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SCHOOL OF LAW HAMDARD INSTITUTE OF
LEGAL STUDIES AND RESEARCH
JAMIA HAMDARD UNIVERSITY
LABOUR LAW
CODE: - 604
BA.LLB(HONS.)/SEM VI
SESSION: - 2020-2025
Topic: - A STUDY OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
-MAGNITUDE AND CHALLENGES
SUBMITTED TO- MS. NAAZISH FATIMA ,
SUBMITTED BY-SANIYA ANSAR
ROLL NO- 2020-342-092
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Naazish Fatima for her invaluable support, guidance and
advice. I would also like to thank my friends who have always been there to support me and last but not the
least I would also like to thank the library staff for working long hours to facilitate us with required material
going a long way in quenching our thirst for education.
SANIYA ANSAR
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ABSTRACT
Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood,
interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally
dangerous and harmful. Global number of children in child labour has declined by one third since 2000,
from 246 million to 168 million children. More than half of them, 85 million, are in hazardous work (down
from 171 million in 2000).Asia and the Pacific still has the largest numbers (almost 78 million or 9.3% of
child population), but Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be the region with the highest incidence of child
labour (59 million, over 21%).There are 13 million (8.8%) of children in child labour in Latin America and
the Caribbean and in the Middle East and North Africa there are 9.2 million (8.4%).Agriculture remains by
far the most important sector where child labourers can be found (98 million, or 59%), but the problems are
not negligible in services (54 million) and industry (12 million) – mostly in the informal economy. Child
labour among girls fell by 40% since 2000, compared to 25%for boys. Child labour in India is addressed by
the Child Labour Act 1986 and National Child Labour project. Today in India, there are more than 10.12
million children who are spending their childhood learning carpet-weaving, beedi-rolling, domestic labour,
agriculture, firework and apparel manufacture and countless other occupations instead of going to school
and receiving quality education
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Introduction
Children are the greatest gift to humanity and Childhood is an important and impressionable stage of human
development as it holds the potential to the future development of any society. Children who are brought up
in an environment, which is conducive to their intellectual, physical and social health, grow up to be
responsible and productive members of society. Every nation links its future with the present status of its
children. By performing work when they are too young for the task, children unduly reduce their present
welfare or their future income earning capabilities, either by shrinking their future external choice sets or by
reducing their own future individual productive capabilities. Under extreme economic distress, children are
forced to forego educational opportunities and take up jobs which are mostly exploitative as they are usually
underpaid and engaged in hazardous conditions. Parents decide to send their child for engaging in a job as a
desperate measure due to poor economic conditions. It is therefore no wonder that the poor households
predominantly send their children to work in early ages of their life. One of the disconcerting aspects of
child labour is that children are sent to work at the expense of education. There is a strong effect of child
labour on school attendance rates and the length of a child’s work day is negatively associated with his or
her capacity to attend school. Child labour restricts the right of children to access and benefit from education
and denies the fundamental opportunity to attend school. Child labour, thus, prejudices children’s education
and adversely affects their health and safety. India has all along followed a proactive policy in addressing
the problem of child labour and has always stood for constitutional, statutory and developmental measures
that are required to eliminate child labour. The Constitution of India has relevant provisions to secure
compulsory universal primary education. Labour Commissions and Committees have gone into the
problems of child labour and made extensive recommendations. India’s judiciary, right up to the apex level,
has demonstrated profoundly empathetic responses against the practice of child labour. Despite several
proactive legislations, policies and judicial prouncements, the problem of child labour persists as a challenge
to the country. One of the most unfortunate consequences of the pandemic and its wide range of restrictions
has been the higher vulnerability of children to different forms of abuse and deprivation. Moreover, the
second wave of COVID-19 has left several children without both or one of their parents. This situation
exposed them to hopelessness, financial hardships and increased risk of child labour, exploitation, and
trafficking.
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WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR ?
Child Labour as defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a work that takes away children their
childhood, their potential and their dignity which is harmful to their physical as well as mental development .ILO
also explains child labour in its most extreme forms involves children being enslaved, separated from their
families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities
— often at a very early age. But Children or adolescents who involve in works that do not impact their health and
personal development or affect their schooling is not child labour. For instance, helping their parents at home,
helping family or earning pocket money outside school hours and on holidays. UNICEF definition of child
labour is different. A child is involved in child labour activities if between 5 to 11 years of age, he or she did at
least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work in a week, and in case of children
between 12 to 14 years of age, he or she did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of
economic activity and domestic work per week. In India , The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act,
1986 has defined the child as anyone who is “a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age”
As per Article 24 of the Constitution, no child below the age of 14 years is to be employed in any
factory, mine or any hazardous employment. Further, Article 39 requires the States to direct its policy
towards ensuring that the tender age of children is not abused and that they are not forced by economic
necessity to enter a vocations unsuited to their age or strength. Recently, with the insertion of Article
21A, the State has been entrusted with the task of providing free and compulsory education to all the
children in the age group of 6-14 years.
