World Day Against Child Labour: Remembering a man, his mission and legacy

New Delhi, Jun 10: World Day Against Child Labour: Remembering a man, his mission and legacy "Eighteen years ago, millions of individuals marched across the globe. And demanded a new international law for the abolition of worst form of child labour, and it has happened, we did it, millions of individuals did it..." Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, while delivering his Nobel Lecture on December 10, 2014.

June 12, known today as World Day Against Child Labour, signifies hope and optimism for millions of children still in the shackles of child labour. According to the census of India, 2011, there are 1.01 crore child labourers in India. Across the globe, ILO estimates that there are more than 16 crore child labourers.

1998 was a watershed year in the struggle to eliminate child labour. This year, the new international law (ILO Convention No. 182) to protect children from the worst forms of child labour was adopted. This convention became the first to be universally ratified by all member countries and was also the fastest ratified convention in the history of the ILO.
Also, a request was made the same year to observe a single day each year as the day against child labour. Finally, in 2002 the ILO recognised June 12 as the World Day Against Child Labour.

The genesis of this convention and the international day can be traced to one of the biggest experiments of mass mobilization in a pre-internet and mobile phone era by Kailash Satyarthi: the Global March Against Child Labour.

Satyarthi, who received the Nobel Peace prize in 2014, organised the march with the aim of eliminating child labour from the world. Starting on January 17, 1998, the march continued for around five months and was instrumental in reshaping the destinies of millions of children bereft of a happy childhood.

More than 70 lakh people participated in the march. It was organised across 103 countries in Asia, Africa, the USA, Latin America and Europe and covered a distance of over 80,000 km. The march ended on June 6, 1998, at the headquarters of ILO in Geneva. In his address to the ILO delegates, Satyarthi requested the UN to take steps to end child labour. He also urged the delegates to observe a particular day in the calendar as World Day Against Child Labour.

Recalling the event, Kailash Satyarthi, in one of his interviews, said that the events of June 6 would be forever etched in his memory. Around 600 individuals, led by children, marched inside the headquarters of the ILO. It was the day when around 2,000 delegates-ministers and officers of over 150 countries-were participating in the ILO's International Labour Conference. Khokhan, a 14-year-old boy, who had lost a leg during his childhood, was leading the group. Armed with anti-child labour banners and shouting slogans to immediately halt child labour, the group marched inside to a standing ovation.

A dedicated day to highlight child labour underscored the plight of child labour and the measures required to eliminate it, while the convention brought a monumental shift in the perception of the international community about children shackled in the chains of forced labour.

Subsequently, 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. A multi-pronged strategy from the government along with synergy in efforts across organisations, employers, governments and individuals can go a long way in helping the country achieve the goal.

At the recently concluded fifth Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour at Durban, Satyarthi galvanised the support of more than 94 world leaders, including 40 Nobel Laureates. The leaders signed a joint statement underlining the renewed strong commitment to ending child labour through different means such as universal access to social protection. Together the leaders demanded urgent action in the face of the humanitarian and environmental crises as well as the pandemic and armed conflict.