Child Labour in India
Author(s): O. P. Maurya
Source: Indian Journal of Industrial Relations , Apr., 2001, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Apr., 2001),
pp. 492-498
Published by: Shri Ram Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
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IJIR, Vol 36, No. 4, April 2001 COMMUNICATION
CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
O.P. Maurya
GENESIS
Child Labour, actually viewed more as a social problem of a
greater magnitude than other related problems connected with
the development of human beings, is abnormally high in un
der-developed and developing countries of the world. There is
no denying the fact the children of today are the grown-up citi
zens of tomorrow, of a country on whose shoulders its multi
faceted development and growth wholly depend (Sharma,
1989). It is, in fact, in this context that the growth of children
into matured persons with their education and skillfully devel
oped personalities, directly and indirectly, depend on environ
ment and support they are basically required to receive from
their families and the societies they live in (Kulshrestha, 1987).
Though the definition and concept of child labour may vary
widely depending mainly on social, economic, environmental
or physical postulates, the child labour is that segment of the
child population of a country which is found to have engaged
themselves in paid or unpaid employment in a given situation.
Here, an attempt has been made to analyse the problem of child
labour in the context of those working children below the age
of 14 years who are engaged in gainful industrial and non-in
dustrial occupations which are not only viewed injurious to their
physical, mental or moral development but also hamper their
social progress in a big way.
Dr. O.P. Maurya is Joint Director of Employment Exchanges, Ministry of Labour,
DGE&T, Government of India, New Delhi. The views expressed in this article are
not necessarily those of the organisation to which the author belongs.
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Communications 493
MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
According to a Report of the International Labour Organisa
tion, the number of working children in the 5-14 age group in the
developing countries is 250 million, of which 120 million children
are working on full time basis. Geographical break-up of these fig
ures exhibit that the magnitude of child labour is as high as 61 per
cent in Asian countries, followed by 32 per cent in African countries
and a little over 7 per cent in Latin American countries (Mishra,
2000).
In India the problem of child labour is quite alarming. It is said
that roughly out of 5 children below the age of 14 years, one child is
labourer which means 20 per cent children are labourers (out of the
total number of child population in the country.) In fact, there is no
proper source of regular collection of statistics on child labour. The
only authentic source of collection of data on child labour is the
Census conducted by the Government of India after every 10 years
in the country. As per the Census 1971, the total number of work
ing children in India was reported to be of the order of 10.7 million
The number of working children swell to 13.6 million in India as
reflected in the 1981 Census. Between 1981 and 1991, the National
Sample Survey Organisation conducted its 43rd round of surveys
which revealed that the estimated number of working
children in India was to the time of 17.02 million in 1987-88. How
ever, the information available as per 1991 Census revealed that the
number of working children in India was 11.28 million in 1991,
showing a decline to the tune of around 2.22 million as compared to
the total number of working children reflected by 1981 Census. A
close analysis of the state-wise data further revealed that Andhra
Pradesh had highest number of 1.66 million working children in
1991, followed by 1.41 million in Uttar Pradesh, 1.35 million in
Madhya Pradesh and 1.06 million in Maharashtra. Of all the States
and UTs, Lakshadweep was found to have the smallest number of
34 working children in 1991.
LEGAL PROVISIONS AGAINST EXPLOITATION
Keeping in view the gigantic problem of child labour, Govern
ment of India had ratified six ILO Conventions concerning work
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494 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations
ing children and enacted appropriate laws for protecting them
from economic exploitation and from performing any work that
is, in a way, likely to be hazardous or harmful to their health or
physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. The Con
stitution of India has enough provisions in this regard. Article 24
of the Constitution says: "No child below the age of 14 years shall
be employed in work in any factory or mine or engaged in any
other hazardous employment." Similarly, Article 39 of the Consti
tution of India clearly says that "The State shall, in particular, di
rect its policy towards securing ? (e) that the health and strength
of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are
not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity
to enter avocations unsuited to their age and strength, (f) that the
children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy
manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that child
hood and youth are protected against exploitation and against
moral and material abandonment." Direction for free and com
pulsory education for children has been provided under Article 45
of the Constitution. This article says: "The State shall endeavour
to provide, within a period of 10 years from the commencement of
this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all chil
dren until they complete the age of 14 years."
