State Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima is expected to arrive back home today from South Africa where he attended the 5th Global Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour.
Chilima attended the summit after being delegated by President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera.
Addressing the conference, Chilima called for swift action to end all forms of child labour in line with the Buenos Aires Declaration for action to accelerate efforts to end child labour by 2025 and 2030 for forced labour.
“I believe that with the right mindset, we will achieve our goals. With the involvement and commitment of everyone, we can overcome child labour and forced labour decisively. Let there be no onlookers or bystanders. It’s action time,” he said.
Statistics produced jointly by International Labour Organisation and UNICEF show that globally about 160 million children were subjected to child labour at the beginning of 2020, with almost 9 million additional children at risk due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Chilima said Malawi is also not spared as an estimated two million children, aged between 5 and 15 are involved in child labour.
