers were working in hazardous conditions in the Kashmir valley. AFP PHOTO/Sajjad HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)