Though over a decade ago the International Labor Organization (ILO) named June 12 World Day Against Child Labor, there are still millions of children throughout the world who are employed illegally.They miss out on education and the joy that should make up a happy childhood.
Child labor is mentally, physically and emotionally draining, and in extreme cases can be classed as enslavement.
Below are 20 images of child labor taken around the world. What they do for a living will make you speechless…
Shaheen, 10, works at an aluminium factory. Taken in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on November 16, 2009.
Masud, 6, collects spare vehicle parts in Dholaikhal, Dhaka, Bangladesh, on February 29, 2012.
Naginah Sadiq, 5, works in a brick factory collecting clay in Islamabad, Pakistan, on June 12, 2012.
Taken in Lad Rymbai, in the district of Jaintia Hills, India on April 16, 2011. Many local parents refuse to let their children go to school despite the fact they provide free tuition.
Takenin Chheuteal village, Kandal province, Cambodia, on May 2, 2011. This girl dries bricks for a brick factory.
Takenin Khartoum, Sudan, on September 17, 2011. Like many people in the Darfur region, this boy makes money by forming mud blocks.
Taken in New Delhi, India, on June 12, 2012. This young boy is cleaning bike parts, possibly to sell.
Taken in Dhaka, on April 19, 2012. Another young boy works in an aluminium factory. It’s thought that over 6 million children under the age of 14 in Bangladesh work.
Jacques Monkotan, 4, works in an excavation site in Dassa-Zoume, Benin, on February 25, 2007.
Takenin NayPyiTaw, Burma on December 6, 2011. This young girl carries cement needed for a new hotel.
Czoton, 7, is employe at a balloon factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on November 23, 2009.
Hazrat, 7, works at a brick factory inJalalabad, Afghanistan.
Rustam, 10, works in an aluminium factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. 25 other children work with him for 12 hours a day.
This child is an illegal immigrant who collects plastic at a rubbish dump in Mae Sot, Thailand.
This child arranges bricks on the outskirts of Herat, Afghanistan.
Another young child works in a rubbish dump in Islamabad, Pakistan.
Issa, 10, works in a weapons factory for the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo.
Numerous children refill cigarettes with locally grown tobacco in the Haragach in Rangpur district, Bangladesh.
This child is looking for recyclable plastic in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Paulo Henrique Felix da Silveira, 9, scavenged in theSaramandaia slum in Recife, Brazil. A 2010 study found that 3.6% of the 20,166 people who collect rubbish are aged 10 – 17.
Featured photo credit: Reuters/Andrew Biraj via theatlantic.com
