DAMODARAM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

VISAKHAPATNAM, A.P., INDIA

PROJECT TITLE

PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN

SUBJECT

SOCIOLOGY

NAME OF THE FACULTY

Prof. M. Lakshmipathi Raju

Name of the Candidate

Roll No.
Semester

Shaik Rahaman
Roll No: - 2017083
1st Semester

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………...………….……….2
2) ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………...………………….3
3) INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..5
4) HISTORY…………………………………………………………………………………6
5) ABUSE ON CHILDREN…………………………………………………………………7
6) VIOLENCE ON CHILDREN……………………………………………………………8
7) STREET CHILDREN……………………………………………………………………10
8) CHILD LABOUR………………………………………………………………………..11
9) PRIMARY CAUSES…………………………………………………………………….13
10) CULTURAL CAUSES…………………………………………………………………..13
11) BONDED CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA………………………………………………..14
12) INITIATIVES AGAINCT CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA……………………………..16
13) LEGISLATION………………………………………………………………………….20
14) CASE LAWS…………………………………………………………………………….22

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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I want to express my special thanks to my teacher Prof. M. Lakshmipathi Raju Sir, who gave me
this golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic ‘PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN’, which
also helped me in doing a lot of research and I came to know about a lot of things.

Secondly, I also thank DSNLU for providing me with all the necessary materials required for the
completion of the project.

Shaik Javvad Ur Rahaman

1st Semester

Regd. No.-2017083

Abstract

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Title of the Project: PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN

Selection of the Topic: PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN IN INDIA

Research Problems:

 PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN INCREASING

 DECREASING EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Research Design: The research methodology is doctrinal type.

Identification Of Variables:

Dependent Variable: PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN

Independent Variable: Cause and effects of PROBLEMS OF CHILDREN IN

INDIA

Hypothesis:
The employment of children in an industry or business, especially when illegal or considered
exploitative. Child labour is highest among schedules tribes, Muslims, schedule castes and OBC
children. The persistence of child labour is due to the inefficiency of the law, administrative system
and because it benefits employers who can reduce general wage levels.

My main hypothesis is to prove whether the laws are effective or not in eradicating the problems of
children.
Collection Of data: Books generals, maxims, internet source, websites, library, teachers etc.

Analysis of data:

 The future development of the country depends upon the attitude of the children, since they
are the nation`s asset and constitutes, the resource, human resource, required, essentially, for a
country`s development, their development, which sustains the society, with dignity is a matter of
great concern.

Here the researcher wants to suggest is that the laws which are following there in india are
not very effective.The work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their
dignity, and that is harmful to physical-mental development

Introduction

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Vulnerability of children leads to and is further created by the socio-cultural, socio political and
socio-religious situations they are in. A child who is forced or born into a situation or discriminated
group is at risk for abuse, neglect and exploitation. The lack of a protection system either due to mis-
implementation of national laws and programmes or the absence of protection policies and
legislation also renders children vulnerable.

Some of the problems of children are

 Abuse and Violence

 Child Sexual Abuse

 Street Children

 Children Living with AIDS

 Child in Armed Conflict

 Girl Child

 Child Marriage

 Children with Disabilities

 Children affected by Substance Abuse

 Birth Registration

 Missing Children

 Children in Conflict with Law

 Child Labour

 Child Trafficking

 Children without Parental care

 Child Health and Nutrition

 Early Childhood (Children below six)

 Children of Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe Families

 Children in Poverty

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HISTORY

CHILD LABOUR IN PREINDUSTRIAL SOCIETIES

Child labour forms an intrinsic part of pre-industrial economies. In pre-industrial societies,

there is rarely a concept of childhood in the modern sense. Children often begin to actively
participate in activities such as child rearing, hunting and farming as soon as they are competent. In
many societies, children as young as 13 are seen as adults and engage in the same activities as adults.

The work of children was important in pre-industrial societies, as children needed to provide
their labour for their survival and that of their group. Pre-industrial societies were characterized by
low productivity and short life expectancy, preventing children from participating in productive work
would be more harmful to their welfare and that of their group in the long run. In pre-industrial
societies, there was little need for children to attend school. This is especially the case in non literate
societies. Most pre-industrial skill and knowledge were amenable to being passed down through
direct mentoring or apprenticing by competent adults. The Industrial Revolution Children going to a
12-hour night shift in the United States (1908). Early 20th century witnessed many home-based
enterprises involving child labour. An example is shown above from New York in 1912. 1

Children working in home-based assembly operations in United States (1923). Two girls
protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City Labor Day parade.
With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in Britain in the late 18th century, there was a rapid
increase in the industrial exploitation of labour, including child labour. Industrial cities such as
Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool rapidly grew from small villages into large cities and
improving child mortality rates. These cities drew in the population that was rapidly growing due to
increased agricultural output. This process was replicated in other industrializing counties.

