100 Years of Eradicating Child Labor: A Review of ILO’s Policy

Nearly 1 in 10 children are subjected to child labor worldwide, with some forced into hazardous work through trafficking – UNICEF The global fight against child labor began in the year 1991 with the Minimum Age (Industry) Convention that sealed the age of employment as fourteen years. Since the commencement of this convention, nations have time and again made serious efforts to combat child labor. The countries have diligently enacted laws on the lines of the ILO conventions and have achieved rather remarkable success in implementing measures against child labor. Now, the year 2021 being declared as the International Year for Elimination of Child Labor represents a foothold in the long journey that began 101 years ago. This foothold represents a fanfare of success that the international community has had in eliminating and preventing child labor. But the larger part of this fanfare serves as a reminder that despite constant efforts globally and domestically, we still have many miles to go. This paper will dwell upon the milestones that have been achieved the International Labor Organization in prevention of child labor till now. The paper will simultaneously seek to identify the reasons as to why some countries still struggle to deal with the issue of child labor. Lastly, an attempt will be made to understand whether absolute prevention of child labor can become a reality or is it still a distant dream.