Notwithstanding these constitutional provisions, there are a
number of enactments in the country which protect and safeguard
the interests of the child labour. The employment of children be
low 14 years of age has been prohibited under: (i) The Children
(Pledging Labour) Act, 1933, (ii) The Factories Act, 1948, (iii) The
Mines Act, 1952, (iii) The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961;
and (v) The Bidi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment)
Act, 1966. The Plantation Labour Act, 1951 prohibits child la
bour during night, i.e. from 7.00 P.M. to 6.00 A.M. Children are,
however, permitted to work in plantations only where certificate
of fitness is granted by a certifying surgeon. The Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, while allowing children
to engage in the process of family based work or recognised school
based activities, prohibits children to work in occupations con
cerned with passenger, goods mail transport by railway, carpet
weaving, cinder picking, cleaning of ash-pits, cement manufac
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Communications 495
tilling, building operation, construction, cloth printing, dyeing, weav
ing, manufacturing of matches, explosives and fireworks, catering
establishments in railway premises or port limits, bidi making, mica
cutting and splitting, abattoirs, wool cleaning, cashew-nut and cashew
nut descaling and processing, soldering processes in electronic indus
tries and other "hazardous processes", "dangerous operations",
"printing" (as defined in Factories Act, 1948, etc.)
THREE TIER APPROACH TOWARDS REFORMS
Apart from various provisions on child labour which exist in
different Acts passed by Parliament, the Union Ministry of Labour
has a well conceived National Policy on Child Labour (N?LP)
which was announced by it in August, 1987 (UNICEF, 1989). This
policy is based on the following three-tier action plan:
(i) Legislative Action: The Central and the State Governments
are required to ensure on continuous basis that the provisions of
the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, Facto
ries Act, 1948 and Mines Act, 1952 are enforced in relation to child
labour. A Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee has been
constituted by the Union Ministry of Labour to advise the Central
Government on addition of occupations and processes to the sched
ule contained in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act, 1986. In order to protect the interests of child labour, State
Governments in the country have been authorised to frame rules
under this Act.
(ii) Action on Development Programmes Meant for Benefit
ing Child Labour: The Government agencies implement the na
tional development programmes formulated with wide coverage
in areas on education, health, nutrition, integrated child develop
ment and employment and income generation for the poor in the
country. It is necessary for the implementing agencies under the
NCLP to focus these programmes, wherever possible, to the ben
efit of child labour so that they may be encouraged to attend
schools.
(iii) Project-based Action Plan: Projects in the areas where
concentration of child labour is immensely sought for have been
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496 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations
proposed to be implemented. While such projects are area specific
and are required to be implemented at micro level, some projects
which provide non-formal education to child labour extracted
from hazardous occupations are certainly encouraged by the Gov
ernment. This is precisely so because the intention of the Govern
ment of India is to attract working children to attend schools rather
than to let them go in for employment at such a tender age.
Projects imparting vocational training to child labour are also en
couraged and there is a provision to pay stipend to the children
receiving such training. Compensation to parents whose children
have been extracted from hazardous occupations for the purpose
of providing them non-formal education or vocational training is
also paid for.
MEASURES FOR REHABILITATION OF CHILD LABOUR
The Union Ministry of Labour has also constituted the National
Authority for Elimination of Child Labour (NAECL) on 26th Sep
tember, 1994 with the sole objective to withdraw, through a suit
able working mechanism, child labour found engaged in hazard
ous occupations and to rehabilitate them through special schools.
