CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
August 8, 2015
KUNAL SINGH
Child labour is the practice of having children engage in economic activity, on part or -time basis. The practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and growth of informal economy are considered as the important causes of child labour in India.
The 1998 national census of India estimated the total number of child labour, aged 4–15, to be at 12.6 million, out of a total child population of 253 million in 5-14 age group. A 2009-2010 nationwide survey found child labour prevalence had reduced to 4.98 million children (or less than 2% of children in 5-14 age group). The 2011 national census of India found the total number of child labour, 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, 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 labourers in the world under 14 years of age, while sub-saharan African countries have the highest percentage of children who are deployed as child labour. International Labour Organisation estimates that agriculture at 60 percent is the largest employer of child labour in the world,while United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation 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 including Gap, Primark, Monsanto have been criticised 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. BBC apologized to Primark, to Indian suppliers and all its viewers.
In December 2014, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor and India figured among 74 countries where significant incidence of critical working conditions has been observed. Unlike any other country, India was attributed 23 goods the majority of which is produced by child labor in the manufacturing sector.
Article 24 of India's constitution prohibits child labour. Additionally, various laws and the Indian Penal Code, such as the Juvenile Justice (care and protection) of Children Act-2000, and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Abolition) Act-1986 provide a basis in law to identify, prosecute and stop child labour in India.
The role of education & 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 wasn’t 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. It’s 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. They’re 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.Urban child labor & the success of schoolsIt’s in urban areas that the fight against child labor in India has been the most successful – beginning early on in the 1990s. Cities are indeed easier to monitor and laws are easier to implement there. Cities have also reaped most of the benefits from globalization and the opening of trade borders in India. Simply put, they got richer. And as a result an ever-growing proportion of urban children have started going to school as well.Outside cities, schooling costs represent the other main obstacle to education in India and explain the failure of making education more accessible. More than ever, poverty in India remains the main reason for kids not going to school. When comparing incomes, you can see that the cost of urban schools is much lower for their local residents, than rural schools are for rural Indians. Most importantly, the job prospects are infinitely better in cities than in rural India. Despite a growing body of research producing statistics on child labor in India, there is still a massive lack of data and studies concerning Indian children living in slums – far from being proper cities and yet much closer to urban life.
Child labour acts and laws
Section 12 of India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 requires prominent display of 'child labour is prohibited' signs in many industries and construction sites in local language and English. Above a sign at a construction site in Bangalore.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 Principles 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 labour being a subject in the Concurrent List, both the central and state governments can and have legislated on child labour. 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 15–18 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 (NCLP) initiative. This legal and development initiative continues, with a current central government funding of ₹6 billion, targeted solely to eliminate child labour in India.[38] Despite these efforts, child labour remains a major challenge for India
The role of education & 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 wasn’t 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. It’s 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. They’re 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.Urban child labor & the success of schoolsIt’s in urban areas that the fight against child labor in India has been the most successful – beginning early on in the 1990s. Cities are indeed easier to monitor and laws are easier to implement there. Cities have also reaped most of the benefits from globalization and the opening of trade borders in India. Simply put, they got richer. And as a result an ever-growing proportion of urban children have started going to school as well.Outside cities, schooling costs represent the other main obstacle to education in India and explain the failure of making education more accessible. More than ever, poverty in India remains the main reason for kids not going to school. When comparing incomes, you can see that the cost of urban schools is much lower for their local residents, than rural schools are for rural Indians. Most importantly, the job prospects are infinitely better in cities than in rural India. Despite a growing body of research producing statistics on child labor in India, there is still a massive lack of data and studies concerning Indian children living in slums – far from being proper cities and yet much closer to urban life.
Child labour acts and laws
Section 12 of India's Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 requires prominent display of 'child labour is prohibited' signs in many industries and construction sites in local language and English. Above a sign at a construction site in Bangalore.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 Principles 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 labour being a subject in the Concurrent List, both the central and state governments can and have legislated on child labour. 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 15–18 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 (NCLP) initiative. This legal and development initiative continues, with a current central government funding of ₹6 billion, targeted solely to eliminate child labour in India.[38] Despite these efforts, child labour remains a major challenge for India
Consequences of child labor in India
Rural child labor, health and povertyIf 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 can’t 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 they’re 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 children’s physical development in the long run.All-out war on child labor in IndiaAs 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 key. Yet, even in this case there are problems specific to India.We’ve 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. It’s normal considering that it’d take a while before they can afford to hire staff or buy machines. But in that process they’d 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 it’s a problem that already exists in many developed countries as well.Many argue rightfully that what matters is the children’s rights and freedom to choose how they want to lead their own lives. However the reality is much different and often times we’re 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’ educationAside 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 one’s 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 childhoodAlso, helping the parents cover the children’s 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 don’t 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.
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 was not enacted based on the recommendations of the committee in 1986.[citation needed] 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.Non-governmental organisations[edit]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.Pratham is India's largest non-governmental organisation with the mission 'every child in school and learning well.' Founded in 1995, Pratham has aimed to reduce child labour and offer schooling to children irrespective of their gender, religion and social background. It has grown by introducing low cost education models that are sustainable and reproducible.Child labour has also been a subject of public interest litigations in Indian courts.
Demography of child labour
Rural child labor, health and povertyIf 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 can’t 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 they’re 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 children’s physical development in the long run.All-out war on child labor in IndiaAs 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 key. Yet, even in this case there are problems specific to India.We’ve 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. It’s normal considering that it’d take a while before they can afford to hire staff or buy machines. But in that process they’d 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 it’s a problem that already exists in many developed countries as well.Many argue rightfully that what matters is the children’s rights and freedom to choose how they want to lead their own lives. However the reality is much different and often times we’re 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’ educationAside 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 one’s 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 childhoodAlso, helping the parents cover the children’s 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 don’t 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.
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 was not enacted based on the recommendations of the committee in 1986.[citation needed] 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.Non-governmental organisations[edit]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.Pratham is India's largest non-governmental organisation with the mission 'every child in school and learning well.' Founded in 1995, Pratham has aimed to reduce child labour and offer schooling to children irrespective of their gender, religion and social background. It has grown by introducing low cost education models that are sustainable and reproducible.Child labour has also been a subject of public interest litigations in Indian courts.
Demography of child labour
According to 2005 Government of India NSSO(National Sample Survey Org.), child labour incidence rates in India is highest among Muslim Indians, about 40% higher than Hindu Indians. Child labour was found to be present in other minority religions of India but at significantly lower rates. Across caste classification, the lowest caste Dalit children had child labour incidence rates of 2.8%, statistically similar to the nationwide average of 2.74%. Tribal populations, however, had higher child labour rates at 3.8%.
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