World Day against Child Labour 2019 focus Children Shouldn’t Work in Fields but on Dreams

World Day against Child Labour is celebrated every year on 12^th June. It was launched in 2002 by International Labour Organization (ILO). Its aim is to “focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it.”

The theme for World Day against Child Labour 2019 is ‘Children shouldn’t work in fields, but on dreams!’ The worst forms of child labour include 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.

According to the United Nations, different bodies like governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world get together to highlight the plight of child labourers and what steps can be taken to help them.

World leaders in 2015 have adopted sustainable development goals, which include a call to the global community to take “immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery securing the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour and human trafficking, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and to end child labour in all its forms by 2025."

The global body says 152 million children are still in child labour, with seven out of every ten in agriculture. The reason for its celebration this year is that 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. Child labour occurs in almost all sectors, yet 7 out of every 10 of these children are working in agriculture.

On World Day against Child Labour 2019, the ILO said, it is also looking forward towards UN Sustainable Development Goal Target 8.7 set by the international community calling for an end to child labour in all its forms by 2025.

The ILO has called for immediate action to address the remaining challenges in eliminating child labour. This year also marks 20 years since the adoption of the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999.