DHAKA: The World Day Against Child Labour observed in the country as elsewhere in the world on Friday.

This year the theme of the day is 'No to Child Labour-Yes to Quality Education.'

Different government and non-government organizations chalked out various programs to mark the day.

To mark the day, Labour and Employment Ministry, Manusher Jonno Foundation and Save the Children jointly organized a national seminar at the BIAM Foundation in the city on Friday.

To eliminate child labor, the ministry has been providing training with informal education to 80,000 children who are engaged in 38 categories of jobs, which government identified as hazardous, speakers told the seminar.

International Business Times UK reports; there are 168 million children employed in child labour worldwide, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The number has declined by one third since 2000, from 246 million.

More than half of these children are employed in hazardous work – around 85 million.

Child labor includes children who are forced to take part in armed conflict, such as child soldiers and girls taken as "wives" for soldiers and militia members.

According to Anti-Slavery International, there are around 300,000 child soldiers involved in over 30 areas of conflict around the world.

Child labor among girls fell by 40 percent since 2000, compared with 25 percent for boys.

Asia and the Pacific still has the largest numbers – almost 78 million or 9.3 percent of the child population – but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child labor (59 million, which is over 21 percent).

There are 9.2 million (8.4 percent) children employed in child labor in the Middle East and North Africa. In Latin America and the Caribbean, there are 13 million (8.8%) children in child labor.

Agriculture remains by far the most important sector where child laborers can be found, with around 98 million, or 59%.

Child labor includes children who are used by others who profit from them, often through violence, and abuse in prostitution or pornography, illicit activities, such as forced begging, petty theft, and the drug trade.

Other forms of forced child labor include working in agriculture, factories, brick kilns, mines or construction, as well as restaurants in tourist environments.

ILO launched the World Day Against Child Labour in 2002 with the focus on the global extent of child labor and its impacts, and the action and efforts to eliminate it.

BDST: 2115 HRS, JUNE 12, 2015
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