Child Labor

Millions of children in todays world undergo the worst forms of child labor which
include Child Slavery, Child prostitution, Child Trafficking, Child Soldiers. In
modern era of material and technological advancement, children in almost every
country are being callously exploited. The official figure of child laborers
worldwide is 13 million. But the actual number is much higher. Of the estimated
250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 who are economically active,
some 50 million to 60 million between the ages of 5 and 11 are engaged in
intolerable forms of labor. Among the 10 to 14year-old children the working rate
is 41.3 percent in Kenya, 31.4 percent in Senegal, 30.1 percent in Bangladesh,
25.8 percent in Nigeria, 24 percent in Turkey, 17.7 percent in Pakistan, 16.1
percent in Brazil, 14.4 percent in India, 11.6 percent in China.


ILO estimated that 250 million children between 5 and 14 work for a living, and
over 50 million children under age twelve work in hazardous circumstances.
United Nations estimate that there were 20 million bonded child laborers
worldwide. Based on reliable estimates, at least 700,000 persons to 2 million,
especially girls and children, are trafficked each year across international
borders. Research suggests that the age of the children involved is decreasing.
Most are poor children between the ages of 13 and 18, although there is
evidence that very young children even babies, are also caught up in this horrific
trade. They come from all parts of the world. Some one million children enter the
sex trade, exploited by people or circumstances. At any one time, more than
300,000 children under 18 - girls and boys - are fighting as soldiers with
government armed forces and armed opposition groups in more than 30
countries worldwide. ILO estimates that domestic work is the largest employment
category of girls under age 16 in the world.
India has the dubious distinction of being the nation with the largest number of
child laborers in the world. The child labors endure miserable and difficult lives.
They earn little and struggle to make enough to feed themselves and their
families. They do not go to school; more than half of them are unable to learn the
barest skills of literacy. Poverty is one of the main reasons behind this
phenomenon. The unrelenting poverty forces the parents to push their young
children in all forms of hazardous occupations. Child labor is a source of income
for poor families. They provide help in household enterprises or of household
chores in order to free adult household members for economic activity
elsewhere. In some cases, the study found that a child's income accounted for
between 34 and 37 percent of the total household income. In India the
emergence of child labor is also because of unsustainable systems of
landholding in agricultural areas and caste system in the rural areas. Bonded
labour refers to the phenomenon of children working in conditions of servitude in
order to pay their debts. The debt that binds them to their employer is incurred
not by the children themselves but by their parent. The creditors *** employers
offer these loans to destitute parents in an effort to secure the labor of these
children. The arrangements between the parents and contracting agents are
usually informal and unwritten. The number of years required to pay off such a
loan is indeterminate. The lower castes such as dalits and tribal make them
vulnerable groups for exploitation.

The environmental degradation and lack of employment avenues in the rural
areas also cause people to migrate to big cities. On arrival in overcrowded cities
the disintegration of family units takes place through alcoholism, unemployment
or disillusionment of better life etc. This in turn leads to emergence of street
children and child workers who are forced by their circumstances to work from
the early age. The girls are forced to work as sex -workers or beggars. A large
number of girls end up working as domestic workers on low wages and unhealthy
living conditions.
Sometimes children are abandoned by their parents or sold to factory owners.
The last two decades have seen tremendous growth of export based industries
and mass production factories utilizing low technologies. They try to maintain
competitive positions through low wages and low labor standards. The child
laborers exactly suit their requirements. They use all means to lure the parents
into giving their children on pretext of providing education and good life. In India
majority of children work in industries, such as cracker making, diamond
polishing, glass, brass-ware, carpet weaving, bangle making, lock making and
mica cutting to name a few. 15% of the 100,000 children work in the carpet
industry of Uttar Pradesh. 70-80% of the 8,000 to 50,000 children work in the
glass industry in Ferozabad. In the unorganized sector child labor is paid by
piece-by-piece rates that result in eve