EARLY 20TH CENTURY

In the early 20th century, thousands of boys were employed in glass making industries. Glass
making was a dangerous and tough job especially without the current technologies. The process of
making glass includes intense heat to melt glass (3133 °F). When the boys are at work, they are
exposed to this heat. This could cause eye trouble, lung ailments, heat exhaustion, cut, and burns.
Since workers were paid by the piece, they had to work productively for hours without a break. Since

1
http://www.walkthroughindia.com/lifestyle/the-dark-side-of-childrens-lives-in-india/

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furnaces had to be constantly burning, there were night shifts from 5:00 pm to 3:00 am. Many
factory owners preferred boys under 16 years of age. An estimated 1.7 million children under the age
of fifteen were employed in American industry by 1900.

In 1910, over 2 million children in the same age group were employed in the United States.
This included children who rolled cigarettes, engaged in factory work, worked as bobbin doffers in
textile mills, worked in coal mines and were employed in canneries. Lewis Hine's photographs of
child laborers in the 1910s powerfully evoked the plight of working children in the American south.
Hines took these photographs between 1908 and 1917 as the staff photographer for the National
Child Labor Committee.

21ST CENTURY

Incidence rates for child labour worldwide in 10-14 age groups, in 2003, per World Bank
data. The data is incomplete, as many countries do not collect or report child labour data colored
gray. The color code is as follows: yellow less than 10% of children working, green is10–20%,
orange 20–30%, red 30–40% and black greater than 40%. Some nations such as Guinea
Bissau, Mali and Ethiopia have more than half of all children aged 5–14 at work to help provide for
their families. 2

Abuse on Children

According to UNICEF violence against children can be "physical and mental abuse and injury,
neglect or negligent treatment, exploitation and sexual abuse. Violence may take place in homes,
schools, orphanages, residential care facilities, on the streets, in the workplace, in prisons and in
places of detention." Such violence can affect the normal development of a child impairing their
mental, physical and social being. In extreme cases abuse of a child can result in death.3

Child abuse has many forms: physical, emotional, sexual, neglect, and exploitation. Any of these that
are potentially or actually harmful to a child's health, survival, dignity and development are abuse.
This definition is derived from the W.H.O.

2
http://www.i-indiaonline.com/sc_crisis_theproblem.htm
3
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/article/child-labour-in-india-945-1.html

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  Physical abuse is when a child has been physically harmed due to some interaction or lack of
interaction by another person, which could have been prevented by any person in a position
of responsibility, trust or power.

 Emotional abuse can be seen as a failure to provide a supportive environment and primary
attachment figure for a child so that they may develop a full and healthy range of emotional
abilities. Emotional abuse is also the act of causing harm to a child's development, when they
could have been within reasonable control of a person responsible for the child. Examples of
these acts are restricting movement, threatening, scaring, discriminating, ridiculing, belittling,
etc. In India a rising concern is the pressure children feel to perform well in school and
college examinations, which can be seen as a form of emotional stress and abuse.

 Sexual abuse is engaging a child in any sexual activity that he/she does not understand or
cannot give informed consent for or is not physically, mentally or emotionally prepared for.
Abuse can be conducted by an adult or another child who is developmentally superior to the
victim. This includes using a child for pornography, sexual materials, prostitution and
unlawful sexual practises.

 Neglect or negligent treatment is purposeful omission of some or all developmental needs of

the child by a caregiver with the intention of harming the child. This includes the failure of
protecting the child from a harmful situation or environment when feasible.

 Exploitation can be commercial or otherwise, where by the child is used for some form of
labour, or other activity that is beneficial for others. Example: child labour or child
prostitution. 

