In November 2005, over 500 minors working in “inhuman” conditions were freed after a raid on 50 embroidery units in east Delhi. A few months before that, police rescued 465 children working in exploitative conditions in industrial units located in the congested Madanpura locality in central Mumbai.

Child Labor, designation formerly applied to the practice of employing young children in factories, now used to denote the employment of minors generally, especially in work that may interfere with their education or endanger their health.

Throughout the ages and in all cultures children joined with their parents to work in the fields, in the marketplace, and around the home as soon as they were old enough to perform simple tasks. The use of child labor was not regarded a social problem until the introduction of the factory system.

Status

• A UNICEF report on the status of the World’s Children 2006 states that in India, which has the largest number of working children, 17 percent of workers are under the age of 15 and that girls aged 12 to 15 are the preferred choice of 90 percent of employing households.
• The Supreme Court of India on February 2, 2006, while adjudicating on Public Interest litigation concerning ‘Child Labour’, the Honourable Judges stated that 200 million children in the age group of 6 to 14 ‘almost are engaged in child labour and are out of the school’.
• Child Labour 2006: ILO global data
• The global number of chilled labourers in the age group 5-17 decreased from 246 million in 2000 to 218 million in 2004, a decrease of 11%.
• The number of children aged 5-17 engaged in hazardous work has declined by 26%. From, 171 million in 2000 to 126 million in 2004. With 33%, the decline in the age group 5-14 has even been sharper.
• Latin America and the Caribbean stand out in terms of a rapid decline of child labour. The number of children at work in the region has fallen by two-thirds over the last four years, with just 5 percent of children age 5 to 14 now engaged in work.
• With 26 percent, or close to 50 million child workers, the proportion of children engaged in economic activities in sub-Saharan Africa is currently the highest of any region in the world.
• In the Asian-Pacific region, 122 million children aged 5-14 work, 5 million less than four years ago. Less than 20% of Asian children in that age group are now at work.
• In industrialized countries, about 2.5 million children under the age of 15 were at work in 2000.
• Almost 7 out of 10 working children age in the agricultural sector 22% work in services and 9% in industry, including mining, construction and manufacturing.
• The estimated cost of the elimination of child labour is US$760 billion over a 20-year period. The estimated benefit in terms of better education and health is over US$4 trillion. The benefits would therefore outweigh the costs by nearly 6 to 1.

Factors contributing to child labour

There are many factors which contribute to child labour

Poverty 

Nearly 850 million people in India are below the poverty line, about 120 million are children-about 100 million in rural areas and about 20 million in Urban areas. Poverty makes the parents send their children to seek employment at an early age as their earnings are essential for the survival of the family. Parents do not have the means to support and educate them, they want them to start earning as soon as possible. The states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the maximum number of working children, they form 6-9% of the total workforce in these regions.

Under-employment

With the large scale of unemployment among the adult labour force force there is no option except to depend on children’s wages, so the adults of the family send their children out to work and earn for them.

Wage structure

The  low wage structure of the labour force in India is such that a male gets more than a female worker, and a child gets the least. How  wages have a direct bearing on the prevalence of child labour in India.

Illiterate & Ignorance

The child workers are illiterate and ignorant because their parents are not educated. There is a lack of appreciation for the rate education plays in the proper development and improvement in the quality of life.

Large families

Large families with have in-comes send out their children to work at an early age. This is done at the cost of deprived childhood.

Unhappy Homes

Unfavourable conditions at homes, constant tension, separation of parents, continued illeness etc. are some factors that lead to the rising incidence of child labour in the country. After it is the head of the family that sends out children to work.

Preference for child labour

Child labour is preferred an account of love wages and also become children are obdient, submission, trouble free and are prepared to do all types of work without demanding ever time, medical benefits etc.

These and related problems have been brought in sharp focus through various medias way back in 1948, the universal declaration of Human rights, adopted by the united Nations. emphasised that  a child must be protected against many form of exploitation and provided with all requisite means for formal development.

India has all along followed a proactive policy in the matter of tackling the problem of child labour and always stood for constitutional, and developmental measures that are required to elimate it, legislature provisions have been made to protect children from exploitation at work and to improve their working conditions.

A comprehensive law, namely the child labour act 1986 prohibits employment of children in certain hazardous occupations and processes, and regulates their employment in some other areas.

The National policy on child labour was formulated in 1987. Under the project action Plan of the policy, National Child labour Projects (NCLP) have been set up in different areas to rehabilitate child labour.

The National Human Rights commission has said that child labour, including children working in hazardous industries, cannot be eliminated unless the ideal of free and compulsory education for all up to the age of 14 years is realised.