Child labour Acts & Laws
After its independence from colonial rule, India has passed a number of
constitutional protections and laws on child labour. The Constitution of India in
the Fundamental Rights and the Directive of State Policy prohibits child labour
below the age of 14 years in any factory or mine or castle or engaged in any
other hazardous employment (Article 24). The constitution also envisioned that
India shall, by 1960, provide infrastructure and resources for free and compulsory
education to all children of the age six to 14 years. (Article 21-A and Article 45).
India has a federal form of government, and child labour is a matter on which
both the central government and country governments can legislate, and have.
The major national legislative developments include the following:
The Factories Act of 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children below
the age of 14 years in any factory. The law also placed rules on who, when and
how long can pre-adults aged 1518 years be employed in any factory.
The Mines Act of 1952: The Act prohibits the employment of children below 18
years of age in a mine.
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986: The Act prohibits
the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations
identified in a list by the law. The list was expanded in 2006, and again in 2008.
The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2000: This law
made it a crime, punishable with a prison term, for anyone to procure or employ a
child in any hazardous employment or in bondage.
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009: The
law mandates free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years.
This legislation also mandated that 25 percent of seats in every private school
must be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups and physically
challenged children.
India formulated a National Policy on Child Labour in 1987. This Policy seeks to
adopt a gradual & sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children
working in hazardous occupations. It envisioned strict enforcement of Indian laws
on child labour combined with development programs to address the root causes
of child labour such as poverty. In 1988, this led to the National Child Labour
Project initiative. This legal and development initiative continues, with a current
central government funding of 6 billion, targeted solely to eliminate child labour
in India. Despite these efforts, child labour remains a major challenge for India.
Implementation
In pursuance of India's development goals and strategies, a National Child
Labour Policy was adopted in 1987 following the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act, 1986. The national policy reiterates the directive principle of
state policy in India's Constitution. It resolves to focus general development
programmes to benefit children wherever possible and have project based action
plans in areas of high concentration of child labour engaged in wage/quasi-wage
employment.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment has been implementing the national
policy through the establishment of National Child Labour Projects (NCLPs) for
the rehabilitation of child workers since 1988. Initially, these projects were
industry specific and aimed at rehabilitating children working in traditional child
labour endemic industries. A renewed commitment to fulfil the constitutional
mandate resulted in enlarging the ambit of the NCLPs in 1994 to rehabilitate
children working in hazardous occupations in child labour endemic districts.
The strategy for the NCLPs includes the establishment of special schools to
provide non-formal education and pre-vocational skills training; promoting
additional income and employment generation opportunities; raising public
awareness, and conducting surveys and evaluations of child labour.
The experience gained by the Government in running the NCLPs over several
years resulted in the continuation and expansion of the projects during the Ninth
Five-Year Plan (1997/02). Around 100 NCLPs were launched across the country
to rehabilitate children working in hazardous industries such as glass and
bangles, brassware, locks, carpets, slate tiles, matches, fireworks, and gems.
The Central Government made a budgetary allocation of Rs 2.5 billion (about
US$57 million) for these projects during the Ninth Five-Year Plan. The
Government of India has expanded the coverage of the NCLPs to an additional
150 districts and increase the budgetary allocation to over Rs 6 billion (about
US$131 million) during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2003/07). Children in the age
group of 5 - 9 years were enrolled directly under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or
the Education for All Movement commenced under the 10th Five Year Plan.
Further, those in the age group of 9 - 14 were admitted to special schools under
the NCLP schemes. Besides this, components of healthcare and vocational
training were also augmented.
Most significantly in 2001 - 02 the Government launched the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan or the Education for All Programme which is an effort to universalize
elementary education. This programme aims to achieve the goal of universal
elementary education of satisfactory quality by 2010.
Schemes for Children under the 10th Five Year plan include the Planning
Commission's Integrated Programme for Street Children which aims to prevent
the destitution of children and engineer their withdrawal from streets by providing
facilities like shelter, nutrition, health care, education, recreation and protection
against abuse and exploitation. Accordingly to the Government, during the 10th
Five Year Plan, over 200,000 children benefitted from this.
Further, the Scheme for Working Children in Need of Care and Protection by the
Ministry of Women and Child Development provides non-formal education,
vocational training to working children to facilitate their entry into mainstream
education. This scheme has been implemented through NGOs. According to the
Government, around 7,000 children benefited from this programme from 2005 -
2007.
The strategy outlined for the 11th Five Year plan (2007 - 12) includes expanding
the NCLP scheme to ensure universal enrolment of children in the 6 - 14 age
group to cover those in the hard-to-reach segment. It also includes substantial
improvements in the quality and standard of education and teacher training.
Another notable Government initiative under the 11th plan is to amend all laws to
recognize everyone under the age of 18 as children and to take appropriate
measures to protect their rights accordingly.( ** ).
In September 2009, IPEC launched a Convergence Project against Child Labour
which covers 5 States - Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
The project will demonstrate effective convergence-based models for elimination
and prevention of child labour including trafficking/migration of children in each
state.
Government Schools
By law, India protects every child under 14 against the threat of forced labor. In
the 1990s, government programs offered to pay such children a small amount of
money ($2/month) in exchange of attending school. It took over 20 years for India
to realize that its strategy was unimpressive and lacked ambition and real
motivation. Efforts were too slow and uncoordinated.
Trying to change this, the NFE (non-formal education) program came as the
acknowledgement that fighting child labor wasnt an easy task and that it required
to take into account the lives and livelihood of the poor. Therefore the program
was set up so that children can both work and go to school, thus bypassing the
goal of universal primary education. Its a good way to make do with a complex
reality.
In this program, classes happen after regular hours so that working children can
attend them after working in the fields. Theyre given a small remuneration as
well as a snack and most of all this allows the government to keep an eye on
these kids via annual health check-ups and other regular medical examinations.
The idea is that the little money they receive will compensate for the loss of a few
hours work at home or in the fields. The government works jointly with NGOs to
manage the program and tries to gradually pull these children into the normal
schooling system over a few years. This process is known as the
mainstreaming of this kids. Why not.
Mid-Day Meal
The concept of mid-day meal scheme is not new in India as its roots can be
traced back to pre-independence era when British administration initiated a Mid -
Day Meal Programme for disadvantage children in Madras Municipal Corporation
in 1925.Like this many such programmes were initiated in different states. In
1953, Government of Uttar Pradesh started another such scheme. Tamil Nadu
became the first state in India to introduce a noon meal programme in primary
schools. In 1984 this scheme was introduced in Gujarat. From time to time the
meal scheme was taken up by different states and later on it was taken up as a
national scheme
Government of India launched National Programme of Nutritional Support to
Primary Education (Commonly known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme) on August 15,
1995 to provide mid-day meals to the children studying at primary stage.
In 2002, the Supreme Court directed the Government to provide cooked Mid-Day
Meals (as opposed to providing dry rations) in all Government and Government
aided primary schools.It was revised in September 2004 and in September
20064