Violence on Children

Lastly the study examined emotional abuse and girl child neglect. The
study examined two forms of emotional abuse: humiliation and comparison. Half the children
reported facing emotional abuse with 83% of that abuse begin conducted by parents. Girl child
neglect was assessed girls comparing themselves to their brothers on factors like attention, food,
recreation time, household work, taking care of siblings, etc. 70.57% of girls reported having been
neglected by family members. 48.4% of girls wished they were boys. 27.33% of girls reported

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getting less food then their brothers. Of the young adults (ages 18-24) interviewed, almost half of
them reported having been physically or sexually abused as children.4

Child abuse in India is often a hidden phenomenon especially when it happens in the home or by
family members. Focus with regards to abuse has generally been in the more public domain such as
child labour, prostitution, marriage, etc. Intra-family abuse or abuse that takes place in institutions
such as schools or government homes has received minimal attention. This may be due to the
structure of family in India and the role children have in this structure. Children in India are often
highly dependent on their parents and elders; they continue to have submissive and obedient roles
towards their parents even after they have moved out of their parental home. This belief that parents
and family are the sole caretaker of the child has proved to have negative effects on child protection
laws and strategies. Numbers of cases of child abuse in the home are hard to attain because most of
these crimes go unreported. Societal abuses that are a result of poverty such as malnutrition, lack of
education, poor health, neglect, etc are recognised in various forms by the Indian legal system. But
India does not have a law that protects children against abuse in the home. Mal-treatment of care
givers has the potential to emotionally and mentally harm children to a very different degree. Studies
in intra-familial child abuse in the US have shown correlation to delinquency, crime, teenage
pregnancy, and other psychosocial problems. 5

India has launched an Integrated Child Protection Scheme which aims at shielding children from
violence aengand abuse.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD)  released a study report on

child abuse. The report discusses incidence of child abuse nationwide. It is estimated that 150 million
girls and 73 million boys under 18 have been subjected to forced sexual intercourse or other forms of
sexual violence. In 2002 there were 53,000 reported cases of child homicide. A Global School-Based
Student Health Survey found that 20% and 65% of school going children reported having been
verbally and physically bullied in the last 30 days. ILO estimates show there were 218 million child
labourers in 2004, out of which 126 million were engaged in hazardous work. UNICEF estimated 3
million girls and women in sub-Saharan Africa, Egypt and Sudan are subjected to female genital
mutilation every year.6

4
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/128-child-labour-cases-registered-till-june-
9/articleshow/59199744.cms
5
https://www.crin.org/en/library/legal-database/mc-mehta-v-state-tamil-nadu
6
http://www.trueindia.org/blog/2010/05/16/103/

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Street Children
The street children in India choose to leave their families and homes for strategic reasons.Three
hypotheses have been put forth in an attempt to explain their choices: urban poverty, aberrant
families, and urbanization. Evidence can to some degree support all three of these hypotheses. In one
study of 1,000 street children living in Bombay conducted in 1990, 39.1 percent of street children
said they left home because of problems and fights with family, 20.9 percent said they left because of
family poverty, and 3.6 percent said that they wanted to see the city.The street children and children
running away from home are connected. A child running away from home ends on the street in most
situations. There is lot of data available on why children run away, revealing many reasons for doing
so. Some reasons are simple, some complex. Some time the reasons are because of the child's
behavior, and some times the causes are because of parents. A child not going to school or not doing
home work and thus fearing beatings, is a very common cause. A child stealing money, fighting with
siblings are reasons too.7

This study illustrates the trend found by most researchers: most children leave their families to live
on the street because of family problems.Family problems include such things as death of a parent,
alcoholism of father, strained relationships with stepparents, parent separation, abuse, and family
violence.Additionally, street children usually come from female-headed households.

Most children who leave home to live on the streets come from slums or low cost housing, both
which are areas of high illiteracy, drug use, and unemployment. Children usually transfer their lives
to the streets through a gradual process; they may at first only stay on the street a night or two.
Gradually they will spend more time away from home until they do not return.

Once on the streets, children sometimes find that their living conditions and physical and mental
health is better than at home; however, this fact speaks to the poor conditions of their homes rather
than good conditions in the street. Street conditions are far from child-friendly. Once they leave
home, many street children move around often because of the fear that their relatives will find them
and force them to return home.Sadly, many children are kidnapped and treated as slaves by the
kidnappers. The kidnappers make them beg for money the whole day on the streets and enjoy
themselves with the money they get from the children.8

7
https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/india_background.html
8
http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10-terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide/

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A street child is someone "for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including
unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of
livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults".

It is estimated that more than 400,000 street children in India exist.Mainly because of family

conflict, they come to live on the streets and take on the full responsibilities of caring for themselves,
including working to provide for and protecting themselves. Though street children do sometimes
band together for greater security, they are often exploited by employers and the police.

Their many vulnerabilities require specific legislation and attention from the government and other
organisations to improve their condition.

Major problem of children is Child Labour

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. 

Child Labour is the practice of having children engages in economic activity, on a part or
full-time basis. The practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and
mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and the growth of the informal economy are
considered to be the key causes of child labour in India.

The 1998 national census of India estimated the total number of child laborers, aged 4 to 15,
to be at 12.6 million, out of a total child population of 253 million in the 5 to 14 age group. However,
in 2009–10 a nationwide survey found the prevalence of child labour had reduced to 4.98 million
children (or less than 2% of the children in the 5 to 14 age group). The 2011 national census of India
found the total number of child laborers, aged 5–14, to be at 4.35 million, and the total child
population to be 259.64 million in that age group. The child labour problem is not unique to India;
worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.

Indian law specifically defines 64 industries as hazardous and it is a criminal offence to

employ children in such hazardous industries. In 2001, an estimated 1% of all child workers, or
about 120,000 children in India were in a hazardous job. Notably, the Constitution of India prohibits
child labour in hazardous industries (but not in non-hazardous industries) as a Fundamental Right
under Article 24. 

UNICEF estimates that India with its larger population has the highest number of laborers in
the world less than 14 years of age, while sub-Saharan African countries have the highest percentage

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of children who are deployed as child laborers. The International Labour Organization estimates that
agriculture, at 60 percent, is the largest employer of child labour in the world, while the United
Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 70% of child labour is deployed in agriculture
and related activities.

Outside of agriculture, child labour is observed in almost all informal sectors of the Indian
economy. Companies ding Gap, Primark, and Monsanto have been criticized for child labour in their
products.

The companies claim they have strict policies against selling products made by underage
children, but there are many links in a supply chain making it difficult to oversee them all. In 2011,
after three years of Primark's effort, BBC acknowledged that its award-winning investigative
journalism report of Indian child labour use by Primark was a fake. The BBC apologized to Primark,
to Indian suppliers and all its viewers.9

This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations. Legislation

across the world prohibits child labour. These laws do not consider all work by children as child
labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, certain categories
of work such as those by Amish children, some forms of child work common among indigenous
American children, and others.

Child labour has existed to varying extents, through most of history. During the 19th
and early 20th centuries, many children aged 5–14 from poorer families still worked in Europe, the
United States and various colonies of European powers. These children mainly worked in
agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, and mining and in services such as news
boys. Some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of household income, availability of
schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour fell.10

PRIMARY CAUSES

International Labour Organization (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

9
http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10-terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide/
10
https://www.humanium.org/en/india/

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between 25 and 40% of the household income. Other scholars such as Hirsch on African child
labour, and Edmonds and Picnic on global child labour have reached the same conclusion.11

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 the 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. Agriculture deploys 70% of the world's child labour.
Above, child worker on a rice farm in Vietnam.12

TRAFFICKING OF CHILDREN:

Trafficking of children involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt

of children for the purpose of exploitation. The commercial sexual exploitation of children can take
many forms, including forcing a child into prostitution or other forms of sexual activity or child
pornography. Child exploitation may also involve forced labour or services, slavery or practices
similar to slavery, servitude, the removal of organs, illicit international adoption, trafficking for early
marriage, recruitment as child soldiers, for use in begging or as athletes such as child camel jockeys
or football players.IOM statistics indicate that a significant minority (35%) of trafficked persons it
assisted in 2011 were less than 18 years of age, which is roughly consistent with estimates from
previous years. It was reported in 2010 that Thailand and Brazil were considered to have the worst
child sex trafficking records. Traffickers in children may take advantage of the parents' extreme

11
http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/childrelatedissues.html
12
http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10-terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide/

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poverty. Parents may sell children to traffickers in order to pay off debts or gain income, or they may
be deceived concerning the prospects of training and a better life for their children. They may sell
their children into labor, sex trafficking, or illegal adoptions.

