World pledged to end child labour by 2025—why 138M still work?

A young girl with polio works in a mine in Anosy, Madagascar.

Twelve-year-old Tenasoa crawls to work each day at a mica mine in eastern Madagascar. Due to a physical disability, she cannot walk. Still, she manages to collect two kilos of the shiny mineral mica daily—an essential ingredient in cosmetics, paints, and car parts.

She is one of an estimated 10,000 children working in Madagascar’s largely unregulated mica industry. Alongside their parents and grandparents, children like Tenasoa spend long hours in dangerous conditions, inhaling harmful dust and entering unstable mine shafts. Many of them never attend school.

“If we don’t work, we don’t eat,” said Soja, Tenasoa’s grandfather. “It’s very simple. Men, women, and children must all work to survive.

In 2015, the United Nations pledged to eliminate child labour worldwide by 2025 as part of its Sustainable Development Goals. But progress has stalled. A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released Wednesday reveals that 138 million children are still trapped in child labour.

Though this number represents a 12 million decrease from 2020, the pace of progress is far too slow to meet the 2025 target.

“The findings of our report offer hope and show that progress is possible,” said ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo. “But we must not be blindsided by the fact that we still have a long way to go.”

Since 2000, global efforts have reduced the number of children in child labour by over 100 million. But millions still perform dangerous work in mines, factories, and farms.

“Far too many children continue to toil in hazardous conditions just to survive,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.

Child labour, as defined by the ILO, is not merely helping out around the house—it includes work that deprives children of their childhood, education, and health, and often exposes them to physical and psychological harm.

Of the 138 million children in child labour, 54 million are in hazardous jobs.

Thirteen-year-old Honorine in Benin works daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in a gravel quarry. She is paid by the bucket and dreams of saving enough money to one day train as a hairdresser.

Child labour is often passed down through generations. Children who grow up working instead of attending school are more likely to remain in poverty, continuing the cycle of deprivation.

“Behind every number is a child whose right to education and a decent future is being denied,” said Federico Blanco, the report’s lead author.

Thirteen-year-old Nur, a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, was pulled out of school by his parents to help support the family. But a UNICEF-supported case worker convinced his parents to let him return to school.

“I once dreamt of becoming a teacher,” Nur said. “Now, I feel that I can still learn and become one.”

The report emphasizes that ending child labour requires more than just removing children from workplaces. It calls for integrated, country-driven solutions that address the root causes—especially poverty.

“Ending child labour means addressing the conditions that force families to send their children to work,” said ILO child labour expert Benjamin Smith. “That includes ensuring adults have safe, fairly paid jobs.”

The ILO also stresses the importance of workers' rights, such as the ability to unionize and collectively bargain—key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

While some regions have seen progress, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to account for nearly two-thirds of all child labour worldwide.

Despite some encouraging trends, funding shortfalls threaten to undo years of progress.

“Global funding cuts threaten to roll back hard-earned gains,” Russell warned. “We must recommit to ensuring that children are in classrooms and playgrounds—not at work.”

Ten-year-old Adwara in Ethiopia knows this reality all too well. He once attended school but was eventually forced to leave to help support his eight siblings. He now works in a gold mine, earning around $35 a day.

“I’d like to go to school,” he said softly. “I’d like to become someone.”