Objectives of Mid-Day Meal Scheme
The objectives of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is to address two of the pressing
problems for majority of children in India, viz. hunger and education by:

(i) Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I VIII in Government,
Local Body and Government aided schools, and Education Guarantee Scheme
(EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centers, National Child
Labour Project (NCLP) Schools and Madarasa and Maqtabs supported under
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

(ii) Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend
school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
(iii) Reducing Child Labor.

India moves to ban all forms of Child Labour
New Delhi, August 28, 2012: In a significant move to curb the rampant spread of
child labour across the country, the Government of India is set to ban the all
forms of child labour under the age of 14 years, making the employment of
children below 14 years a criminal offense. The Union cabinet of India approved
the amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, today
putting a blanket ban on employing anybody below 18 years in hazardous
occupation. Such hazardous occupations have also been re-classified in line with
the increase in the minimum age of child labour from 14 to 18 years.

This will only allow employing children between 14-18 years in non-hazardous
industries like forest gathering, child care etc. Children between 14-18 years
have been defined as "adolescents" in the Child and Adolescent Labour
(Prohibition) Bill, 2012. Employing a child below 14 years in any kind of
occupation is set to become a cognizable offence, punishable with a maximum
three years imprisonment or fine up to a maximum of Rs. 50,000 (~US$ 900).

Ministry officials said that banning any employment of children below 14 years
will go a long way in enforcing the Right to Education Act, 2009 which mandates
free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of 6-14 years.

This is a crucial step by the Government towards ending child labour following
more than a decade of sustained efforts by Bachpan Bachao Andolan(BBA) and
the Global March Against Child Labour (Global March) to pursue complete
abolition of child labour in India. The Child Labour Free India campaign has a
multi-pronged approach of a range of tactics including Knock the Door a
flagship tactics of BBA where former child labourers knock the doors of
parliamentarians and celebrities petitioning them for strong anti-child labour
legislations.

Pursuing justice and policy changes through the courts both Supreme Court of
India and the High Courts for protection of childrens rights is another strategy
that has reaped benefits in favour of strong legislations and child friendly policies.

In the course of the campaign, during the National Consultation on Child Labour
Free India on 10-11 May 2012 opened by the Honourable Minister Shri
Mallikarjuna Kharge, the Minister made a clarion call to take immediate steps to
curb child labour and bring forth the amendments as demanded by the BBA and
Global March. Demand letters were also presented to Honourable Prime Minister
Shri Manmohan Singh, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Mrs Sushma Swaraj as well as all
Members of the Parliament, and 65 MPs strongly supported the demand for a
complete ban on child labour.

It is heartening to see that the government has accepted the key demands of the
campaign for a child labour free India through the proposed amendments, and a
step forward in protection of childrens rights in India.

