12 June is World Day Against Child Labour

Environment · Lorenzo Brenna · 2018-06-11

The Day was established to combat child labour, a phenomenon that, in some of the world's poorest countries, affects one in four children.

Depriving a child of their childhood, risking irreparably compromising their future, is among the greatest cruelties that can be committed. Yet the phenomenon of child labour is far from being defeated: across the world, at least 218 million children and adolescents are forced to work, often carrying out dangerous tasks.

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Bambino che lavora alla macchina da cucire — According to ILO data, 74 million children worldwide are employed in various forms of hazardous work, such as mining, contact with chemicals and agricultural pesticides, or operation of dangerous machinery © Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Child labour in the world

In most cases, child labour represents a kind of compensation for family income that households often resort to in times of hardship. It is concentrated above all in the poorest areas of the planet — sub-Saharan Africa holds the sad record for the highest number of exploited minors — yet our country is not immune to this problem either.

Child labour in Italy

An estimated 340,000 children under the age of sixteen are forced to work in Italy, often in conditions bordering on exploitation. "The peak of child labour occurs among adolescents at the transition from lower to upper secondary school," explained Raffaella Milano of Save the Children, "a stage at which Italy has one of the highest school dropout rates in Europe, at 18.2 per cent."

Bambino cambogiano si guadagna da vivere in una discarica — Among the worst forms of child labour is street work — that is, the employment of all those children who, visible in Asian, Latin American and African cities, try to survive by collecting recyclable waste or selling food and beverages © Omar Havana/Getty Images

No to child labour

On 12 June, the World Day Against Child Labour is celebrated across the globe, established by the International Labour Organization (ILO) on 12 June 2002. The aim of the day is to shed light on the scourge of child labour, highlighting the need to eradicate every form of economic exploitation of children.

The importance of education

In previous editions, efforts have been made to emphasise the importance of education, which is crucial for accessing decent work in later life. It has been shown that allowing girls access to schooling is among the best investments a country can make in its own development; yet it is precisely girls who are the first to be sent out to work in times of crisis. To reverse this trend, the International Labour Organization calls for quality education to be provided to all children — at the very least compulsory education — and for national policies on child labour and education to be improved and made more effective.

Classe di bambini in una scuola tedesca — Quality education is fundamental to fighting child labour effectively © Sean Gallup/Getty Images

For a safe and healthy generation

The 2018 edition of the World Day Against Child Labour, together with World Day for Safety and Health at Work, which was held on 28 April, highlights the global urgency of improving the safety and health of young workers and putting an end to child labour. The purpose of this joint campaign is to accelerate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which include, among others, ensuring safe working environments for all workers by 2030 and ending all forms of child labour by 2025.