The NAECL is headed by Union Minister of Labour as its Chair
man and Secretaries of the Ministries/Departments (of Labour,
Human Resource Development, Information and Broadcasting,
Social Justice and Empowerment, Rural Development, Textiles,
Expenditure, Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child
Development) are its members. According to the Annual Report
of the Ministry of Labour (1999-2000), the objective of the NAECL
is "to secure convergence of services for providing education, health
and other inputs to children taken out of schools in cost effective
manner by pooling {he resources of various Ministries/' The Min
istry of Labour has also set up a National Resource Centre on Child
Labour (NRCCL) at the V.V. Giri National Labour Institute, NOIDA
in 1993 with the objective of creating a data bank of child labour
and assisting the Central and State Governments, etc. to develop
schemes and programmes for elimination of child labour in the
country. In its sincere endeavours to eliminate child labour in se
quel to global programme introduced by the ILO in December,
1991, Ministry if Labour has signed a Memorandum of Under
standing (MOU) with the ILO as it is one of the most important
constituents of International Programme on the Elimination of
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Communications 497
Child Labour (IPECL) in 1992 and has set up a National Steering
Committee (of which the Labour Secretary is the Chairman) to
implement the child labour projects connected with: (i) designing
and evaluation of programmes for elimination of child labour; (ii)
identification of interventions at community and national levels;
and (iii) creation of awareness and social mobilization for secur
ing elimination of child labour. Though Ministry of Labour has
been doing its best to monitor enforcement of various laws con
cerning working children at the national level, it also ensures that
the programmes earmarked for the welfare of the child labour are
implemented and the global spirit and philosophy of the ILO Con
ventions on the child labour are fully met with.
In one of the landmark judgements against exploitation of chil
dren, hon'ble Supreme Court of India had once stated: "Our Con
stitution makers, wise and sagacious as they were, had known
that the India of their vision would not be a reality if the children
of the country are not nurtured and educated. For, their exploita
tion by different profit makers for their personal gain had to be
indicted. It is this need, which has found manifestation in Article
24 the fundamental right against exploitation. The framers were
aware that this prohibition alone would not permit the child to
contribute its mite to the nation building work unless it receives at
least basic education. Article 45 was, therefore, inserted in our
paramount parchment casting a duty on the State to endeavour to
provide free and compulsory education to the children. It is known
that the provision after the decision by this Constitution of this
Court has acquired the status of a fundamental right."
COMPULSORY EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN
UN treaties are generally adopted by member nations for ad
herence of universal standards in their application so as to repre
sent unique character globally. One such treaty is UN Convention
on the Right of the Child (CRC) which was adopted by the UN
General Assembly in 1989 and has been ratified by 191 member
nations (UNICEF, 1989). India ratified the treaty on 11th Decem
ber, 1992. This is, indeed, a most comprehensive treaty on the
Right of the Child which seeks to protect child labour from all
sorts of economic exploitation. The ratification of CRC by the
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498 Indian Journal of Industrial Relations
Government of India has definitely brought immense awareness
among the people and widely enlarged the range of its obligations
in tune with the responsibility for committed national policy on
child labour for implementation. Observing the significance of
CRC, the UNICEF has advised the member nations to face and lay
down political, administrative and social priorities to establish chil
dren's rights as provided in it.
CONCLUSION
Though India has definitely made a marked progress in over
all social development and implemented measures required neces
sary for protection of the working children, there is still a need to
expand the network of enforcement machinery required for en
forcing various existing laws on child labour in the country. This
exercise, if done, will certainly go a long way in saving the pre
cious future of millions of working children in India.
REFERENCES
Annual Report (1999-2000), Ministry of Labour, Government of India, Shram Shakti
Bhawan, Rafi Marg, New Delhi.
Census of India 1971,1981 and 1991, Registrar General of India, New Delhi.
Constitution of India, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, New Delhi.
Kulshrestha, J.C. (1987), Child Labour in India, p.2.
Mishra, Lakshmidhar (2000), Child Labour in India, Oxford University Press, New
Delhi.
National Sample Survey Organisation, Report on 43rd Round Survey, Government
of India, New Delhi.
NCERT, Fifth Survey on Educational Research 1988-1992, New Delhi.
Sharma, S.K. (1989), "Child and the Constitution: An Appraisal in Distributive
Justice perspective," Supreme Court Journal, Vol. 2 (1), pp 9-10.
UNICEF (1989), United National Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF, New
York.
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