It is a remarkable victory for the vibrant civil society today and a major step
towards ending all forms of child labour. We have been advocating and
demanding for more than a decade to bring all forms of child labour under this
legislation and for a stronger child labour law in consonance with the ILO's child
labour conventions. Now that the Union cabinet has accepted these demands,
we urge the government to table this amended bill in the Parliament in this
session. And, the entire political class must demonstrate political will and keep to
the commitments it made us this May and ensure unanimous passage of this bill
in both the Houses. The entire government machinery must make it its mission to
ensure effective enforcement of the legislations by putting in adequate efforts,
resources, accountability and an achievable timeframe for abolition of child
labour, extolled Mr Kailash Satyarthi, founder of BBA and Chairperson of Global
March on the Union cabinets approval.

He further recommended that, with the new amendments, this is the right time
for the Government to ratify the ILO Conventions 138 on minimum age of
employment and ILO Convention 182 on worst forms of child labour.

Over 1,05,000 citizens of India have already signed the e-petition to make India
child labour free. Celebrities like Salman Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Mahima
Chaudhary, Boman Irani, Deepti Naval and sportspersons like Adam Gilchrist
have wholeheartedly lent their support to this campaign. The campaign and the
consultations are part of a series of dedicated campaigns and activities to
mobilize support for amendment in the child labour law in India and advocate for
the ratification of the ILOs child labour conventions, by the BBA and Global
March.

Consequences of child labor laws
Rural child labor, health and poverty
If poverty conditions the childhood of many Indians, there are also unexpected
consequences that arise when governments get very zealous at promoting
education. For instance, many parents make many sacrifices to be able to send
their kids to school when they really cant afford which ends up putting
everyone's health at risk (both the kids' and the parents').
In some cases, children working full-time have better chances of making it to
adulthood than those who work less (or not at all), simply because theyre better
fed. This shows the perverted effects of poverty on child labor and education and
how these problems are interwoven. Parents who receive some welfare
assistance are often happy to send their kids to school, but because of the
limited social support they receive (not enough to feed their kids properly at
least), this choice may end up harming their childrens physical development in
the long run.
All-out war on child labor in India
As always there is no silver bullet against child labor, let alone poverty. What
works is a broad strategy aimed at reducing poverty, investing in human labor
and infrastructures (local schools, quality education. Economic opportunities to
increase household income are a key. Yet, even in this case there are problems
specific to India.
Weve often argued that proper land re-distribution (which has never been
accomplished by the government) - to break with the quasi-feudal landlord
system would not only be fair to exploited farmers and families, it would also
dramatically increase their revenue.
But you can already see a new dilemma: in the first years of receiving more land,
parents would want to make the most of it and would most likely hire their own
kids to help. Its normal considering that itd take a while before they can afford to
hire staff or buy machines. But in that process theyd deny their kids their right to
education and what we consider a normal childhood (playing, having fun,
learning.
It would also make education less appealing since parents can already
guarantee a job to the next generation by bequeathing the land to their kids. You
can see how the issue of child labor would become much more complex and its
a problem that already exists in many developed countries as well.
Many argue rightfully that what matters is the childrens rights and freedom to
choose how they want to lead their own lives. However the reality is much
different and often times were all caught in traditions and family pressure.
Breaking free sometimes also means breaking up with your family or taking the
risk to create deep tensions and misunderstandings. It's the classic tale of family
responsibilities vs. freedom.
A different solution: parents education
Aside from making schools cheaper and giving them more resources, educating
the parents, in particular mothers, can make a huge difference in helping them
understand the importance of education in ones life.
However research has recently shown that mothers who only went to primary or
middle school don't really generate much impact on their children, whereas those
who have completed high school are much more committed to sending their kids
to school. Quite understandably, the more you study, the more you gain the skills
you need to climb up the social ladder and get better jobs.
Healthcare & surviving childhood
Also, helping the parents cover the childrens basic health costs makes a huge
difference in supporting the schooling effort.

How come? Well, the higher the child mortality rates, the larger families tend to
be. If 1 in 5 kids die at an early age, then parents will have many of them to make
sure at least a few survive.

These kids in turn represent their parents only pension plan for their old days.
Parents will tend to send their kids to work as they dont know which one will
survive, and hence in which one they should invest. A default rule consists in
investing in the oldest boy, while the others have to hit the fields.

