Web Desk: World Day against the Child Labour is being observed today (Thursday).
The purpose of observing the day is to grab attention on the global extent of child labor and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it.
Progress is clear, but there’s more to do: let’s speed up efforts!
The 2025 World Day will focus on a key milestone: the release of the 2025 global estimates and trends of child labour.
This joint report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will offer a comprehensive assessment of global progress toward the elimination of child labour.
Although the detailed data are not yet available, the estimates and trends identified will guide policy debates and calls for renewed commitment and investment.
On this World Day, ILO calls for full ratification of ILO Convention No. 138 on the Minimum Age and the implementation of ILO Convention No. 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
Their effective ratification and implementation remain essential to achieving the goals set by the Durban Call to Action, which urges us to aim for for strengthened prevention, protection, and partnerships to eliminate child labour.
Now is the time to make the elimination of child labour a reality.
Prevalence of child labour
Since 2000, for nearly two decades, the world had been making steady progress in reducing child labour. But over the past few years, conflicts, crises and the COVID-19 pandemic, have plunged more families into poverty – and forced millions more children into child labour.
Economic growth has not been sufficient, nor inclusive enough, to relieve the pressure that too many families and communities feel and that makes them resort to child labour.
Today, 160 million children are still engaged in child labour. That is almost one in ten children worldwide.
Africa ranks highest among regions both in the percentage of children in child labour — one-fifth — and the absolute number of children in child labour — 72 million.
Asia and the Pacific ranks second highest in both these measures — 7% of all children and 62 million in absolute terms are in child labour in this region.
The Africa and the Asia and the Pacific regions together account for almost nine out of every ten children in child labour worldwide.
The remaining child labour population is divided among the Americas (11 million), Europe and Central Asia (6 million), and the Arab States (1 million).
In terms of incidence, 5% of children are in child labour in the Americas, 4% in Europe and Central Asia, and 3% in the Arab States.
While the percentage of children in child labour is highest in low-income countries, their numbers are actually greater in middle-income countries.
9% all children in lower-middle-income countries, and 7% of all children in upper-middle-income countries, are in child labour.
Statistics on the absolute number of children in child labour in each national income grouping indicate that 84 million children in child labour, accounting for 56% of all those in child labour, actually live in middle-income countries, and an additional 2 million live in high-income countries.
