The survey, by the Census and Statistics Department, found that more than 90 percent of these children worked in the agriculture sector.
Now, the Labour Ministry is teaming up with the ILO, part of the United Nations, to conduct a fresh survey.
“The ministry of labour has requested the ILO to provide technical help for the exercise," said Tine Staermose, ILO Country Director in Sri Lanka. "We are now designing the survey and look forward to collaborating with them.”
In poor countries where laws are lax or are difficult to implement, children are used as agricultural labour because they are cheaper to employ.
Doing so denies them the opportunity to study and exposes them to hazards that could have long term health effects.
However, not all work is child labour.
“It is important to differentiate between children working as child labourers and in family farm activities,” said Indrani Sugathadasa, Secretary, Child Development Ministry.
“According to the ILO, child labour is something that harms children’s wellbeing and jeopardizes their development and violates their rights.”
The survey by the statistics office eight years ago found over 97,000 children suffering from work related injuries. More than half of them worked in the agriculture sector.
Experts at an ILO organized seminar to announce the commencement of the child labour survey said children in rural areas were most vulnerable.
It is illegal to employ anyone below the age of 14 in Sri Lanka, although the UN convention on the rights of children itself defines children as anyone below 18 years of age.
However, experts argue that weak social infrastructure is a bigger contributor to the problem than the lax Sri Lankan law allowing anyone who is 14 years to be out of school and in employment.
“Child labour is a survival strategy in many rural areas in Sri Lanka,” Sugathadasa said.
“In most cases parents would prefer to send their children to school but the (poor) quality of education in remote areas, though free, is a disincentive to parents.”
While almost all children get a primary school education, secondary enrolment is less than 50 percent leaving many children available to be used as labour.
Studies have also found that the poor quality of education in rural areas is a contributory factor to the early withdrawal of children from school.
“Recognizing that education is empowering, the government continues with free education,” Sugathadasa added.
“Many parents see the provision of quality education for their children as an opportunity for social and economic advancement.”
“Therefore, before withdrawing children from child labour in the agriculture sector it is important to ensure that viable alternatives are in place. It is necessary that they are placed in safer and non-exploitative alternatives or we take the risk of them moving into worse forms of child labour.
"It is also necessary to ensure that the income lost by pulling the child out of employment does not entail the impoverishment of that particular family."
The escalating ethnic conflict has also left many children in greater danger of ending up as agricultural labour, according to the ILO.
“Since the country slid back into violence and conflict in January 2006, many children are living in difficult conditions, either on the move as IDPs (Internally Displaced Persons) or in camps,” the ILO's Staermose says.
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