The magnitude of child labour in India has been witnessing enormous decline in the last two decades, both
in terms of magnitude and workforce participation rates. Evidence drawn from the National Sample Survey
data suggest that India’s child workforce during 2004-05 was estimated at little over nine million (9.07
million) as against twenty-one and half million (21.55 million) in 1983. During this period, the number of
child employment has declined sharply by 12.48 million. There is considerable fall in child workforce is
observed among boys than girls. The corresponding fall in boys and girls workforce during 1983 to 2004-05
is observed to have decreased from 12.06 to 4.76 million, and 9.49 to 4.31 million, respectively. In effect,
the gender difference that existed between boys and girls (adverse against boys) during the early 1980s has
almost dissipated in recent years, the difference being slowed down from 2.57 million to roughly 0.45
million. However, in absolute numbers, the problem is large. As per the Census 2001, there are 1.26 crores
economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years. It was 1.13 crores in the 1991 Census. The
number of working children in the major child labour endemic states as per the 1991 and 2001 Census is
given below:-
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S no. Name of states/UT CENSUS 1991 CENSUS
2015{APPROX}
1. UTTAR PRADESH 1410086 1927998
2. ANDHRA PRADESH 1661940 1363330
3. RAJASTHAN 774199 1262580
4. BIHAR 942245 1127500
5. MADHYA PRADESH 1352563 1075259
6. WEST BENGAL 711691 857087
7. KARNATAKA 976247 822611
8. MAHARASHTRA 1068418 764075
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh accounts for a larger share of close to onefourth of all child labour in India
followed by Andhra Pradesh. While Maharastra and West Bengal respectively garnered nine and eight
percent of India’s child employment. The share of Uttar Pradesh has dramatically shot up in the last one
decade from less than 13 per cent in the mid-1990s to close to 23 per cent in 2004-05, which is a cause for
serious concern. On the other hand, the share of Andhra Pradesh seems to have declined quite considerably
during this period.
estimates of the ILO show that the number of economically active children in the world in the age group 5-
14 years was nearly 191 million in 2004, with a work participation rate of 15.8 per cent. Children involved
in hazardous work comprise around 38.7 per cent of global child labour population. Among the different
regions, largest number of child workers, 122 million constituting 64% was concentrated in Asia and the
Pacific, within which India accounts for a substantial size. 3.2. In four years, from the year 2000 to 2004, the
number of child labour globally fell by 11 per cent. During this period the magnitude of children in
hazardous work decreased by 26 per cent. The decline was even steeper (33 per cent) for children in
hazardous work in the age group of 5-14 years. The global picture shows a declining trend i.e. the more
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harmful the work and the more vulnerable the children involved, the faster the decline. In Latin America and
the Caribbean the number of children at work has fallen by two-thirds over these four years with the child
work participation rate at 5 per cent. Interestingly, the activity rate of children in this age group in India as
per Census 2001 is 5%, which has come down from 5.7% in 1991. Sub-Saharan Africa observed to have
made the least progress where the rates of population growth, HIV/AIDS infection and child labour remain
alarmingly high. In the Global Report of the ILO, it has been highlighted that the combination of political
will, effective utilization of resources and the right policy choices can definitely contribute in a great way to
end child labour worldwide.
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CAUSES FOR CHILD LABOUR
Primary causes:
International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single cause behind 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. Income from working children, even if small, may be between 25 to 40% of the
household income. Other scholars such as Harsch on African child labour, and Edmonds and Pavcnik on
global child labour have reached the same conclusion. Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable
schools and quality education, according to ILO, is another major factor driving children to harmful labour.
Children work because they have nothing better to do. Many communities, particularly rural areas where
between 60–70% of child labour is prevalent, do not possess adequate school facilities. Even when schools
are sometimes available, they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of education is
so poor that parents wonder if going to school is really worth it.
Cultural causes :
In European history when child labour was common, as well as in contemporary child labour of modern
world, certain cultural beliefs have rationalized child labour and thereby encouraged it. Some view that work
is good for the character-building and skill development of children. In many cultures, particular where
informal economy and small household businesses thrive, the cultural tradition is that children follow in
their parents' footsteps; child labour then is a means to learn and practice that trade from a very early age.
Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not expected to need
formal schooling, and these girls pushed into child labour such as providing domestic services. Child labour
in Brazil, leaving after collecting recyclables from a landfill. Agriculture deploys 70% of the world's child
labour.
Macroeconomic causes:
Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that encourage child labour. They focus their
study on five Asian nations including India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They suggest that
child labour is a serious problem in all five, but it is not a new problem. Macroeconomic causes encouraged
widespread child labour across the world, over most of human history. They suggest that the causes for child
labour include both the demand and the supply side. While poverty and unavailability of good schools
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explain the child labour supply side, they suggest that the growth of low paying informal economy rather
than higher paying formal economy is amongst the causes of the demand side. Other scholars too suggest
that inflexible labour market, size of informal economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of
modern manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting demand and acceptability of
child labour.
