Dhaka, June 11 -- Bangladesh must keep the fight against child labour at the top of the agenda as the number of children in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide - an increase of 8.4 million children in the last four years - with millions more at risk due to the impacts of Covid-19, according to a new report by the ILO and UNICEF.

To this effect, Tuomo Poutiainen, country director for ILO Country Office for Bangladesh said Bangladesh must keep the fight against child labour at the top of the agenda so that progress made in recent years is not lost.

"We will continue to work closely with all our partners and focus on compulsory education, skill development, and social protection programmes - not only to address child labourers ...