“So many children in the world do not have the freedom to play, to go to school, and end up being exploited as cheap labourer”, bluntly remarked Pope Francis.
Child labour refers to any type of work or activity that deprives children of their childhood. Such activities are harmful to their physical and mental health and prevent their correct growth.
In child labour all those forms of slavery or of analogous practices are included such as hard labour, trafficking of children and in particular of girls, debt slavery, house slavery, labour to do for many hours in unhealthy places or dangerous environments and which require the use of risky materials or instruments.
Child labourers are not allowed to receive a normal education and are destined to become adult illiterates, with no possibility of a professional growth. In many cases child labour endangers the dignity and morality of children, especially when they are the victims of sexual exploitation, prostitution or child pornography.
During his trip to the Philippines, in 2015, the Holy Father had to change his speech after a 12-year-old girl asked him: “Why does God allow child prostitution? Why so few people help us?” The Pope was speechless. The weeping of millions of children does not reach our ears.
Behind numbers, true stories of broken childhoods are hidden. Let unite our voices and let us say: “NO to child labour”
