World Day Against Child Labour: Getting them the life they deserve

Mumbai Smiles highlights the importance of continuing to denounce the worst forms of child labour

12th June

Today i.e. June 12 is World Day against Child Labour and we at Mumbai Smiles Foundation are working towards building effective strategies that make underprivileged families aware of the importance of providing education.
World Day against Child Labour was recognised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2002 in a bid to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the efforts needed to eliminate it.
In 2016, the ILO identified that 16 per cent of working children from across the world came from India i.e. one in every six children are working.

Currently, there are 37,000 children who live on the streets of Mumbai, and many of them earn their living by begging and peddling. In most cases, they are forced into this life, and don’t even receive proper schooling. In addition to this, 40 per cent of Mumbai’s domestic workers are underage women, and this number is growing. Also, 5.5 per cent of 10,000 women who are sexually exploited are underaged.

Mumbai Smiles Foundation focuses its work on combating two of the problems, namely trafficking and human rights violations. Mumbai Smiles Foundation also facilitates access to education for children of women victims of trafficking, and for children living in the street, so that we can cut off child labour through education. In addition, the organization conducts awareness sessions for parents living in the slums, about the right of their children to receive an education, and that it is against the law for a child to work.