NO To Child Labour-YES To Quality Education

World Day Against Child Laour

The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. Around the world, large numbers of children are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer. These children can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Their work is often hidden from the public eye, they may be isolated, and they may be working far away from their family home. The most recent global estimates suggest some 120 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are involved in child labour, with boys and girls in this age group almost equally affected. This persistence of child labour is rooted in poverty and lack of decent work for adults, lack of social protection, and a failure to ensure that all children are attending school through to the legal minimum age for admission to employment.

World Day 2015 calls for:

• Free, compulsory and quality education for all children at least to the minimum age for admission to employment and action to reach those presently in child labour;
• New efforts to ensure that national policies on child labour and education are consistent and effective;
• Policies that ensure access to quality education and investment in the teaching profession.