In David M. Smolin's papers on child trafficking and adoption scandals between India and the
United States, he presents the systemic vulnerabilities in the inter-country adoption system that
makes adoption scandals predictable. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at
Article 34, states, "States Parties undertake to protect the child from all forms of sexual exploitation
and sexual abuse". In the European Union, commercial sexual exploitation of children is subject to a
directive – Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December
2011 on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography.
The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry
Adoption (or Hague Adoption Convention) is an international convention dealing with international
adoption, that aims at preventing child laundering, child trafficking, and other abuses related to
international adoption. The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed
Conflict seeks to prevent forceful recruitment (e.g. by guerrilla forces) of children for use in armed
conflicts.13

BONDED CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA:

Bonded child labour is a system of forced, or partly forced, labour under which the child, or
usually child's parent enter into an agreement, oral or written, with a creditor. The child performs
work as in-kind repayment of credit. In this 2005 ILO report, debt-bondage in India emerged during
the colonial period, as a means of obtaining reliable cheap labour, with loan and land-lease
relationships implemented during that era of Indian history. These were regionally called Hali,
or Halwaha, or Jeura systems; and was named by the colonial administration as
the indentured labour system. These systems included bonded child labour. Over time, claims the
ILO report, this traditional forms of long-duration relationships have declined.

In 1977, India passed legislation that prohibits solicitation or use of bonded labour by anyone,
of anyone including children. Evidence of continuing bonded child labour continue. A report by the
Special Rapporteur to India's National Human Rights Commission, reported the discovery of 53
child laborers in 1996 in the state of Tamil Nadu during a surprise inspection. Each child or the
parent had taken an advance of Rs. 10,0000 to 25,0000. The children were made to work for 12 to 14
hours a day and received only Rs. 2 to 3 per day as wages. According to an ILO report, the extent of

13
http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10-terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide/

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bonded child labour is difficult to determine, but estimates from various social activist groups range
up to 350,000 in 2001.

Despite its legislation, prosecutors in India rarely use the Bonded Labour System (Abolition)
Act of 1976 to prosecute those responsible. According to one report, the prosecutors have no
direction from the central government that if a child is found to be underpaid, the case should be
prosecuted not only under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Child Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act, 1986, the case should include charges under the Bonded Labour Act of India. The
few enforcement actions have had some unintended effects. While there has been a decrease in
children working in factories because of enforcement and community vigilance committees, the
report claims poverty still compels children and poor families to work. The factory lends money to
whoever needs it, puts a loom in the person’s home, and then the family with children works out of
their homes, bring finished product to pay interest and get some wages. The bonded child and family
labour operations were moving out of small urban factories into rural homes.

LABOUR TRAFFICKING:

Labour trafficking is the movement of persons for the purpose of forced labor and services. It
may involve bonded labor, involuntary servitude, domestic servitude, and child labor. Labor
trafficking happens most often within the domain of domestic
work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment; and migrant workers and
indigenous people are especially at risk of becoming victims.

MINING:

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. A related area identified as problematic are the granite quarries. 14

INITIATIVES AGAINST CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA:

In 1979, the Indian government formed the Gurupadswamy Committee to find about child
labour and means to tackle it. The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act were enacted based
on the recommendations of the committee in 1986. A National Policy on Child Labour was
formulated in 1987 to focus on rehabilitating children working in hazardous occupations. The
Ministry of Labour and Employment had implemented around 100 industry-specific National Child
Labour Projects to rehabilitate the child workers since 1988.
14
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/school_problems_teenagers.html

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NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS:

Many NGOs like Bachpan Bachao Andolan, ChildFund, CARE India, Talaash Association, Child

Rights and You, Global march against child labour, RIDE India, Childline etc. have been working to
eradicate child labour in India. Child labour has also been a subject of public interest litigations in
Indian courts.

FUNCTIONING:
1. Is it legal to employ children?

No, you cannot employ children under 14. There are exceptions to this – children in family
businesses are allowed to work after school and during vacations. Children acting in movies,
advertisements and sports are similarly allowed to work. It is lawful to employ children between 14
and 18, as long as the places are not dangerous (explained below). The term used in the law for
children between 14 and 18 is ‘adolescents’.

2. Someone is employing children in my neighborhood. What can I do?

If you have observed that the law is being violated by someone, you can file a complaint with
the police or the Magistrate. You can also bring it to the notice of local NGOs who work with
children, and who can take further steps. A police officer or a child labour inspector under the law
can also file a complaint. The offence is cognizable, meaning that a police officer can make an arrest
or state an investigation without a warrant in case someone is employing a child or adolescent in a
hazardous job in violation of the law.

