World Day Against Child Labour today

ISLAMABAD:

World Day Against Child Labour will be marked on Sunday (today) to raise awareness of the plight of child labourers, affecting hundreds of millions of girls and boys worldwide.

Child labour is a problem in both developing and industrialised countries. The 2022 theme of the world day calls for increased investment in social protection system and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour.

Every year, numerous events are held around the world to mark the World Day Against Child Labour and call attention to the problem. Child labour is pervasive in many developing countries, but even in industrialised nations, many children are forced to work.

According to UNICEF, children in the United States "are employed in agriculture, a high proportion of them from immigrant or ethnic-minority families."

There have also been a number of incidents of Western companies exploiting child labourers in developing countries to save production costs. In 2011, there were an estimated 215 million child labourers in the world - 115 million of which were involved in hazardous work. To combat child labour around the world, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) initiated the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2022.