Steps to check  child labour

legal  efforts :

Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933 declares any agreement by a parent or guardian to pledge the labour of a child below 15 years of age for payment or bene?t other than reasonable wages, illegal and void. It also provides punishment for such parent or guardian as well as those who employ a child whose labour is pledged.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 prohibits forcing a person into bonded labour for debt repayment. The act extinguishes all debt agreements and obligations. It prohibits creation of any new bondage agreement and discharges bonded labourers from all debts for which they were bonded. Compelling a person to render bonded labour is punishable under the law. This includes punishment for parents who pledge their child or other family members to work as a bonded labourer.

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986  prohibits employment of children below 14 years in certain hazardous processes and regulates it in certain other non-hazardous processes.

Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 Section 24 of this Act provides punishment for those who procure or employ a child in any hazardous employment, keep her/him in bondage and withhold the child’s earning for their own purposes.

List of other labour laws relating to Factories, Plantation , Mines , Shipping , Motor Transport , Beedi and Cigar , Shops & Establishment prohibit child labour and/or regulate working conditions for child labourers and can be used to book the employers is as follows:

The Factories Act, 1948.

The Plantation Labour Act, 1951.

The Mines Act, 1952.

The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958.

The Apprentices Act, 1961.

The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961.

The Beedi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966.

The W.B. Shops & Establishment Act, 1963.

In a landmark judgement by the Supreme Court of India on Dec. ’96, legal actions have been initiated. The successful completion of surveys for the implementation of these directives have to be carried out within six months, i.e., by June 1997.

Government  initiatives

Ban on child labour from October 10, 2006

The decision has been taken on the recommendation of the Technical Advisory Committee on Child Labour headed by the director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

In a determined bid to curb the exploitation of children, the government has prohibited their employment as servants at home or in business from 10 October 2006.

The business classification includes factories, shops, dhabas, restaurants, hotels, and teashops, Resorts and spas also feature in the list.

The Government of India, and various other organisations have over the years worked effectively to eradicate harmful child labour in India.

A high powered National Authority for the Elimination of Child Labour (NAECL) has been set up under the chairmanship of a Union Labour Minister.

A state level committee has also been set up in Uttar Pradesh to enforce child labour laws. Random checks of over 10,000 looms are done. And till date 122 cases have been registered against offenders.

135,000 looms have been registered with the CEPC. 55 have been de-registered. 13 loom owners warned. 63 exporters warned and 4 exporters de-registered. Other proceedings are going on. Meanwhile 1,042 looms have been blacklisted.

An International programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) has been launched to look after children rescued from child labour.

Various NGOs have set up non-formal education centres for children across the country.

The exporters/members of the Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) have contributed fund for using “KALEEN” labels on the carpets exported by them. Utilising this contribution, more than 12 schools and centres of non-formal education as well as medical centres for health  care have already been opened. There are many more such schools in the offing.

Under the National Child Labour Project, the Ministry of Labour has, through Non-Government organisations set up 20 special schools in the carpet producing belts.

They provide education, mid-day meals, and a monthly stipend to children withdrawn from the industry.

And in order not to burden families from which these children are withdrawn, the Government provides training to the parents of these children. Handicrafts are successfully running in Uttar Pradesh today. It is these kind of activities that need your support.

collaborates with ILO, UNICEF and various State Labour Institutes. It has established a network with 300 NGO’s and is assisting them in various ways in implementing child labour programmes. Further, there are over 375 Government and Non-Government organisations, trade unions, the free press and industry leaders working effectively to prevent exploitation of our children.                           

Efforts of NGOs

Centre for Rural Education and development Association (CREDA), supported by the Indian Government and the IPEC set up mainly to look after the welfare of children in the Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh in Northern India.

What can be done 

Fight the efforts to introduce blanket bans, and trade sanctions in your country as these will only drive children at work and their parents into further destitution and be counter productive.

Encourage people to buy products that provide livelihood to families of children who can thus be freed for learning traditional craft and acquiring a formal education. Products that carry the Kaleen mark are safe, guilt-free and a humanitarian buy.

Provide financial and infrastructural support for the elimination of child labour, the estimated cost of which would be around US $15 billion per year. An amount which a low income country like India cannot deploy by itself.

Actively participate in rehabilitation projects and programmes directly or indirectly run by Government, State and Non-Government Organisations.

Give our efforts, time. Patience is a virtue of the wise - and when it comes to our children, wise must we be.

Global action

The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was born in 1992. By December 2005, it was operational in 86 countries, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that reached over US$70 million in 2005.

IPEC is the largest programme of its kind globally and the biggest single operational programme of the ILO.

The number of range of IPEC’s partners ha also expanded over the years, and now includes other and workers’ organizations, private business, community based organizations, NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the judiciary, universities, religious groups and, of course, children and their families.

National and community action is crucial for the success of the IPEC programme. Through local authorities and municipalities, IPEC can reach children in the informal economy and small and medium-sized business that provide the bulk of employment; and promote integrated approaches to get children out of work and into school.