World Day Against Child Labour 2020 focuses on the impact of the crisis on child labour. The COVID-19 health pandemic and the resulting economic and labour market shock are having a huge impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. Unfortunately, children are often the first to suffer. The crisis can push millions of vulnerable children into child labour. Already, there are an estimated 152 million children in child labour, 73 million of which are in hazardous work. These children are now at even greater risk of facing circumstances that are even more difficult and working longer hours.
Hundreds of millions of girls and boys throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as 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.
This year, the World Day is conducted as a virtual campaign and is being organized jointly with the Global March Against Child Labour and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA).
Children around the world are routinely engaged in paid and unpaid forms of work that are not harmful to them. However, they are classified as child Laboure’s when they are either too young to work, or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development. In the least developed countries, slightly more than one in four children (ages 5 to 17) are engaged in labour that is considered detrimental to their health and development.
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 — 73 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.
FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO CHILD LABOUR
- Limited legal protections
- Poverty and social vulnerability
- Exposure to individual and collective shocks
- Poor quality schooling, limited school access
- Limited decent work opportunities, difficult transitions to work
- Absence or weak realization of freedom of association and of the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, and of other forms of social dialogue
HOW TO ELIMINATE CHILD LABOUR IN THIS WORLD?
- A growing consensus to address child labour through an integrated rights-based approach
- Ensuring an adequate legal architecture for protecting children from child labour
- Labour market policies to promote decent rural livelihoods and address the informal economy
- Building and extending social protection systems, including floors
- Expanding access to free, quality public education
- Addressing child labour in supply chains
Faculty of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur