The ILO estimates that around 75 million children lacking primary
education start working at an early age. They also estimate that
approximately 165 million children are involved in some kind of labor.
The director named the focus on education as
- Education for all children at least to the minimum age of employment.
- Education policies that reach out to child laborers and other excluded groups.
- Properly resourced quality education and skills training.
- Education for all children, and decent work for adults.
The emphasis on education is no doubt important, but the ILO insists
that education is the tool to save child labor. If a child gets an
education, then he or she will not be out working. However, even if
primary education was free and universal, some parents still can’t
afford to send their children to school, because they are needed to
work at home or to work outside in order to help support the family.
Also when the ILO says ‘education’ they are mainly referring to primary
education. The focus needs to go beyond primary education. A 12 year
old who’s finished primary education that is out working is still
considered child labor.
Every year, on the World Day against Child Labor, governments of both
developed and developing countries around the world scramble to address
the problem of child labor. Likewise, the media aggressively reports
the many incidence and severity of child labor.
Child labor is a rampant problem around the world that needs to be
addressed. The ILO certainly intended for June 12 to do just that.
This event does raise awareness and make the media put a focus point on
the issue. However, child labor is an on-going, everyday phenomenon
that demands constant attention. The responsibility needs to go beyond
making statements for show one day of the year. Oftentimes when an
issue is out of the spotlight, the mass public tends to forget about
it. The ILO and other international organizations needs to make sure
that they are doing just as much for the other 364 days of the year to
address the issues, likewise for all the governments and organizations
out there.
