Child Labour

INTRODUCTION
Child labour is a concrete manifestation of violations of a range of rights of children and is recognized as a serious and enormously complex social problem in India. Working children are denied their right to survival and development, education, leisure and play, and adequate standard of living, opportunity for developing personality, talents, mental and physical abilities, and protection from abuse and neglect. Notwithstanding the increase in the enrolment of children in elementary schools and increase in literacy rates since 1980s, child labour continues to be a significant phenomenon in India. Irrespective of what is shown in the official statistics, we say that the phenomenon of child labour is significant because, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 is a legislation to address hazardous industrial child labour in a limited way as the purview of the Act covers only the organized sectors of production. As it is inbuilt in the law, this Act has excluded a vast section of toiling children in the unorganized sectors, as over 90 percent of the labour force in India is accounted for by the unorganized sectors of production. The political weight behind the initiatives towards government legal intervention has been very dissimilar across states of India. Generally under the era of globalization and liberalization policies, the underlying attitude of the government is not to strictly impose labour laws that will disturb the production process. With regard to other forms of intervention, the flag ship program of the Government of India is the National Child Labour Project (NCLP). The NCLP Scheme started in 1988, has so far covered 400,200 working children. About 3.08 lakh children have been mainstreamed into formal education system so far. The Scheme is running in 250 districts in 14 states. Even after discounting for the inherent problems in the NCLP scheme the coverage is very low compared to the magnitude of the problem (12 million according to 2001 population census) even by the official statistics. In fact the magnitude of child labour has increased in absolute terms by about one million between 1991 and 2001. This paper is a modest attempt in critically look at the official sources of information on the magnitude of child labour in India. The analysis is presented in the background of the present socio economic context in India which has direct impact on the lives of children, and in turn the magnitude of child labour.
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Child Labour

Who Is A "Child"?
International conventions define children as aged 18 and under. Individual governments may define "child" according to different ages or other criteria. "Child" and "childhood" are also defined differently by different cultures. A "child" is not necessarily delineated by a fixed age. Social scientists point out that childrens abilities and maturities vary so much that defining a childs maturity by calendar age can be misleading.

Child Population In India

As per 2001 Population Census, children in the age group of 0-14 constituted about 360 million and accounted for 35.3 percent of total population. Children in the 5-14 age group constituted about 251 million and accounted for 24.6 percent of the population. Though there is an increase in the absolute number of children, the proportion of children in the total population is declining between 1991 and 2001. By Census of India projections, the proportion of children (0 to 14) has further come down to 32.1 percent during 2006. Elementary school age children (5 to 14) in the total population constituted 241.7 million accounting for 21.7 percent of the total population (Table 1). The reduction in the proportion of children is attributed to drastic reduction in the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) in many of the major states, especially in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
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Child Labour Percentage of children in total population

Age Group 0-4 5-9 10-14 5-14 0-14 1991 12.0 13.2 11.9 23.1 37.2 2001 10.7 12.5 12.1 24.6 35.3 2006 10.4 10.7 11.0 21.7 32.1

Child Labour
Child labor is done by any working child who is under the age specified by law. The word, work means full time commercial work to sustain self or add to the family income. Child labor is a hazard to a Childs mental, physical, social, educational, emotional and spiritual development. Broadly any child who is employed in activities to feed self and family is being subjected to child labor. Child labour is not only a social problem but also an economic one Watching a young child work for fourteen hours a-day is what is termed as child labour. Child labour has a predominant feature in Indian society Carpet industry requires the fine little fingers to weave the finest and tiniest of knots to create the most expensive of carpets Firecracker industry probably prefers kids to men because they are cost effective and more efficient Even household labor children last longer and are more honest than adults; is a claim made by most homemakers
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Child Labour Today

Child labor is a very complicated development issue, effecting human society all over the world. It is a matter of grave concern that children are not receiving the education and leisure which is important for their growing years, because they are sucked into commercial and laborious activities which is meant for people beyond their years. According to the statistics given by ILO and other official agencies 73 million children between 10 to 14 years of age re employed in economic activities all over the world. The figure translates into 13.2 of all children between 10 to 14 being subjected to child labor.

