World has missed the target of eliminating child labour by 2025

South Asia has 14.3 million child-labours out of 138 million globally

- BY DR. GYAN PATHAK

In 2015, the United Nations set a goal to end child labour worldwide by 2025 but progress has been slow and halting. World has missed the target. It has 138 million children between 5 and 17 years of age in child labour, while South Asia has 14.3 million with most of them obviously in India, being the largest populated country in the region. The world was able to eliminate only 20 million child labour since 2020, meaning thereby, the fight against child labour to continue for decades.

The new joint report of International Labour Organization and UNICEF on Child Labour says that out of 138 million children in child labour 59 million are girls and 78 million are boys. About 54 million, that is around 4 in 10 children in child labour are in hazardous work. In South Asia, 9.4 million children are in hazardous work.

And we know that the persistence of child labour also threatens progress on multiple other SDGs set by the international community. Child labour keeps children out of school (SDG 4), fuelling intergenerational cycles of poverty (SDG 1) and inequality (SDG10). It weakens economic growth (SDG 8) by limiting workforce productivity and innovation. It harms health and well-being (SDG 3), both in childhood and later life. In supply chains, child labour undermines efforts towards ethical and sustainable production (SDG 12), posing challenges for businesses and consumers alike. Tackling child labour is not just a legal and ethical imperative it is essential for achieving sustainable development and unlocking long-term economic prosperity.