The World Day Against Child Labour-2022 will be observed in the country as elsewhere across the globe tomorrow (Sunday). This year, the theme of the day is ‘Universal Social Protection to End Child Labour’. The 2022 theme of the world day calls for increased investment in social protection systems and schemes to establish solid social protection floors and protect children from child labour. Various international and national private organisations including ILO and unicef have chalked out various programmes to mark the day. Also read: UNRC lauds remarkable eagerness of children to learn On the occasion of the day, State Minister for Labour and Employment Begum Monnujan Sufian urged the national and international organisations to come forward to stop child recruitment at mills and factories and raise awareness among the people of all stages. “The government is committed to curbing all kinds of child labour as per the target of SDG,” she said. Television channels will air special programmes including TVC describing the importance of the day. According to the United Nations, ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 to bring attention to and join efforts to fight against child labour. Also read: Over 1.5mn children at risk as devastating floods hit north-eastern Bangladesh: UNICEF While significant progress has been made in reducing child labour over the last two decades, progress has slowed over time, and it has even stalled during the period 2016-2020. Today, 160 million children are still engaged in child labour – some as young as 5. In 2015 the UN general assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which was to eliminate child labour in all forms by 2025.

Child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide, an increase of 8.4 million in the last four years as countries are trying to turn the corner and break the cycle of poverty and child labour, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Unicef. They also warn that 9 million more children are at risk as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and this number could rise to 46 million if they do not have access to critical social protection coverage.