Child Labour In India

According to Census of India, 2001, there were 12.26 million working children in he age group of 5-14 years as compared to 11.3 million in 1991 revealing an increasing trend in absolute numbers though the work participation rates of children (5-14) has come down from 5.4 percent during 1991 to 5 percent during 2001. The recent round of the National Sample Survey (NSSO) estimates suggests that the child labour in the country is around 8.9 million in 2004/2005 with a workforce participation rate of 3.4 per cent (NSSO 2004/05). Due to definitional problems, as discussed is this paper, a substantial proportion of child labour may remain uncounted. Census data shows that there is a decline in the absolute number as well the percentage of Main workers of children (5-14 to total population in that age group, from 4.3 percent in 1991 to 2.3 percent in 2001. But there was a substantial increase in marginal workers in every category of worker irrespective of sex and residence. As a result, despite the number of main workers declining from 9.08 million in 1991 to 5.78 million in 2001, the total number of children in the work force increased. A large
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part of the increase was accounted for by the increase in marginal workers, which increased from 2.2 million in 1991 to 6.89 million in 2001. Main and Marginal workers put together, the work participation rate (WPR) of children in the 5-14 age group has declined from 5.4 percent during 1991 to 5 percent in 2001. The trends between 1991 and 2001 of declining main child workers along with increasing marginal workers may indicate the changing nature of work done by children. (Detailed tables of main and marginal workers by residence and sex for the age-group 5-9 and 10-14 for 1991 and 2001 are at Annexure I).There is a general trend of marginalization of labour force in the country and this is also reflected in the Census figures. This is to be seen in the context of decelerating employment growth in general in the economy during the last decade that is characterized as an era of globalization.

Child Labour

Stop chld lab

The future of a community is in the well being of its children. The above fact is beautifully expressed by Wordsworth in his famous lines child is father of the man. So it becomes imperative for the health of a nation to protect its children from premature labor which is hazardous to their mental, physical, educational and spiritual development needs. It is urgently required to save children from the murderous clutches of social injustice and educational deprivation, and ensure that they are given opportunities for healthy, normal and happy growth. Projects related with human resource development, dedicated to the child welfare issues must be given top priority by the central and state governments to stop the menace of child labor. Child labor laws need to be strictly implemented at the central and state levels. Corruption and negligence in child labor offices and employee circles should be dealt with very strictly by the judiciary and the police force.

Child Labour

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International conventions define children as aged 18 and under.

Individual governments may define "child" according to different ages or other criteria. "Child" and "childhood" are also defined differently by different cultures. A "child" is not necessarily delineated by a fixed age. Social scientists point out that childrens abilities and maturities vary so much that defining a childs maturity by calendar age can be misleading. For a discussion, see Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling, William Myers, "What Works for Working Children" (Stockholm: Radda Barnen and Unicef, 1998), pp 9-26.

Who Are Child Laborers? And How Many Are There?

In 2000, the ILO estimates, "246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor, of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral development. Moreover, some 8.4 million children were engaged in so-called 'unconditional' worst forms of child labor, which include forced and bonded labor, the use of children in armed conflict, trafficking in children and commercial sexual exploitation.www.ilo.org/public/english/ standards/ipec/simpoc/others/globalest.pdf Unicefs State of the Worlds Children Report says only that although the exact number is not known, it is surely in the hundreds of millions. More information about who child laborers are, where they live, and new statistics on the total number can be found on www.ilo.org; also, the US Dept. of Labors By The Sweat and Toil of Children, Vol. VI: An Economic Consideration of Child Labor. For more information about individual child laborers, see stories produced by Child Labor and the Global Village: Photography for Social Change.

Where Do Child Laborers Live?

Child Labour

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61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations In Asia, 22% of the workforce is children. In Latin America, 17% of the workforce is children. The proportion of child laborers varies a lot among countries and even regions inside those countries. See Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable, Geneva, 1998, p. 7; and other ILO publications. "In Africa, one child in three is at work, and in Latin America, one child in five works. In both these continents, only a tiny proportion of child workers are involved in the formal sector and the vast majority of work is for their families, in homes, in the fields or on the streets." -- Unicefs 1997 State of the Worlds Children Report

What Do Child Laborers Do?

Work ranges from taking care of animals and planting and harvesting food, to many kinds of small manufacturing (e.g. of bricks and cement), auto repair, and making of footwear and textiles. (See a list in US Dept. of Labor, By the Sweat & Toil of Children, Vo. V: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labor, Appendix C. http://www.dol.gov A large proportion of children whom the ILO classifies as child laborers work in agriculture. See Child Labour: Targeting the Intolerable (1998) "Every Child Counts" (2002) and other ILO publications (http://www.ilo.org). More boys than girls work outside their homes. But more girls work in some jobs: for instance, as domestic maids. Being a maid in someones house can be risky. Maids typically are cut off from friends and family, and can easily be physically or sexually abused by their employers. Note: Less than 5% of child laborers make products for export to other countries. Sources for this statistic include Unicefs State of the Worlds Children Report 1997.

Why Should We Care?

