World Day Against Child Labour.

138 million children around the world, right now, are not in a classroom. Not playing. Not being kids. Working.

Since 2000, child labour has almost halved — from 246 million children down to 138 million. That's real progress. Hard-won, decade-by-decade progress that has changed the lives of millions of children.

But here's where it gets uncomfortable.

The world set a target to eliminate child labour by 2025. We missed it. And to end it within the next five years, current rates of progress would need to be eleven times faster.

Eleven times faster. That's not a small gap. That's a chasm.

Of those 138 million children, nearly 54 million are in hazardous work — conditions that put their bodies, their minds and their futures at serious risk. Not light chores. Not helping out at home. Dangerous, grinding, dignity-stripping work that no child should ever know.

Agriculture accounts for 61% of all cases — rural families relying on children as a survival strategy because there simply is no other option. That's the real story behind most child labour. Not faceless corporations twirling moustaches. Families backed into impossible corners, with no safety net and no way out.

This year's theme is "Red Card to Child Labour: Fair Play for Children, Decent Work for Adults." It's a simple idea with a powerful truth at its centre — when adults have decent work and fair wages, children go to school. When families have social protection and support, children get to be children. The two things are inseparable.

For First Nations communities across Australia and the world, the connection between economic justice and the wellbeing of children is nothing new. When a community is supported — properly, genuinely, not just in policy documents — children thrive. When it isn't, they carry burdens no child should carry.

Every child deserves a childhood. Not a compromise. Not a partial one. The whole thing — school, play, safety, time to grow into who they're meant to be.

138 million children are still waiting for that. Today is a good day to remember them.