Child Labour in India

• Developing countries like India contribute maximum towards child labour. 
• According to the census of 2011, 259.64 million children belonged to the age group of 5-14 years of which 10.1 million were child labourers. 
• According to UNICEF, it amounts to approximately 13% of our workforce, or in other words, 1 in every 10 workers in India is a child.
• In India, children from unfortunate sections are forced to be involved in manufacturing of firecrackers, bangle making industry, roadside eateries and restaurants, construction sites or even the house help.
• Children in poor and disadvantaged households in India are now at a greater risk of negative coping mechanisms such as dropping out of school and being forced into labour, marriage and even falling victim to trafficking.

 Causes of Child Labour:

1. Poverty and Indebtedness:

• Poverty is the greatest cause of child labour. For impoverished households, income from a child’s work is usually crucial for his or her own survival or for that of the household.Children are also bonded to labour due to a family indebtedness.
• Rural poverty and urban migration also often exposes children to being trafficked for work

1. Adult unemployment and under-employment: high prevalence of adult unemployment and under-employment often force children to work to support family.
2. Illiteracy and Ignorance of child’s parents: Illiteracy of the child’s parents further worsens the situation. Illiteracy and Lack of awareness of the harmful effects of child labour make them violate the law and put their children under the risk of inhuman exploitation.
3. Lack of access to basic and meaningful quality education and skills training:

• The prevailing educational infrastructure is highly unsuitable to children of economically deprived families. Further deplorable quality of education has led to increasing dropout rates and forced children into child labour.
• Compulsory education does not cover 15-18 age group. However, being illiterate or school dropouts, these children are vulnerable and often exploited as part of informal, unskilled and casual workforce.

1. Demand for child labour: Increasing demand for child labour especially in urban areas is an important reason of prevalence and increase in child labour. Children are employed because they are cheap and flexible according to the demands of the employer and not aware of their rights.
2. Cultural factors:

• An expectation that children should contribute to the socioeconomic survival of the family and community, as well as the existence of large families contribute to prevalence of child labour.
• Children often take up family’s traditional work from an early age. For example, a Goldsmith’s son takes to gold-smithery, or a carpenter’s child takes up carpentry from an early age

1. Social factors: There is a strong correlation between India’s differentiated social structure and child labour. The majority of child labourers in India belong to the so called lower castes (SCs), the tribal and Muslim religious minority.

Child Labour Laws/ Policies in India

• Indian Constitution
• Article 21 A (Right to Education): The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 years in such manner as the State, by law, may determine.
• Article 23: Any type of forced labour is prohibited. 
• Article 24: It states that a child under 14 years cannot be employed to perform any hazardous work in any factory or mine.
• Article 39: It states that “the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused”. 
• Child Labour Act (Prohibition and Regulation) 1986 - It prohibits children under the age of 14 years to be working in hazardous industries and processes.
• National Policy on Child Labour, 1987 - It contains the action plan for tackling the problem of child labour. It envisages:
• A legislative action plan
• Focusing and convergence of general development programmes for benefiting children wherever possible, and
• Project-based action plan of action for launching of projects for the welfare of working children in areas of high concentration of child labour.
• National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme: 
• Government had initiated it in 1988 to rehabilitate working children in 12 child labour endemic districts of the country and expanded with time. 
• This is the major Central Sector Scheme for the rehabilitation of child labour.
• Platform for Effective Enforcement for No Child Labour (PENCIL)- It is an electronic platform that aims at involving Centre, State, District, Governments, civil society and the general public in achieving the target of child labour free society.

Suggestions

• Social Protection: Extending social protection for children and their families to mitigate the poverty and economic uncertainty that underpin child labour. 
• Good-quality Schooling: Ensuring free and good-quality schooling at least up to the minimum age for entering employment to provide a viable alternative to child labour and afford children a chance at a better future. 
• Promoting Decent Work: It would deliver a fair income for young people (of legal working age) and adults, with a particular emphasis on workers in the informal economy, in order for families to escape poverty-driven child labour. 
• Rural Livelihoods: Promoting adequate rural livelihoods and resilience, including through supporting economic diversification, investing in basic services infrastructure, extending social protection and devising agricultural extension policies for crop diversification. 
• Register Child’s Birth: Guaranteeing that every child’s birth is registered so that children have a legal identity and can enjoy their rights from birth. 
• Laws and Regulations: Ensuring that necessary laws and regulations are in place to protect children, backed by enforcement machinery and child protection systems. 
• Eliminate Discrimination: Addressing gender norms and discrimination that increase child labour risks, particularly for girls, related to domestic work and unpaid household chores. 
• Investment in agricultural development, rural public services and infrastructure should also come through.

          To reverse the upward trend in child labour, the ILO and UNICEF are calling for adequate social protection for all, including universal child benefits. 

• They have also called for increased spending on free and good-quality schooling and getting all children back into school, including those who dropped out before Covid-19.
• In this United Nations International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, all stakeholders must act with renewed urgency to put progress back on track.