2024-06-11

International Day Against Child Labour

On June 12, we celebrate the International Day Against Child Labour.

Millions of children around the world are forced to work in dangerous conditions when they should instead be in school, getting an education and growing up in the safety of a classroom.

There are children who work up to 14 hours a day and many are no older than four years old. When people live in extreme poverty, many become desperate and are prepared to do anything to make ends meet. And the kids have to help. They are forced to work and beg, thus losing the right to their childhood. Many of the children spend long, hard days working in homes, factories, fields and on the streets instead of going to school.

In the poorest countries in the world, the percentage of children who work is as high as around 24 percent. Of these children, approximately half are between the ages of five and eleven. One of the biggest causes of child labor is that many children lack the education necessary to get proper jobs, reducing their often already small chances of escaping poverty. Zonta International supports several UN projects to, among other things, promote girls' education. Read more about our projects on the page: This is what we do - Zonta District 21.