World day against Child Labour observed today

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Today is the  World Day Against Child Labour. This year the theme is – Children should not work in fields but on dreams. The International Labour Organization had launched this day in 2002 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it.  The day brings together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people to highlight the plight of child labourers and the measures to help them. 

Nearly 152 million children are still engaged in child labour. Although child labour occurs in almost every sector, seven out of every ten are in agriculture. The Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders in the year 2015 include a renewed global commitment to ending child labour. 

Specifically, target 8.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals calls on the global community to take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour. The target also emphasizes on ending modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.