Online Desk :
The World Day against Child Labour-2021 is being observed in the country as elsewhere in the world on Saturday (June 12). Act now: end child labour – is the theme of this year’s World Day Against Child Labour.
To mark the day, several non-governmental organizations including the Ministry of Labor and Employment of Bangladesh, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and UNICEF have jointly took various programs.
President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate messages on the eve of World Day Against Child Labour.
Meanwhile, ILO and Unicef said in a new report that the number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide – an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years – with millions more at risk due to the impacts of COVID-19.
“Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward” – released ahead of World Day Against Child Labour – warns that progress to end child labour has stalled for the first time in 20 years, reversing the previous downward trend that saw child labour fall by 94 million between 2000 and 2016.
The report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged 5 to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure. The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016.