Other causes are;
have or increase the income of a poor family
To reduce the labor cost in a production organization
reasons for engaging as domestic aid as the children are less doubtful about dishonesty or less
liable to misbehave or be violent
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MEASURES TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT TO REDUCE CHILD LABOUR
Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 :Based on the recommendations of the
Gurupadaswammy Committee (1979), the Act was passed in 1986. It Objective is to prohibit the
engagement of children in some employment and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain
other employment.The Act prohibits children from working in any occupation listed in Part A of the
Schedule; for example: Catering at railway establishments, construction work on the railway or anywhere
near the tracks, plastics factories, automobile garages, etc.The act also prohibits children from working in
places where certain processes are being undertaken, as listed in Part B of the Schedule; for example beedi
making, tanning, soap manufacture, brick kilns, and roof tiles units, etc.the act outlines the conditions in
which children may work in occupations/processes not listed in the schedule.Any person who employs any
child in contravention of the provisions of section 3 of the Act is liable for punishment with imprisonment
for a term which shall not be less than 3 months but which may extend to one year or fine.
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016:The Amendment Act completely
prohibits the employment of children below 14 years.The amendment also prohibits the employment of
adolescents in the age group of 14 to 18 years in hazardous occupations and processes and regulates their
working conditions where they are not prohibited.The amendment also provides stricter punishment for
employers for violation of the Act and making the offence of employing any child or adolescent in
contravention of the Act by an employer as cognizable.
Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2017:The rules provide a broad and
specific framework for prevention, prohibition, rescue, and rehabilitation of child and adolescent workers.It
also clarifies on issues related to helping in family and family enterprises and definition of family with
respect to the child.It states that the child shall not perform any tasks during school hours and between 7
p.m. and 8 a.m.It also provides for safeguards of artists which have been permitted to work under the Act, in
terms of hours of work and working conditions.It states that no child shall be allowed to work for more than
5 times a day, and for not more than 3 hours without rest.
National Policy on Child Labour (1987):It contains the action plan for tackling the problem of Child
Labour.It focuses more on the rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes,
rather than on prevention.The policy consists of three main attributes:
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Legal Action plan–Emphasis will be laid on strict and effective enforcement of legal provisions
relating to a child under various Labour laws.
Focusing on general development programmes-Utilisation of various on-going development
programmes of other Ministries/Departments for the benefit of Child Labour wherever possible.
Project-based plan of Action– Launching of projects for the welfare of working child in areas of high
concentration of child labour.
National Child Labour Project Scheme:For rehabilitation of child labour, the Government had initiated
the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme.The NCLP Scheme seeks:
To eliminate all forms of child labour through identification and withdrawal children from child
labour and preparing them for mainstream education along with vocational training
To contribute to the withdrawal of all adolescent workers from Hazardous Occupations / Processes
and their skilling and integration in suitable occupations.
Creation of a Child Labour Monitoring, Tracking and Reporting System.
Many NGOs like Bachpan Bachao Andolan, ChildFund, CARE India, Talaash Association, Child Rights
and You, Global march against child labour, RIDE India, Child line, Kailash Satyarthi Children Foundation
etc. have been working to eradicate child labour in India.
SUGGESTIONS
Child labour is a vicious circle of poverty, unemployment, underemployment, and low wages. There should be a
concerted effort towards social protection programmes and cash transfers to improve the economic situation of
families and to reduce the “need” to send children to work. There is an urgent need to revamp educational
infrastructure- to ensure access to educational institutions, improvement in quality and relevance of
education .There is a need to bring uniformity in existing Indian laws dealing with child labour. The laws must
expand the definition of a child by prohibiting the employment of and ensuring free and compulsory education
(RTE, Act, 2009) for children below 18 years .There is a need to launch a national campaign to invoke public
interest and large-scale awareness on the exploitation of children and the menace of child labour. The
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government should take adequate measures to raise awareness among families and communities. Parental
literacy can play an important role in ensuring the rights of children are upheld.
CONCLUSION
Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of
legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative measures. State Governments, which are the
appropriate implementing authorities, have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of
violations. Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help solve it,
Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the
economic conditions of their families
REFERENCE
[1] Child Labour in India – Rights, Welfare and Protection by Dipak Das, 2011
[2] Government of India, Planning Commission, Working Group for Social inclusion of Vulnerable
Grouplike Child Labour and
[3] India, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Annual Report 2012-13, p. 91
[4] Problems of Child Labour in India by Raj Kumar Sen and Asis Das Gupta (Editors), 2003
[5] Child Labour in India – Rights, Welfare and Protection by Dipak Das, 2011
