Child Labour

Submitted by
SHREYASH KUMAR
18010224050
IN
Semester-IX
COURSE-B.B.A.LL. B
Division A
OF
Symbiosis Law School , NOIDA
Symbiosis international (Deemed university)
In
August 2022
Under the guidance of
Mr Purvesh Malkhan
Introduction
Child labour defined according to the international labour organization includes any kind of
work that denies child of their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and
mental development. Any kind of work that is directly interfering with the schooling of the
child or deprive the opportunity of going to school. The factors that determine whether a
certain type of work comes under Child labour depends on multiple factors inter alia the
child’s age, the type and hours of work performed, the conditions under which it is
performed. The answer to this question varies among different countries and sector within
countries. The worst forms of child labour involve children being enslaved, separated from
their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on
the streets of large cities – often at a very early age. The Constitution of India stated that no
children, below the age of 14 years, shall not be employed to work in any factory or mine or
any other hazardous employment. But in rural India, it is common to see children of poor
families are working in fields or elsewhere to contribute to the family income. These children
are deprived of educational opportunities and lost in the depth of poverty.

Legal Provisions
There is multiple legal provision for the upliftment of children and to safeguard them from
the prolonging problem of child labour. Under the Constitution of India, the article 21A
safeguards the child’s right to education. Right to education is a fundamental right which
makes it compulsory for state to provide education to all children of the age 6 to 14 years old.
Article 24 Prohibition of children from working in factories. It clearly mandates that no child
below the age of 14 years shall be employed in work in any factory or mine or engaged in
any other hazardous employment. Moreover, there is separate legislature that provides
specific framework for prevention, prohibition, rescue and rehabilitation of child and
adolescent workers that is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Rules
2017.Furthermore the Factories act 1948 prevents from children being employed in any
factor if they are below the age of 14 years. Similarly Mines Act prohibit the employment of
Children below the age of 18 years from working in Mines.

Prevalent Areas
Child labour is both prevalent in Formal and Informal sector. Most common jobs where
children are employed are Construction works, small -scale industries and domestic work.
One of the most common occupation of Child labour is agriculture wherein several children
mostly seasonally are employed. In terms of small industries that prominently employee
children as labours are bangle making, power looms, beedi making, firecracker industries.
Chemicals such as lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and
asbestos are used by these industries and there is minimal to no safety gears provided to
them. These chemical substances and metals have life threatening effect on the children, as it
affects their lungs, skin and heart. Children as labour don’t have the tendency or maturity to
go on strike as labour as they are supressed to a point that they can’t raise their voice against
the authority in charge. Cheap labour, no possibility of strike and minimum added
compensation makes them more lucrative for the owners to employ them,
Negative Effects of Child Labour
There is far beyond negative affect on the child’s physical health as the negative impact
extents to psychological levels of children and its consequences on mental health. It is worth
noting that one-third of children of the developing world are failing to complete even 4 years
of education.1 These children become Numb slaves as a child, who becomes a victim of child
labour, faces physical, mental, and sexual violence. These tortures made them numb slaves
ready to obey his or her masters’ orders
There are many reasons for child labour and exploitation-
a) Poverty- It is considered as the most vital reason for child labour. Poverty leads to
growth as unskilled workers and enables a person to earn low wages in adulthood. So,
parents force their children to go to work to increase the volume of income.
b) Condoning Social Norms- For decades and decades the phenomenon of child labour
has been accepted by the society. Households, factories, mines exploit children at low
wages and it has silently been accepted.
c) Migration and Child Labour: Many countries in the world have refugees in their areas.
These refugees are poor enough to feed themselves. So, children from these families
make habits to carry out labour to contribute to their family income.

d) Covid 19 Pandemic- The global pandemic has only worsened the positive effects or
the decline in child labour that was seen in the fight against it. Fall in living standards,
the deteriorating condition of employment, rise in informality, reduction in
remittances and migration, contraction of trade, temporary closure of schools, etc. are
the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

e) Natural disasters & climate change- In case of rural areas struck by natural disaster
where the crops of the famers are destroyed, the parents are left with no other option
than to send their child to work. Due to change in climate families depended on
reliable season for farming are particularly vulnerable. In case the crops gets
destroyed or the land on which farming is ruined it leads to parents sending their
children to neighbouring to earn money.

f) Bonded labour- The tradition through which poor families are pushed into the trap of
debts for the purpose of organising social occasions event or religious events. To pay
off such debts parents often rely on children to do so.

g) Addiction, disease or disability- One of the most common reason for Child Labour is
persisting addiction, disease or disability among the elder of the families because of
which they are unable to earn. The children have to forcefully become earner for the
family sometimes sole bread earner for the family.

1
 Geneva, Switzerland: ILO; 2003. International Labour Organisation Combating Child Labour through
Education 2003
Child Labour in my surroundings
In my surroundings, domestic helps and factory workers are the two prominent areas where I
have seen child labour to be very dominant. The maid and the other domestic help forcefully
make their child work in their profession and see them as another pair of hand to earn money.
One of the major reasons for overpopulation in rural areas is that people see children as a way
to earn money. In my native hometown there has been multiple incidents related to fire in
firecracker factories. These factories mostly employee young children as they can leverage
them to work for cheap wages since they find firecrackers appealing. The firecracker industry
is seasonal and has huge competition which makes them to go for cheaper labour. There is
close of no safety measures and some of the child working in the factories can’t even spell
danger written on the chemical used. There is no regulation or strict adherence to rule, and
the executive fails to do its duty to implement the law as well. Apart from firecrackers there
are kids selling balloons on the side of the road which is managed mostly by their parents
who send their kids out in the sun to sell balloons instead of school. When the children are
curious to study the public schools fail them and they don’t see the appeal as they can’t earn
money if they just get a school passing certificate.

Remedies
To tackle the major problem of Child Labour it is foremost essential to spread awareness
among the parents of the child. It is because of lack of understanding on the part of parents
that a situations is created wherein the traffickers prey upon children and many trafficked
children end up in child labour. Parental awareness of child labour can primarily prevent
interruption in schooling and further pushing of children into labour. It is quite Obvious that
existence of Child labour is not because children want to work or because the parents want
their children to not receive proper education. It becomes acceptable when people see no
other option and decide to send their children to work. It is crucial for the stakeholders such
as Government to abide by internationally accepted agreements. It is also onus of Companies
to make sure that it only employs adult. Also, the consumers need to make sure that they
don’t buy goods from companies that employ children as labour. Generally Public school in
India is of inferior quality hence the parents who can’t afford expensive private school
education prefer the working alternative better for the children. Hence there must be proper
educational institution and mechanics to make sure even if the Children are not working, they
find proper place for education. There must be further inspection on the regulatory
framework as well. The government needs to enforce a better labour inspection system as the
present one fails to take account of the workplaces in rural areas and the informal places. The
law to battle any issue is as good as its implementation and the psychology of Indian people
as it is perceived kids as someone who does a lot of house chores hence for people in position
to implement these laws in the most basic sense don’t find it problematic and hence fail to
implement the laws. There needs to proper punitive action taken within due course of time for
such people and more so for repeated offenders. Since India is a developing country with a
population of almost 1.4 billion people there is still not equal resources divided among
people. Government with it polices should aim to provide universal social protection as
consequence to it poor households don’t rely on child labour for coping mechanism. The
universal social protection would fight against the root cause of the problem and is possible
the one of the few solutions against for a utopian society without child labour. If even the less
fortunes are supported by government for the necessities, they won’t feel the need to send
their children to work and the hierarchy of their need will shit in which they will look for
better job based off good education.