World Day against Child Labor

The World Day against Child Labor is established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and is celebrated annually on June 12. The date was introduced after conferences on combating the worst forms of child labor held in Amsterdam and Oslo in 1997. These events drew public attention to the need to take global efforts to eliminate child labor. Over the years, much has been done to help working children, but much, of course, still needs to be done. According to the latest data, the number of working children in the world is 215 million, and 115 million of them work in dangerous conditions. Many people have almost no time to study, proper nutrition and care. The ILO member States have set a goal to eliminate the worst forms of child labor by 2016.

(15 photos in total)

1. A boy works at an aluminum goods factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo: AFP)

2. Children work at a gold mine in the Central African Republic. (Photo: Reuters)

3. A child repairs tires on a street in La Paz, Bolivia. (Photo: AFP)

4. Children fill empty cigarettes with tobacco at a factory in Rangpur, Bangladesh. (Photo: Reuters)

5. 10-year-old Issa works at a weapons factory in Aleppo every day for ten hours without rest and lunch break. (Photo: Reuters)

6. A girl collects food at a landfill in Islamabad, Pakistan. (Photo: AFP)

7. An Afghan child works at a brick factory on the outskirts of Herat. (Photo: AFP)

8. A boy works in a poppy field in Jalal-Abad region, Afghanistan. (Photo: Reuters)

9. A boy collects plastic at a landfill near Mae Sot in Thailand. (Photo: Reuters)

10. An Afghan boy works as a mechanic in Jalalabad, eastern Nangarhar province. (Photo: AFP)

11. 10-year-old Rustam works at an aluminum plant in Dhaka, Bangladesh. (Photo: Reuters)

12. 7-year-old Hazrat works at a brick factory in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. (Photo: Reuters)

13. A 9-year-old boy collects recyclable materials in a dirty canal near a slum in Recife, Brazil. (Photo: Reuters)

14. A child carries water at a brick factory in Pakistan. (Photo: AFP)

15. A boy collects recyclable plastic at a landfill in Siem Reap, Cambodia. (Photo: Getty Images)

16. 5-year-old Rina Kumari breaks stones on the bank of the Mahananda River in Siliguri, in northeastern India. (Photo by Desmond Boylan / Reuters)

17. Abdul Wahab works at a blacksmith shop in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Omar Sobhani / Reuters)

18. An Afghan child shows his cracked hands at a brick factory in Kabul, where some children work daily from 8 am to 5 pm. (Photo by Majid Saidi / Getty Images)