The 2021 World Day Against Child Labor has arrived, a day recognized each year on June 12 to raise awareness to light about the social evil of promoting and hiring children for labour. In India, children between the ages of 5 and 17 are classified as children.
What is Child Labor?
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is hurtful to physical and mental development.
It refers to work that:
- Is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children.
- Interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the chance to go to school; obliging them to leave school prematurely; or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
Not everything work done by children ought to be named child labour that will be focused on for disposal. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that doesn’t influence their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is by and large viewed as being a positive thing.
This includes activities like aiding their parents around the home, aiding a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development.
History of World Day Against Child Labour:
The International Labor Organization (ILO) of the United Nations recognised 2002 as “World Day Against Child Labor.” This day was set up so that individuals from one side of the world to the other would be reminded of the horrors committed against children around the world. It was set apart to raise awareness that employing a child for work is both illegal and morally wrong.
Theme of World Day Against Child Labour 2021:
This year, the theme is ‘Act Now: End Child Labour.’ Owing to the global pandemic, there has been an unfortunate expansion in child labour across the world. Because of work troubles, the progress that was achieved in the pre-COVID years has now been reversed and slowed down. Subsequently, the onus is on people with significant influence to end it and give these children a brilliant future to anticipate.
Significance of World Day Against Child Labour:
Children are the future of any country. The more educated and informed they are, the faster their turn of development and progress will be. The International Labor Organization’s World Day Against Child Labor centers around the right to education for all children around the world, paying little mind to their economic condition, race, or caste. All kids ought to have the option to go to class so the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals can be met by 2030.