The World Day Against Child Labour is held every year on 12 June. The UN estimates that around 215 million of the world's children work, many of them full-time.
Child labourers are often not enrolled in school and have little or no time to play. Many do not receive proper nutrition or care. More than half are exposed to hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict.
Paulo Henrique Felix da Silveira, aged 9, collects recyclable materials by wading into the Arruda Canal near the Saramandaia slum in Recife, Brazil. According to a 2010 census, 3.6% of the 20,166 people who collect items for recycling in Pernambuco State were aged 10-17ReutersA child tries not to spill the water he is carrying at a brick factory in Pakistan. A Pakistani NGO estimates that about 95% of families working in brick kilns in or near Lahore have taken advance payments, meaning owners exploit them paying low wages, through bonded labour for all family members, excessive working hours and lack of opportunities to work elsewhereAFPA boy scavenges for recyclable plastic on a rubbish tip in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Dozens of children work every day in the Anlong Pi landfill, situated only few kilometres aways from the world famous Angkor templesGettyA young worker places a basket filled with coal on his head at a roadside coal depot in the Indian northeastern state of Meghalaya. Child labour is officially illegal in India, but Meghalaya has traditionally been exempt due to its significant tribal population. According to Impulse NGO Network, some 70,000 children are employed in Meghalaya's minesAFPA Bangladeshi boy works at an aluminium goods factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A 2003 Unicef report estimated that more than 6.3 million children under the age of 14 were working in BangladeshAFPChildren scour the mud for gold at the Gam mine in the Central African RepublicReutersA child repairs tyres on a street in La Paz, Bolivia, where child labour, far from being prohibited is considered a rite of passageAFPChildren fill up empty cigarettes with locally grown tobacco in a factory at Haragach in Rangpur district, BangladeshReutersIssa, 10 years old, carries a mortar shell in a weapons factory of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo. Issa works with his father in the factory daily for ten hours except on FridaysReutersA young girl collects food from a rubbish dump in Islamabad, PakistanAFPAn Afghan child labourer arranges bricks at a factory in the outskirts of HeratAFPA young boy admires a toy while collecting waste at a landfill in Managua, Nicaragua. Statistics show that 13% of children in Nicaragua between the ages of 5 and 17 are forced to work, 21% in Guatemala, 15% in Honduras, 10% in Belize, 7% in Panama, and 5% in El Salvador and Costa RicaReutersA boy works at a poppy field in Jalalabad province, AfghanistanReutersAn illegal immigrant boy from Myanmar collects plastic at a rubbish dump near Mae Sot in ThailandReutersAn Afghan child labourer works at a motorcycle mechanic shop in Jalalabad, eastern Nangarhar provinceAFPAbdul Kayum, aged 12, works at a coal depot near Lad Rymbai, in the Indian state of Meghalaya. Despite the ever present dangers and hardships, children, migrants and locals flock to the mines hoping to strike it rich in India's wild eastGettyRustam,10, works at an aluminium factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where about 25 children were employed, many of them working for 12 hours a dayReutersHazrat, aged 7, works at a brick-making factory in Jalalabad, AfghanistanReutersPeople form the message "red card to child labour" on Botafogo beach in Rio de JaneiroReuters
