Have you read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens? Dickens wrote the novel that tells the story of an orphaned child labourer as a reaction to the unjust English law that sanctioned child labour in the 19th century. During the Victorian Era, the economy of Britain depended on children as their strength and inability to stand against injustice made them easy prey for the capitalist factory owners. Even today, the rights of children are violated and many still work in poor conditions. The World Day against Child Labour is observed on June 12 reminding us of the need to take good care of our children.
Children are the wealth of a nation as they represent the future. The World leaders adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015 in order to include a renewed global commitment to ending child labour. It calls for taking immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms.
The observance of the World Day against Child Labour began in 2002; and ever since, has brought together governments, employers and workers organizations, civil society, as well as millions of people from around the world to highlight the plight of child labourers.
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