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I. Introduction The good news is that the estimated prevalence of child labour dropped by almost 40% to the begin of the new millennium. Between 2000 and 2016, according to the International Labour Organization (International Labour Office, 2017a) estimates, the world witnessed a net reduction of 94 million children exposed to child labour, from an estimated 246 million to 152 million children.
Figure 2: Children’s Involvement in Child Labour and Hazardous Work, Percentage and Absolute Number of Children, 5-17 Age Range, 2000-2016
Note: Bubbles are proportionate to the absolute number of children in child labour and hazardous work. Source: Global estimates of child labour: Results and trends, 2012-2016, (International Labour Office, 2017a), URL
The bad news is that the trend of decreasing child labour will, however, likely be reversed due to global economic contraction precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. One study performed in Tamil Nadu exemplifies how the financial strains created by COVID-19 are driving children to work: released by the Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL), a survey conducted in 24 districts by child rights specialists R. Vidyasagar and K. Shyamalanachiar, shows that the number of children in vulnerable communities (such as SC/ST) increased from 231 to 650 compared to pre-COVID-19 levels (“Child Labour on the Rise,” 2021). Indeed, an additional 86 million children are estimated to have fallen into poverty in 2020 as their parents lost their source of income, forcing the children to interrupt their education and some to work (United Nations Children’s Fund [UNICEF], 2020). According to World Bank reporting, the number of people living in extreme poverty (living on less than $1.9 per day) was steadily decreasing, but jumped by 119 million in 2020 (see Figure 3). From the
