CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

By Dr.V.K.Dainger M.A.Ph.D

Mob. 9413034523

Childhood is the most innocent phase in human life. It is that stage of life when the human foundations
are laid for a successful adult life. Many children, instead of spending it in a carefree and fun-loving
manner while learning and playing, are scarred and tormented. They hate their childhood and would do
anything to get out of the dungeons of being children and controlled and tortured by others. They would
love to break-free from this world, but continue to be where they are, not out of choice, but force. This is
the true story of child labour.

Innocent children are employed by industries and individuals who put them to work under grueling
circumstances. They are made to work for long hours in dangerous factory units and sometimes made to
carry load even heavier than their own body weight. Then there are individual households that hire
children as domestic help and beat and physically torture them when they make a mistake. The children
are at times made to starve and are given worn out clothes to wear. Such is the story of millions of
children in India painful and yet true.

The two primary reasons for the ever-growing social malice of child labour are poverty and lack of
education. Poor parents give birth to children thinking them as money-making machines. They carry
infants to earn more on the streets from begging. Then as they grow they make them beggars, and
eventually sell them to employers. This malady is rampant across the length and breadth of India.

According to the United Nations stipulation in article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and
the International Labor Organization, child labour is to be considered if "...States Parties recognize the
right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely
to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development."

In other words, child labour is any kind of work children are made to do that harms or exploits them
physically, mentally, morally, or by preventing access to education. However, all work is not bad or
exploitive for children. In fact, certain jobs help in enhancing the overall personality of the child. For
example, children delivering newspapers prior to going to school or taking up light summer jobs that do
not interfere with their school timings. When children are given pocket money earning oriented tasks,
they understand the value of money, as well as respect it even more.

Child labour coupled with child abuse has today become one of the greatest maladies that have spread
across the world. Each year statistics show increasing numbers of child abuse, more so in the case of the
girl child. When a girl is probably abused by someone at home, to hide this fact she is sold to an employer
from a city as domestic help, or then as a bride to an old man.

Though eradicating the menace seems like a difficult and nearly impossible task, immense efforts have to
be made in this direction. The first step would be to become aware of the causes of child labour. The
leading reason is that children are employed because they are easier to exploit. On the other hand, people
sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers to have additional sources of income.

Most such employers pay a lump sum for the child and then keep him or her imprisoned within the
factory unit till the child cannot work due to deteriorating health as a result of harsh living and working
conditions. Lack of proper educational facilities is another reason that forces parents to send their children
to work.

India accounts for the second highest number of child labour after Africa. Bonded child labour or slave
labour is one of the worst types of labour for children. This system still continues in spite of the Indian
Parliament enacting the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act in 1976. It is estimated that
approximately 10 million bonded children labourers are working as domestic servants in India. Beyond
this there are almost 55 million bonded child labourers hired across various other industries.

A recent ILO report says that about 80 per cent of child labourers in India are employed in the agriculture
sector. Generally, the children are sold to the rich money-lenders to whom borrowed money cannot be
returned. 'Street children' is another type of child labour where children work on the streets as beggars,
flower sellers, etc, instead of going to school. Sometimes they are made to go hungry for days together so
that people feel sorry for them and give alms.

Among the industries, glass and bangle industry is estimated to employ around 60,000 children who are
made to work under extreme conditions of excessive heat. An equal number are estimated to be employed
in matchbox factories, where they are made to work over twelve hours a day, beginning work at around 4
a.m., everyday. The brass and the lock industries also employ an estimated 50,000 children each.
However, it is the carpet industry in India which employs the largest number of children estimated to be
more than four lakhs.

The statistical information regarding child labour cannot be taken to be precise, as there are areas where
no accounting has been done. There are innumerable workshops and factories that have cramped up
rooms where children work, eat and sleep. No one from the outside world would even know that they are
working there. However, people working towards the welfare of child labourers, with the tip-off from
insiders, have been able to rescue a number of children from such units.

The National Policy on Child Labour formulated in 1987 seeks to adopt a gradual and sequential
approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes. The
Action Plan outlined the Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other
labour laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments, and that the working
conditions of children working in non-hazardous areas are regulated in accordance with the provisions of
the Child Labour Act.

It also entails further identification of additional occupations and processes, which are detrimental to the
health and safety of the children. Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this
problem through general strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous
rehabilitative measures.

To bring the social malady of child labour under control, the government has opened a special cell to help
children in exploitive circumstances. These cells comprise of social inspectors, as well as other
administrative personnel, employed specifically to deal with child labuor issues. Also, in recent years, the
media has helped unravel what is happening in certain industrial units with journalists visiting such places
with a hidden camera. The efforts made by sections of the government, social workers, non-government
organizations and others to rescue and rehabilitate the children must be applauded.

In addition, each individual should also take responsibility of reporting about anyone employing a child
below the age of fourteen years. However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem,
concerted efforts from all sections of the society is needed to make a dent. Measures need to be taken not
only to stop this crime against children, but also to slowly, steadily and surely provide every child a well-
deserved healthy and normal childhood.
Scarred-

Tormented-

Dungeons-

Grueling-

Malice-

Malady-

Rampant-

Stipulation-

Eradicating-

Menace-

Deteriorating-

Enacting-

Detrimental-

Procative-

Unravel-

Rehabilitate-

Applauded-

Dent-