But if child mortality rates are low, it means almost every child will survive. As a
result:

a) You dont need as many kids
b) You can safely invest in their education (hopefully)
c) You can also afford to feed them better.
The presence of a large number of child labourers is regarded as a serious issue
in terms of economic welfare. Children who work fail to get necessary education.
They do not get the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally
and psychologically.[51] In terms of the physical condition of children, children
are not ready for long monotous work because they become exhausted more
quickly than adults. This reduces their physical conditions and makes the
children more vulnerable to disease.[52] Children in hazardous working
conditions are even in worse condition.[53] Children who work, instead of going
to school, will remain illiterate which limits their ability to contribute to their own
well being as well as to community they live in. Child labour has long term
adverse effects for India.
To keep an economy prospering, a vital criteria is to have an educated workforce
equipped with relevant skills for the needs of the industries. The young labourers
today, will be part of Indias human capital tomorrow. Child labour undoubtedly
results in a trade-off with human capital accumulation.[54]
Child labour in India are employed with the majority (70%) in
agriculture[55] some in low-skilled labour-intensive sectors such as sari weaving
or as domestic helpers, which require neither formal education nor training, but
some in heavy industry such as coal mining.[56]
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are tremendous
economic benefits for developing nations by sending children to school instead of
work.[10] Without education, children do not gain the necessary skills such as
English literacy and technical aptitude that will increase their productivity to
enable them to secure higher-skilled jobs in future with higher wages that will lift
them out of poverty.
Silk manufacture[edit]
A 2003 Human Rights Watch report claims children as young as five years old
are employed and work for up to 12 hours a day and six to seven days a week in
silk industry.[67]These children, claims, are bonded labour; even though the
government of India denies existence of bonded child labour, these silk industry
child are easy to find in Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu, claims Children are forced to
dip their hands in scalding water to palpate the cocoons and are often paid less
than Rs 10 per day.[68]
In 2010, a German news investigative report claimed that in states
like Karnataka, non-governmental organisations had found up to 10,000 children
working in the 1,000 silk factories in 1998. In other places, thousands of bonded
child labourers were present in 1994. But today, after UNICEF and NGOs got
involved, child labour figure is drastically lower, with the total estimated to be
fewer than a thousand child labourers. The released children were back in
school, claims the report.[69]
Carpet weaving[edit]
Siddartha Kara finds about 20% of carpets manufactured in India could involve
child labour. He notes, "determining the extent to which the hand-made carpet
supply chain from India to the U.S.A. is tainted by slavery and child labor requires
an additional exercise in supply chain tracing."[70] Kara's study also finds
variation in child labour practices between ethnic and religious groups. Kara and
colleagues report highest level of child labour in Muslim community carpet
operations,[71] and the presence of debt bonded child labourers in Muslim
villages.[72]
Domestic labour[edit]
Official estimates for child labour working as domestic labour and in restaurants
is more than 2,500,000 while NGOs estimate the figure to be around 20
million.[73] TheGovernment of India expanded the coverage of The Child Labour
Prohibition and Regulation Act and banned the employment of children as
domestic workers and as workers in restaurants, dhabas, hotels, spas and
resorts effective from 10 October 2006.
Coal mining[edit]
Despite laws enacted in 1952 prohibiting employment of people under the age of
18 in the mines primitive coal mines in Meghalaya using child labour were
discovered and exposed by the international media in 2013.[56]
Conclusion
Children constitute the future of the country and are essential for its prosperity
and social and economic development. It is the responsibility of humankind as a
whole to ensure that they enjoyed conditions which are conducive to their future
development. However, in developing countries children are born unequal and, in
the absence of social security safety nets, destitute families might be forced to
send their children out to work. Governments therefore need to comply with their
national and international commitments and ensure that a better future was
offered to the many millions of suffering children. The complete and early
elimination of child labour in India is the ultimate objective of the Government of
India. This goal cannot be achieved in one stroke. In view of the magnitude of the
problem and its dependency on the issues of poverty and education, it has not
been possible to take effective action against child labour without international
backing, especially after the opening up of the international trade regime. There
also has to be an emphasis on the responsibility and cooperation of the
developed countries to provide assistance in terms of resources for the
developing countries to be able to come on their own and respect the core labour
standards. Else they cannot be expected to do so nor be able to be on an equal
footing with the rest of the world in terms of enforcing international core labour
standards and enforce the concept of social clause in the WTO framework.
In summation, this paper has attempted to explain how the IndianGovernment
must try its utmost in ameliorating the issue of child labour. It has looked at the
present and existing legislations intended to deal with it and it has also evaluated
how due to infrastructural difficulties, the aberrations persist. It has also
enumerated and understood why the ILO conventions of 138 and 182 had not
been ratified. The paper has finally attempted to define the solutions in the
present context, including the suggestion of ratifying the two child labour
Conventions of the ILO as well as adopting a cohesive and cooperative
relationship with the developed countries within the multilateral WTO framework
of the social clause to achieve these domestically.