According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are about 152 million children globally who are engaged in child labour, 72 million of whom are in hazardous work. With the coronavirus pandemic set to lead the world into a recession, these children are now at an even greater risk of facing circumstances even more difficult and working longer hours. The World Day against Child Labour, held every year on June 12, is intended to foster the worldwide movement against child labour in any of its forms.
In 2002, the United Nations body that regulates the world of work, the International Labour Organization (ILO), launched the World Day Against Child Labour to ensure a normal childhood for the many children in the age group 5 to 17 and providing them with adequate education, proper health care, leisure time or just basic freedom. ILO also look forward towards the UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7 set by the international community calling for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025.
June 12 is marked as World Day Against Child Labour to bring attention to the global issue of child labour and to find ways to eradicate it. The day is marked to spread awareness about the adverse mental and physical issues faced by children forced into child labour, worldwide. The day also works as an opportunity for people to develop efficient mechanisms to combat issues that lead to child labour.
This day brings together governments, local authorities, civil society and international, workers and employers organizations to point out the child labour problem and define the guidelines to help child labourers. According to ILO’s data, hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are involved in work that deprives them of receiving an adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating this way their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour. These worst forms of child labour include work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.
World Day against child labour themes:
2020: Covid-19: Protect Children from Child Labour, now more than ever!
2019: Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams!
2018: Generation Safe & Healthy
2017: In conflicts and disasters, protect children from child labour
2016: End child labour in supply chains – It’s everyone’s business!
2015: NO to child labour – YES to quality education!
2014: Extend social protection: combat child labour!
2013: No to child labour in domestic work
2012: Human rights and social justice… let’s end child labour
2011: Warning! Children in hazardous work
2010: Go for the goal… end child labour
2009: Give girls a chance: End child labour
2008: Education: The right response to child labour
2007: Child labour and agriculture
2006: The end of child labour: Together we can do it!
2005: A load too heavy: Child labour in mining and quarrying
2004: Behind closed doors: Child domestic labour
2003: Trafficking in Children
2002: A Future Without Child Labour
Poverty is one of the main reasons for child labour because of which children are forced to left their school and opt for minimal jobs to support their parents for their livelihood. Moreover, some are forced into child labour by organised crime rackets.
Experience shows that deeprooted social norms, the violation of workers’ rights, discrimination against certain groups, and a poorly-functioning education system are the main reasons why children aren’t attending school.
Because children are easy to exploit and are cheap labourers, they are hired in preference to adults. Child labour thus leads to lower wages and higher unemployment among adults. Children who work and do not go to school will end up in low paid jobs later, and so will their children – and so the vicious cycle of poverty is perpetuated.
Child labour is a global problem that requires a global solution. Together we can stop child labour by no longer accepting it, not in mines, not on fields, not in factories, not in domestic settings. There is strict need to stop child labor in the world. Awareness must be raised and the attention of parents ought to be diverted to the education of their children. Child labor laws should be put into practice strictly. The orphans and other deserving children must be helped financially on a prolonged basis.
Let us collectively work towards a child labour free world.