India, June 11 -- Today is the 24th International Day Against Child Labour. This day was a hard-won victory in the movement against child labour. But today, my heart aches. I can hear the desperate cries of millions of children who are still trapped in forced labour, toiling in fields, factories, and homes.

At this time in 1998, I was surrounded by hundreds of children who had been rescued from similar conditions. I remember their fearless chants as they walked with me across 103 countries in the Global March Against Child Labour. At the end, we were invited to speak at the International Labour Organization (ILO) headquarters in Geneva, where we placed a simple but urgent demand: "No more tools in tiny hands. We want books, we want toys!...