A UNICEF report shows that despite global efforts, child labor remains omnipresent. Millions of children work under dangerous conditions, partly without any alternative.
The end of child labor is one of the most important development goals that the global community has written on its flags. So far, the goal remains unmatched. In 2015, the United Nations agreed to end the ambitious goal of ending child labor by 2025. This period has now expired.
As the current report of the UN Children’s Aid Unicef shows, progress has been made in recent years, but the actual goal is still far away. Child labor remains the reality for millions of children worldwide, often under dangerous security and health conditions.
Especially from the aspect of population growth, especially in countries in the global south, where more children are also affected by child labor, the number of children concerned has declined significantly compared to previous years. After there was an increase in child labor as a result of the Covid 19 pandemy around 2020, the international community has managed to set positive accents again in the past four years.
The number of reports goes back to 2000 when around 245 million children were still affected by child labor. In 2024, this number dropped by a good 100 million, although the number of under 18 years has risen by 230 million worldwide in the same period.
Despite this progress, however, the way to complete child labor remains uncertain: “The new report on child labor underlines the terrifying reality that despite all the progress of children, millions of children continue to be denied, to play, play and simply be a child,” said Christian Schneider, managing director of Unicef Germany.
According to Schneider, the successes achieved show the right way: “Legal protective measures, better social protection, investments in free, high -quality education and decent work with fair wages for adults are effective means to preserve children from child labor.” However, global medium -cuts are currently threatening to destroy the hard -fought progress for children again, Schneider warns.
Child labor still occurs most frequently in agriculture, in which 61 percent of all affected children and adolescents are active. So also the twelve -year -old Adama Sandy, who has had to work in a quarry in her home country of Sierra Leone since she was seven. Tomorrow she will make the family home clean, then go with her parents to the quarry where the whole family works. There, Adama deserves a little less than two euros a day.
Despite the hard work, the money is not enough to go to school. “It is not enough for clothing and food. We only eat a meal a day,” said the twelve -year -old. She wants the authorities support in order to finally leave the quarry and go back to school.
27 percent of the children work in the service sector, which includes working in private households or selling goods in markets. 13 percent of children and adolescents affected work in the industrial sector, including mining and goods production.
Another example of the dangerous working conditions is the mining work in Madagascar. According to a study by the U.S. Ministry of Arbeep Arbeits, around 10,000 children are involved in the dismantling of the material in Madagascar. Gear, a mineral that can be found in products such as cosmetics, colors and electronics is often associated with the worst forms of child labor.
