Child labour
Bhawanipur education
society college
Roll:71158750 Uid:0204180050
Dept:history
Introduction
According to the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) a new generation of children
is being deprived of the chance to take their
rightful place in the society and economy of the
21st Century. The ILO has proposed that „child
labour‟ will disappear in a decade. If this
happens well and good. But in reality the
situation is worsening. One in eight children in
the world is exposed to the worst forms of child
labour which endanger children‟s physical,
mental health and moral well being.
Child labour refers to the employment of
children in any work that does not allow to have
children their childhood, interferes with their
ability to go to school and that causes mental
damage,
and also it is physical, socially or morally
dangerous and harmful. Estimation says that
158 million children aged 5 – 14 are engaged in
child labour i.e. one in six children in the world.
Millions of children are engaged in dangerous
situations or conditions, such as working in the
mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in
agriculture or working with the hazardous
machinery. Regional estimates indicate that Asia
and Pacific region harbors have the largest
number of child workers. In sub-Saharan Africa
around one in three children are engaged in
child labour. All children have the right to
education. Children and parents need to see
school as the best choice for the children than
work. The government needs to ensure that all
children have access to compulsory education as
a frontline response to child labour.
Contents of child labour (prohibition and
regulation) Act 1986:
The significant among the child labour
(prohibition and regulation) Act 1986 are the
following:
-National commission on labour 1966-69
-Gurupada Swamy committee on child labour –
1979
-Sannot Mehta committee – 1984
-Bans the employment of children
-Regulates the working conditions of children in
occupations
-A special cell – child labour cell was constituted
to encourage taking up activities like non-formal
education, vocational education, vocational
training, and provisions of health care, nutrition,
and education for working children.
-To focus on an area known to have
concentration of child labour.
The problem
In many countries children lives are plagued by
armed conflict, child labour, sexual exploitation
and other human rights violations.
Children living in rural areas have fewer
opportunities to obtain good quality education.
They have less access to services than children
living in cities. The UN Convention on the Rights
of Children (CRC) (Article 38) has explicitly
prohibited person under age 18 being recruited
into the armed forces or direct participating in
hostility. In spite of this special provision under
CRC, many countries still involve children below
18 years in hostilities.
Child labour keeps children out of school and is
a major barrier to development. To make the
anti child labour law a reality, poverty and
unemployment need to be eliminated. Unless the
standard of living improves at the lower levels of
the society, children will be forced to work.
Many middle and upper class families do not
hesitate to engage young boys and girls to help
them with household cores. The middle class
family feels by employing a child below 14 years
they are helping poor families to increase their
earnings for daily livelihood
Measures were taken by the government:
The measures taken by the Indian government
to reduce and eradicate the child labour are
explained below:
-In 1998, the government of India launched
the National Child Labour Project (NCLP).
-The government of India launched the main
program to remove or eradicate child labour
working in dangerous or hazardous occupations
and to rehabilitate them by setting up unique
schools.
-The government has worked to put them in
unique schools where they are furnished with
education, vocational training, monthly
stipends, and nutrition and health checks.
-Education for all children is the key that can
bring about a fundamental change and aid to
end or stop the difficulty permanently.
Indian Scenario of Child
Labour & Legislation
According to the UN Study about 150 Million
children of age group five to 14 are working in
various industries in India. They are found
working in road-side restaurants, tea stalls and
shops, at construction sites and in factories.
Girls suffer labour exploitation to such a degree
that million of girls die before they reach the age
of 15. They are paid a pittance as low as Rs.20
per day and many live in shops or work places
where they are subjected to various forms of
exploitation. Besides the work they are abused
physically, mentally and sexually by the
scurrilous task masters.
Mafia gangs bring children for “Begging” in
urban cities. A child beggar of aged between five
and ten collects the maximum. With a burn scar
or decapitation they can earn more. As they
grow older their earnings decrease. As a
consequence they graduate to be big -time
traders involved in drug peddling, pick
pocketing, robbery and prostitution. A child
beggar will only be paid 10% of his earnings of
Rs.300 to 500 a day. If he fails to meet the target
fixed by the contractor he is punished brutally.
The girls by the time they reach 13 years switch
over to prostitution.
Begging is used as a profession by antisocial
elements forcing children in begging. Begging is
prohibited in some cities of India by local
governments.
The Indian government ratified the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1992
and introduced various pieces of legislation to
curb child labour. The Labour Ministry of India
has imposed a ban on children under age 14
from working as domestic help in hotels. Under
this law any employment of children under 14
will invite imprisonment up to two years and a
fine of Rupees twenty thousand.
What can be done to stop child
labour?
A million dollar question with no specific
solution. All sections of the society need to work
together to stop misuse and abuse of children.
Stakeholders to tackle these issues include:
1. National Governmental agencies
2. Non governmental organisations. (NGOs)
3. People‟s forums
4. Corporate entities
5. Individual social service activists
Let us analyse why child labour is in existence
in spite of various pieces of legislation.
Poverty is the major cause for children being
sent to work. The percentage of the Indian
population living in poverty is high. It is
estimated 37% of the urban population and 39%
of the rural population is living in poverty.
Poverty has an obvious relationship with child
labour. The hardships arising out of abject
poverty coupled with vices like drugs and
alcoholism compel illiterate families especially in
rural areas to initiate their children into back
breaking work under tiring and sometimes
dangerous conditions. The childhood of many
children is shattered in the sinks of city hotels,
dusty construction sites, hazardous factories
and in waste heaps.
The second reason, especially in India, is lack of
educational facilities is in some parts of rural
India e.g. Bihar, West Bengal etc. where abject
poverty still exists.
The third reason is the migration of adult labour
with their children to urban towns where
construction work is booming and plenty of job
opportunities exist for poor families including
children who are exploited and paid poor wages.
Abject poverty and the lack of social security
network systems are the basis of an even
harsher type of child labour – bonded child
labour. The bonded labour system is still
prevailing in some states of India where poor
peasants who owe money to land owners agree
to give their children as bonded labour for long
periods. In return they receive a one time
payment or waver of their loans.
Influential mafia groups are also engaged in
trafficking children from remote rural areas to
affluent towns. The children are then forced into
labour and begging. Girls are forced into
prostitution.
CONCLUSION
All stake holders should jointly resist any
form of child labour using what ever means
available. A networking of international
NGOs working in this field has to be
created for advocacy with various
departments to ban child labour.
International funding organisations have to
identify a contact organisation in each
country to help NGOs who are working in
this field undertaking activities for the
banning of child labour and identify
national projects to be implemented in a
transparent manner with good stewardship.
Question
=why the government organization is not able to
eradicate this prolem?
= Can we say that parents are the main cause
for child labour?