3. What is the punishment for employing children in violation of the law?

Any person who employs a child below 14 or a child between 14 and 18 in a hazardous
occupation or process can be punished with jail time of between six months and two years and or
fine between Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 50,000. A person can be punished for all other violations (for
example, with respect to maintenance of register, work hours, health and safety conditions) with jail
time of up to one month and/ or a fine of up to Rs. 10,000. First time offences can be settled if the
person pays a certain sum of money. There are a number of other laws which also punish
employment of children. However, prosecution for the crime of employing children and adolescents
will be under the child labour law. The laws include the Factories Act, Mines Act, Merchant
Shipping Act and the Motor Transport Workers Act.

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 4. What happens to children who are rescued under this law?

Children who are rescued from situations in which they were being made to work in violation of
this law must be rehabilitated under the new law. There is a separate law to deal with children in
need of care and protection – Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 on this.

5. Is it legal to make children work in the family business?

Yes, it is legal to make children work in the family business. The business could belong to or be
run by immediate family or extended. It is important that the family business does not involve
dangerous substances or. The law tells us what jobs are considered hazardous. Mines, explosives and
processes involved in the coal, power generation industries etc are included. For, the full list of
hazardous occupations or processes, please read the list of industries provided here. Can parents be
punished for allowing their children to work?

The parents or guardians of the children who are working in violation of this law will generally
not be punished for allowing their children to work. However, this immunity does not apply if they
make their child work for commercial purposes or the work in a hazardous occupation or process.
The law does give them a chance to correct their wrong – when they are caught doing this the first
time, they can settle it. However, if they make their child work again in violation of the law, they can
be punished with a fine of up to Rs. 10,000.

6. Is it legal to let children act in movies or play sports as a profession?

Yes, it is legal. Children can act in movies and TV serials or be involved in sport activities and be
paid for it. They could also do this as a hobby. The government has not yet come out with the full list
of allowed entertainment and sporting activities under this exception. Also, the rules regarding the
conditions of employment of such children have not yet come out. Again, it is important that the
child’s education is not affected. An exception to this exception is hiring children in a circus that is
not allowed and is illegal under the law.

7. What kind of jobs are children between 14 and 18 allowed to work in?

The law only tells us what kind of jobs they are not allowed to work in. Adolescents or children
(between 14 and 18) are generally allowed to work except in:

 Hazardous occupations – Mines and inflammable substances or explosives (such as firework

factories).

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 Hazardous processes – The list of industries which use hazardous processes is provided
another law (the Factories Act, 1948) and is available here. They include coal, power generation,
paper, fertilizer, iron and steel industries, asbestos, etc.
 The government can make additions or deletions to this list.

8. Does the law regulate establishments which employ children between 14 and 18?

While the Central law contains some basic rules which must be followed while employing
adolescents, different state governments have enacted rules which prescribe additional conditions.
Under the Central law, the people in control of an establishment or workshop need to ensure that
the following minimum rules are followed. These rules do not apply to establishments which are
carrying out work with the help of their family and to government funded or recognized schools.

 Adolescents can only be made to work continuously for a maximum period of three hours at a
time. She or he needs to be given a break for an hour. In a single day, the period of work cannot
exceed 6 hours. This includes the time they spend in waiting for work.
 Adolescents cannot be made to work between 7 pm and 8 am.
 An adolescent has to be given one day off every week.
 If the adolescent is already working at another place, the occupier cannot make him or her
work at their place on the same day.

State governments regulate certain conditions in relation to the maximum number of work

hours and conditions regarding health and safety of the establishment/workshop where adolescents
are employed. The rules will usually regulate conditions which include: Maximum number of hours
that an adolescent can work in a day or week. For example, in Karnataka, the maximum number of
hours is five in a day and 20 in a week.

 The person in-charge needs to make drinking water available for each child.
 There must be proper lighting, ventilation, and temperature at the workplace. The workplace
must also be clean and that there needs to be proper systems for disposal of solid or liquid waste.
 Toilets and spittoons should be available.
 The machines in motion must be safe to use and trained people should be supervising the
adolescent’s use of these machines. Adolescents should generally not use dangerous machines.
 The floors and stairs must be safe to use and there must be emergency exits.
 Children should not have to carry very heavy things. In Bihar, for example, this is more than
14 kilos for male children and 12 for female children.

