UNICEF

The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund was created by the United
Nations General Assembly on 11 December 1946, to provide emergency food and
healthcare to children in countries that had been devastated by World War II.
UNICEF relies on contributions from governments and private donors. UNICEF's total
income for 2015 was US$5,009,557,471 . Governments contribute two-thirds of the
organization's resources. Private groups and individuals contribute the rest through
national committees.
UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, to defend their
rights, and to help them fulfil their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.
For over 70 years, UNICEF has been the defender of children around the world,
regardless of gender, religion, race or economic background. When the world’s most
vulnerable need a champion in the face of conflict, disease or exclusion, UNICEF has
been there.
UNICEF is fully committed to working with the Government of India to ensure that each
child born in this country gets the best start in life, thrives and develops to his or her full
potential.

Causes of Child Labour

Though it is a cognizable criminal offence to employ a Child for any work, it is common to
see children working in tea shops, cycle repair shops, puncture shops, small restaurants,
selling things at traffic signals, tailoring shops etc.

The major causes of Child Labour are as follows:

Poverty

Wide spread poverty is one of the major causes of child labour.The parents of the poverty-
ridden population are faced with the bewildering question as to whether they should send
their children to schools to learn or to send them to the labour market to augment their
income often starving families.

In India, which is developing country, poverty forces parents to send their children to seek
employment, because augmentation of their income is essential for the survival of the
family, including the children themselves. Illness and other contingencies demand extra
money in hand and the employment of children is resorted to as quick and easily
accessible way to get it.

Cheap labour

When parents are unable to find enough work and wages to feed their family, they tend
to send their children to work. Since a child labour is cheaper, shop keepers tend to
provide employment to children more easily than providing work to their parents.

Shopkeepers and small businessmen make children work as much as they do to the elder
ones, but pay half the wages. In the case of child labour, there is less chance for theft,
greed or misappropriation of money too

Social and economic backwardness

The poor are unable to find employment easily due to lack of education, low skill level,
indebtedness and poor asset base; the situation worsens in the case of a single mother.
Under these circumstances children are sent to work to help earning money for the family
or they are used as labour for their family run business.

Poor compliance of laws

Another reason for existing Child Labour is that though there are organizations and laws
to prohibit Child Labour, these laws are not strictly enforced. The enforcement is usually
seen at factory levels but does not reach small business units like tea shops, cycle repair
shops etc.

Areas or profession where child labour is employed

Garment industry

Child labour runs rampant in India’s garment industry, hidden away in small, owner-
operated enterprises or home setups. A Save the Children’s report on the garment
industry in Delhi (2015) found that the Capital’s 8000 plus garment labourers experience
loud noise, poor lighting, poor ventilation and sharp tools. 36% of home workers are never
paid. The report opened Delhi’s eyes to the practice and made the city realise that the
city needed government, civil society, communities and industries to come together and
end the practice.

Brick kilns

India’s brick kilns traditionally have used child labourers, with children assisting their
parents, working long hours and neglecting their education. Save the Children’s Brick Kiln
Project sees volunteers provide children immediate access to education, facilitating their
mainstreaming into formal education via their Bridge Course Centre (BCC). Additionally,
the NGO has partnered with NMCS for a hand washing campaign in brick kilns. 70
schooling centres across factories have given children a ray of hope, and the those
who support an NGO like Save the Children have engaged factories to operate with a
zero child labour policy. This has helped 16,000 children escape a future of building bricks

Unorganised sectors

Child labour can be easily spotted in India's unorganised sector children are hired as
cheap and fast workers in tea shops, dhabas, small shops, and as personal servants and
errand boys. After the unorganised agriculture sector, it is the unorganised, informal
sector which is the biggest child labour employer. The largely family owned informal
sector prefers child labour for low costs and 'easy to hire, easy to fire' outlook towards
children. Even school going children work in after-school home-based labour.

Agriculture

2011 Census data shows that the agriculture sector might be India's biggest buyer of child
labour. Children are hired for everything from cotton and cottonseed production to
sugarcane, soybean and paddy transplantation, and work long hours for low pay and poor
living conditions. Save the Children has protected 8 lakh children living in cotton
communities in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, after freeing 65,000
children from child labour in a pilot project across 1,866 villages of Gujarat and
Maharashtra. Thousands of farmers pledged for child-labour free processes.
Fireworks

India's fireworks sector is one of the biggest, yet most well-hidden employers of child
labour. It has been repeatedly noted in Sivakasi, the South Indian town that is famed
across India for matches and fireworks.

These children work long hours, especially during India's festive season, in cramped
conditions. Direct exposure to chemicals used in fireworks harms their lungs, skin and
triggers ailments in the future. With hidden child labour, small manufacturers of both
licensed and unlicensed fireworks are able to keep costs low and make large profits.
Agencies in Bangalore which work to rescue these children

 Makkala Sahaya Vani (Children’s Help Line) popularly known as ChildLine

collaborates with the Bangalore City Police to rescue, counsel and rehabilitate
children in difficult circumstances.
 The Association for Promoting Social Action or APSA is a rights-based, child-
centred, community development organization working in Bangalore and
Hyderabad since 1981 towards empowerment of the urban poor, especially with
children in distress.
 Bangalore Oniyavara Seva Coota (BOSCO) is a registered Non Profitable
Charitable Organization offering services to the Young at Risk like - children living
on the streets, child labourers, abandoned / orphaned children, victims of drug
abuse, victims of child abuse, begging children, rag pickers etc.
 Empowerment of Children and Human Rights Organisation (ECHO) empower
Children in Conflict with Law and Children in need of Care and Protection, under
the Indian Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act 2000. The centre
also provides informal education, vocational training, job placements and follow
ups to monitor the released juveniles.
 Ashraya is a registered, non-governmental organization which has been serving
the community of underprivileged children and women in Karnataka for the past
thirty three years.
 Freedom Foundation, ASHA Foundation, ACCEPT are some of the organisations
which provide services for children who’ve been diagnosed as HIV Positive

Statistics on child labour in India

There are five states which are India's biggest child labour employers - Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Over half of India's total child
labour population works here. India's biggest hub of child labour is Uttar Pradesh and it
accounts for almost 20% of India's child labourers. According to a Campaign Against
Child Labour (CAC) study, India has 1,26,66,377 child labourers of which UP has
19,27,997 child labourers.

Child labour is prominent in rural India - 80% of working children live in India's villages,
where most of them work in agriculture. Some of them also work in household industries
and are employed in home-based businesses. Children between 14-17 years engaged in
hazardous work account for 62.8% of the India's child labour workforce, 10% of whom
are hired in family enterprises. Over half of working adolescents do not study. This
number is higher for adolescents doing dangerous work. It is not surprising that more
boys than girls (38.7 million vs. 8.8 million) are forced into doing hazardous work
(according to International Labour Organization’s World Report on Child Labour 2015)
Bibliography

 -history textbook details to be written here-

 https://www.unicef.org/
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_India
 http://childlineindia.org.in
 http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/169651/9/09_chapter%203.pdf
 https://www.indiacelebrating.com/social-issues/child-labour-in-india/
 http://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/2447-child-helpline-17603
 https://www.savethechildren.in/articles/statistics-of-child-labour-in-india-state-wise