World Day Against Child Labour 2022: Know history, significance, theme of the year

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 labourers when they are either too young to work, or are involved in hazardous activities that may compromise their physical, mental, social or educational development.

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This year the UN is commemorating the World Day Against Child Labour with the theme,  "Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour" that "calls for increased investment in social protection systems and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour," stated UN.

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In 2002, the International Labour Organisation launched the World Day Against Child Labour with an aim to raise awareness against child labour and put an end to it.

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The 'World Day Against Child Labour' aims to create awareness about the plight of child labor and raise the voice against it. It also aims at helping the children rescued from the hazardous conditions.

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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 — 72 million, states the UN.

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, according to the UN.

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According to UN, "globally, significant progress has been made in reducing child labour in the past two decades (ILO and UNICEF 2021). The number of children in child labour declined by 85.5 million between 2000 and 2020, from 16% to 9.6%."

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