India rescued 40,000 child labourers in 2024-25. The backlog is 10 million.

Most child labour in India is concentrated in agriculture, domestic work, brick kilns, garment workshops and street vending. Girls are disproportionately pushed into domestic servitude, where they are invisible to inspectors working from factory lists. Boys more often appear in visible sectors like tea stalls, auto repair shops and construction sites.

The 40,000-plus rescues in 2024-25 included children pulled from commercial sexual exploitation and forced begging, categories that require coordination between labour inspectors and police anti-trafficking units. The government said it had also issued over 5,000 notices to employers found violating child labour laws during the same period.

India's National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has pushed for a broader definition of hazardous work that would cover domestic help and hospitality, two sectors where enforcement is weak. The commission has also recommended that district magistrates be held personally accountable for child labour in their jurisdictions.

Globally, the ILO has set a target of eliminating all child labour by 2025. That deadline has passed with the number stuck above 130 million. The next target is 2030, under the UN Sustainable Development Goals. At current rates of decline, the ILO projects the world will miss that mark by several decades.

For India, the arithmetic is stark. Rescuing 40,000 children a year against a stock of 10 million means the system is treading water. Without a step change in enforcement, school attendance and household income support, the number of children in work will not fall meaningfully in this generation.