Child Labour
Many children in hazardous and dangerous jobs are in danger of injury, even death. Beyond compassion, consider who todays children will become in the future. Between today and the year 2020, the vast majority of new workers, citizens and new consumers whose skills and needs will build the worlds economy and society will come from developing countries. Over that 20-year period, some 730 million people will join the worlds workforce more than all the people employed in today's most developed nations in 2000. More than 90 percent of these new workers will be from developing nations, according to research by Population Action International. How many will have had to work at an early age, destroying their health or hampering their education?

How Can Ordinary People Help Reduce Child Labor?

Learn about the issue. Support organizations that are raising awareness, and providing direct help to individual children.

What Are Some "Myths" Or Misunderstandings About Child Labor?

Unicef lists four "myths": 1. It is a myth that child labor is only a problem in developing countries. "But in fact, children routinely work in all industrialized countries, and hazardous forms of child labour can be found in many countries. In the US, for example, children are employed in agriculture, a high proportion of them from immigrant or ethnicminority families. A 1990 survey of Mexican-American children working in the farms of New York state showed that almost half had worked in fields still wet with pesticides and over a third had themselves been sprayed." It is a myth that child labor will only disappear when poverty disappears. Hazardous labor can, and should be eliminated by even the poorest countries. It is a myth that most child laborers work in sweatshops making goods for export. "Soccer balls made by children in Pakistan for use by children in industrialized countries may provide a compelling symbol, but in fact, only a very small proportion of all child workers are employed in export industries - probably less than 5 per cent. Most of the worlds child labourers actually are to be found in the informal sector - selling on the street, at work in agriculture or hidden away in houses far from the reach of official labour inspectors and from media scrutiny." It is a myth that "the only way to make headway against child labour is for consumers and governments to apply pressure through sanctions and boycotts. While international commitment and pressure are important, boycotts and other sweeping measures can only affect export sectors, which are relatively small exploiters of child labour. Such measures are also blunt instruments with long-term consequences that can actually harm rather than help the children involved."

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What Causes Child Labor Today?

Poverty is widely considered the top reason why children work at inappropriate jobs for their ages. But there are other reasons as well -- not necessarily in this order: 1. family expectations and traditions 2. abuse of the child 3. lack of good schools and day care 4. lack of other services, such as health care 5. public opinion that downplays the risk of early work for children 6. uncaring attitudes of employers 7. limited choices for women "The parents of child labourers are often unemployed or underemployed, desperate for secure employment and income. Yet it is their children - more powerless and paid less - who are offered the jobs. In other words, says

Child Labour
UNICEF, children are employed because they are easier to exploit," according to the "Roots of Child Labor" in Unicefs 1997 State of the Worlds Children Report. The report also says that international economic trends also have increased child labor in poor countries. "During the 1980s, in many developing countries, government indebtedness, unwise internal economic policies and recession resulted in economic crisis. Structural adjustment programmes in many countries accentuated cuts in social spending that have hit the poor disproportionately. " Although structural adjustment programs are being revised to spare education from deep cuts, the report says, some countries make such cuts anyway because of their own, local priorities. In many countries public education has deteriorated so much, the report declared, that education itself has become part of the problem because children work to avoid going to school. This conclusion is supported by the work of many social scientists, according to Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling, and William Myers, who conducted a literature search for their 1998 book, What Works for Working Children (Stockholm: Radda Barnen, Unicef, 1998). Children do some types of low-status work, the report adds, because children come from minority groups or populations that have long suffered discrimination. " In northern Europe, for example, child labourers are likely to be African or Turkish; in Argentina, many are Bolivian or Paraguayan; in Thailand, many are from Myanmar. An increasingly consumer-oriented culture, spurring the desire and expectation for consumer goods, can also lead children into work and away from school." Other sources: Child Labor: Targeting the Intolerable, published by ILO, Geneva, 1998. ILO information available using: www.ilo.org.

What Are Some Solutions To Child Labor?

Not necessarily in this order: 1. 2. 3. Increased family incomes Education that helps children learn skills that will help them earn a living Social services that help children and families survive crises, such as disease, or loss of home and shelter 4. Family control of fertility so that families are not burdened by children The ILOs International Programme for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) has explored many programs to help child laborers. See IPEC documents on the www.ilo.org site. The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child calls for children to participate in important decisions that will affect their lives. Some educators and social scientists believe that one of the most important ways to help child workers is to ask their opinions, and involve them in constructing "solutions" to their own problems. Strong advocates of this approach are Boyden, Myers and Ling; Concerned for Working Children in Karnataka, India; many childrens "unions" and "movements," and the Save the Children family of non-governmental organizations.

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