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Please check the relevant rules issued in each state under the child labour law to ensure that the
conditions are being followed.

9. How will the government know if there are adolescents working at a particular work
place?

The person in-charge has a duty to maintain a register which must be made open for checking by the
government inspector during office hours. The register should contain the following details of all
adolescent employees:

 name and date of birth;

 working hours and periods of work as well as the periods of rest; and
 the type of work. 15

MEASURES AND EFFORTS:

There are many different estimates of how large the human trafficking and sex trafficking
industries are. According to scholar Kevin Bales, author of Disposable People (2004), estimates that
as many as 27 million people are in "modern-day slavery" across the globe. In 2008, the U.S.
Department of State estimates that 2 million children are exploited by the global commercial sex
trade. In the same year, a study classified 12.3 million individuals worldwide as "forced laborers,
bonded laborers or sex-trafficking victims." Approximately 1.39 million of these individuals worked
as commercial sex slaves, with women and girls comprising 98%, of the 1.36 million.

The enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act (TVPA) in 2000 by

the United States Congress and its subsequent re-authorizations established the Department of
State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, which engages with foreign
governments to fight human trafficking and publishes a Trafficking in Persons Report annually. The
Trafficking in Persons Report evaluates each country's progress in anti-trafficking and places each
country onto one of three tiers based on their governments' efforts to comply with the minimum
standards for the elimination of trafficking as prescribed by the TVPA. However, questions have
been raised by critical anti-trafficking scholars about the basis of this tier system, its heavy focus on
compliance with state department protocols, and its failure to consider "risk" and the likely
prevalence of trafficking when rating the efforts of diverse countries.

In particular, there were three main components of the TVPA, commonly called the three

15
https://www.unicef.org/protection/57929_57977.html

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 1. PROTECTION

2. PROSECUTION

3. PREVENTION

LEGISLATION

Section 2 in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 [Complete

Act]

14 Penalties. —
(1) Whoever employs any child or permits any child to work in contravention of the provisions of
section 3 shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three months
but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees but
which may extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both.

(2) Whoever, having been convicted of an offence under section 3, commits a like offence
afterwards, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six
months but which may extend to two years.

(3) Whoever—

(a) fails to give notice as required by section 9; or

(b) fails to maintain a register as required by section 11 or makes any false entry in any such register;
or

(c) fails to display a notice containing an abstract of section 3 and this section as required by section
12; or

(d) fails to comply with or contravenes any other provisions of this Act or the rules made thereunder,
shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to one month or with fine which
may extend to ten thousand rupees or with both.

BONDED LABOR SYSTEM (ABOLITION) ACT, 1976:

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 Under Article 23 of The Constitution of India, Prohibition is imposed on the practice
of Traffic in Human Being and of Forced Labor. It also provides that contravention of said
prohibition is an offense under law. The practice of bonded labor was prevalent in the Indian society.
Under this system when an elder of an Indian family took a loan mostly for agriculture and fails to
repay the same, his descendants or dependents have to work for the creditor without reasonable
wages until the loan is not repaid. This system is commonly known as Bandhua Mazdoori. Also it is
to be mentioned here that because of illiteracy and backwardness the loan structure was made in a
way that the interest over a small period of time will be greater than the principal sum and then there
was interest charged on the already existing interest. Hence the loans were made in a way that they
cannot be repaid. Several generations are made to work in degradable condition and extreme poverty
under this system. Even after India got independence and Indian Constitution came to power that
enshrines the principal of Equality and Dignity. The practice of Bandhua Mazdoori with an aim to
end this practice, Indian Parliament enacted Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act, 1976.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Rules, 2007

(2) In the event of an escape of a juvenile in conflict with law or a child, the following action shall be
taken within twenty-four hours,
(a) the Officer-in-Charge of any institution shall immediately send a report to the area Police Station
or Special Juvenile Police Unit along with the details and description of the juvenile or child, with
identification marks and a photograph, with a copy to the Board, District Child Protection Unit and
other authorities concerned;

(b) the Officer-in-charge of institutions other than shelter homes or drop-in-centres shall send the
guards or concerned staff in search of the juvenile, at places like railway stations, bus stands and
other places where the juvenile is likely to go;

(c) the parents or guardians shall be informed immediately about such escape; and

(d) the Officer-in-Charge of an institution other than a shelter home or drop-in-centre shall hold an
inquiry about such escape and send his report to the Board or Committee and the authorities
concerned and the report shall be placed before the Management Committee set-up under rule 55 of
these rules in the next meeting for review.

