Staff Reporter
LAHORE : World Day Against Child Labour is being observed across the world including Pakistan today (Thursday). The theme of the day this year is “Progress is clear, but there’s more to do: let’s speed up efforts!”World Day Against Child Labor aims to focus attention on the global extent of child labor and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Each year on 12 June, the Day brings together governments, employers and worker organizations, and civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers and what can be done to help them.The eradication of child labour requires a systemic approach and effective policies to strengthen social protection systems, education, and decent work opportunities for parents to address the conditions that drive child labour.On the occasion of the World Day Against Child Labour, alarming new figures from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) reveal that nearly 138 million children across the world were engaged in child labour in 2024.Of them, around 54 million were involved in hazardous work that endangered their health, safety, and development.The new estimates, released on Wednesday in a report titled “Child Labour: Global Estimates 2024, Trends and the Road Forward”, mark a modest but critical improvement—more than 22 million fewer children are in child labour compared to 2020, reversing the troubling increase recorded between 2016 and 2020.The number of child labourers across Pakistan is in millions due to ineffective laws and insufficient measures. The rate child labour is 14 pc across the Punjab.Experts have warned that child labour is increasing day by day as governments have announced plans but haven’t taken effective actions against child labour.
