World Day against child labor being observed today

ISLAMABAD: World Day Against Child Labor is being marked across the globe today on Thursday, including Pakistan, to raise awareness of the plight of child laborers worldwide, which is affecting hundreds of millions of girls and boys around the world.

Child labor is a problem in both developing and industrialized countries. The 2025 World Day will focus on a key milestone: the release of the 2025 global estimates and trends of child labour.

The day typically focuses on increased investment in social protection systems and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour.

Every year, numerous events are held around the world to mark the World Day Against Child Labor and call attention to the problem.

Child labor is especially rampant in many developing countries, but even in industrialized nations, many children are forced to work. According to UNICEF, children in the United States “are employed in agriculture, a high proportion of them from immigrant or ethnic-minority families.”

There have also been several incidents of Western companies exploiting child laborers in developing countries to save production costs.

In 2011, there were an estimated 215 million child laborers in the world, 115 million of which were involved in hazardous work. To combat child labor around the world, the International Labour Organization (ILO) initiated the World Day Against Child Labor in 2002.