World Day Against Child Labour

World Day Against Child Labour – 12 June 2019. In 2019, the International Labour Organization is celebrating 100 years of advancing social justice and promoting decent work. Yet today, 152 million children are still in child labour.

June 12 is marked as “World Day Against Child Labour”. More than a decade after June 12 was declared ‘World Day Against Child Labour’, over 12.5 million children in Pakistan are still involved in child labour, according to a statement issued by the Child Rights Movement (CRM) National Secretariat. There are 8.52 million home-based workers in the country, according to the figures released in the National Policy on Home-Based Workers, the number of child labourers up to the age of 10 years is around 6 million.

Child labour causes them mental, physical, moral and social harm. Though Pakistan has made a moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labour. However, still children in Pakistan engage in the worst forms of child labour, including forced domestic work and bonded labour in bricks kilns.

Under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Pakistan has committed to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking as well as secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including the recruitment and use of child soldiers and by 2025, end child labour in all its forms.

We all need to put serious interest and efforts in taking this issue seriously and ensuring that no child is deprived of its basic rights and has an easy and complete access to education and all other rights.