Section 27 in The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Rules,

2010[Complete Act]

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'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act' or 'Right to Education Act also
known as RTE', is an Act of the Parliament of India enacted on 4 August 2009, which describes the
modalities of the importance of free and compulsory education for children between 6 and 14 in
India under Article 21A of the Indian Constitution.India became one of 135 countries to
make education a fundamental right of every child when the act came into force on 1 April 2010.The
title of the RTE Act incorporates the words ‘free and compulsory’. ‘Free education’ means that no
child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not
supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or
expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.
‘Compulsory education’ casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to
provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in
the 6-14 age group. With this, India has moved forward to a rights based framework that casts a legal
obligation on the Central and State Governments to implement this fundamental child right as
enshrined in the Article 21A of the Constitution, in accordance with the provisions of the RTE
Act.17

CASE LAWS

S. Ananthakrishnan vs The State Of Madras on 19 October, 1951

Mr. Venkatasubramania Aiyar referred us to three decisions of. the American Supreme Court which
held certain Acts of States to be invalid on the ground that they encroached on the field of the
Congress and vice versa. But I do not find them very relevant to a discussion of the questions arising
in this case except possibly as instances of the general rule that what cannot be done directly cannot
be done indirectly. I shall refer briefly to these three cases. In 'Child Labour Tax Case', (1922) 66
Law Ed. 817, the Congress made a law .imposing a tax of ten per cent, of the net profits of the year
upon an employer who knowingly employed during any portion of the taxable year a child within a
particular prescribed age limit which was held to be invalid as being an attempt by the Congress to
use the so-called tax as a penalty for the employment of child labour in the States which under the
Constitution was exclusively a matter for the State Legislature. As Chief Justice Taft remarked the
tax in question was "a penalty to coerce people of a State to act as Congress wishes them to act in
respect of a matter completely the business of the State Government under the Federal Constitution."

Chhota Bhai Munnu Bhai & Co. And ... vs State Of U.P. And Anr. on 11
November, 1998

(iii) In establishments where the employer is himself physically handicapped and the establishment is
a petty establishment, a token compensation of Rs. 2,000/- has been proposed.

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(iv) In cases where the employer is a well established concern and is employing 100 or more
workmen located in a prime market the suggested compensation is Rs. 25,000 for each child.

(v) In cases where child labour is not prohibited but only regulated Rs. 5,000/-have been
recommended in all such cases irrespective of the number of employees/ status of establishment, as
the employer failed to produce statutory records in respect of such children.

(iii) In establishments where the employer is himself physically handicapped and the establishment is
a petty establishment, a token compensation of Rs. 2000/- has been proposed.

(iv) In cases where the employer is a well established concern and is employing 100 or more
workmen, located in a prime market the suggested compensation is Rs. 25,000/-for each child.

(v) In cases where child labour is not prohibited but only regulated Rs. 5000/-have been
recommended in all such cases irrespective of the number of employees/ status of establishments, as
the employer failed to produce statutory records in respect of such children.

State Of Uttaranchal vs Balwant Singh Chaufal & Ors on 18 January, 2010

. In M. C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu & Others (1996) 6 SCC 756, the Court was dealing with
the cases of child labour and the Court found that the child labour emanates from extreme poverty,
lack of opportunity for gainful employment and intermittency of income and low standards of living.
The Court observed that it is possible to identify child labour in the organized sector, which forms a
minuscule of the total child labour, the problem relates mainly to the unorganized sector where
utmost attention needs to be paid.

Jayakumar Nat & Anr vs State Of Nct Of Delhi & Anr on 4 September, 2015
(iv) However, no action was taken by the Labour Department in this regard and the matter remained
pending with them.
(v) Thereafter, on 8.7.2015, Mr Sarjeet Kumar visited the concerned LabourDepartment and gave a
reminder letter to the Department regarding taking action with respect to the child labour case. The
Assistant Labour Commissioner received the said letter and orally assured that he will take up the
matter with theLabour Inspection Officer (LIO)Rajesh Kumar. A true copy of this letter dated
8.7.2015, alongwith a copy of the letter with acknowledgment of receipt is annexed herewith and
marked as Annexure R/3-4.

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