Although child labor has decreased significantly over the last decade, one-in-ten children are still caught up in harmful work, the UN's labor agency said on Friday, kicking off a year-long bid to eradicate the practice. "There is no place for child labor in society", said Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO). "It robs children of their future and keeps families in poverty." Breaking down the stats While the number has dropped from 246 million in 2000 to 152 million in 2016, ILO noted uneven progress across regions. It pointed to some 72 million children working in Africa, which account for almost half of the world's total. This is followed by Asia and the Pacific, home to 62 million child laborers. ILO highlighted that 70 percent of these children work in agriculture — mainly in subsistence and commercial farming and livestock herding — and almost half in occupations or situations considered hazardous to their health and lives. The COVID factor Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has considerably exacerbated the situation by rendering everyone more vulnerable to exploitation, compounding poverty within defenseless populations and jeopardizing hard-fought gains in the fight against child labor. Furthermore, school closures have pushed millions more children into the labor market, so they can contribute to the family income. "With COVID-19 threatening to reverse years of progress, we need to deliver on promises now more than ever," said the ILO chief. A year of action On a positive note, ILO said that joint and decisive action can reverse this trend. In collaboration with the Alliance 8.7 global partnership, ILO launched the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour to encourage legislative and practical actions to eradicate child labor worldwide. Adopted by the General Assembly in 2019, the year aims to urge governments to work towards achieving Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 8.7 calls for immediate measures to end forced labor, modern slavery and human trafficking while also eliminating the worst forms of child labor, including use of child soldiers, and by 2025 ending child labor in all its forms. The 12-month campaign will also prepare the ground for the fifth Global Conference on Child Labour (VGC) in 2022, which will welcome additional commitments towards ending child labor in all its forms by 2025, and forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery by 2030. "This International Year is an opportunity for governments to step up and achieve Target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals by taking concrete actions to eliminate child labor for good". — UN News
