Nowadays, Child Labour is one of the most featured topics in the whole world. Today, throughout the world, around 218 million children work, many full-time. They do not go to school and have little or no time to play. Many do not receive proper nutrition or care.
What is child labour?
Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that causes banishing childhood from the lives of the children. This malpractice is physical, mentally, emotionally and socially harmful for the children.
More than half of them are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour. Even people have engaged them forcefully into illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as in armed conflict.
Poverty and lack of schools are considered as the primary cause of child labour. A majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban economy; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than factories.
Throughout the history, child labour has existed in various countries. According to statistics, globally the incidence of child labour decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003. The total number of child labourers remains high till date. UNICEF (The United Nations Children’s Fund ) and ILO (The International Labour Organization) acknowledged that estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide, were involved in child labour in 2013. In the world’s poorest countries, around 1 in 4 children are engaged in child labour.
World Day Against Child Labour:
ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12 June, the World Day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them. Awareness is spread amongst the mass to prohibit child labour.
Being a responsible and sensible person, each of us should work for the elimination of all forms of child labour to build a happy future world. Hence we need to work together to put an end to child labour.
Featured image by Ayandeep
