Child Labour In India Essay

Child Labor Essay example
Child labor is considered as a form of child abuse, it being the exploitation of a child's rights and
freedoms. Therefore, child labour is when underage children are employed, this happens because a
child labourer is paid less than an adult labourer. Consequently employers have more children
working for them because they spend less paying the children.
"Child labor usually means work that is done by children under the age of 15 (14 in some
developing countries) that restricts or damages a child's physical, emotional, social and/or spiritual
growth."1
Child labour is not something that just recently evolved. As a matter of fact, child labour dates back
to the 1780s and the 1840s, where child labour was predominant worldwide. In 1788, it...show more
content...
Although there are efforts to put an end to child labour in the world of today, they does not seem
to be enough. This is because even though there is a decrease in the number of children that
experience child labour, the change is not significant. The level of child labour continues to
increase. Presumably, in the societies where child labour is the way of life, only few individuals
master the courage to speak against it. Unfortunately, their voices are unheard. For instance, in India
there are efforts to lessen the number of child labourers, but culture always gets in the way. This
results in children working under very poor conditions that pose a danger to their health on
short–term and long–term scale. However, in Canada the law states that:
"Section 72 imposes a statutory duty on every person to report certain suspicions are based, to a
children's aid society."2
"... a professional has a legal obligation to immediately report suspected child abuse."3
Usually, there is a reason behind everything that occurs in the world. For instance, the purpose of
going to school is to educate ourselves so that we can have a bright future ahead of us. The main
cause of child labour is poverty, which is heavily inclined by culture which varies with different
societies. In India, culture is the way of life. Closely related to customs, culture this merely provides
guidelines to the people within a society on how to conduct their daily lives.
2 Zuker, Marvin A., Randolph C.
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Rag Pickers in India
CONTENT
INTRODUCTION:3
RAG–PICKING4
RAG–PICKERS:5
PROBLEMS FACED BY RAG PICKERS7
STATE OF THE LEGISLATION8
NEEDS OF RAG PICKERS9
GOVERNMENT'S INITIATIVE10
PRIVATISATION OF WASTE11
A CASE STUDY: DELHI,MUMBAI,KOLKATA,CHENNAI12
ORGANISING THE UNORGANISED13
CONCLUSION15
REFERENCES16
INTRODUCTION:
Over fifteen lakh individuals across India work as scrap and waste collectors, earning their
livelihood from the collection and sale of paper, plastic, metal and glass scrap to recycling industries.
Among the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and underprivileged class in the urban labour market,
occupying the lowest rung of the poverty groups, is the class of rag pickers. This dynamic but
unregulated sector in the expanding...show more content...
Normally they don't stay away from work even for a day, unless they have a health problem.
RAG PICKERS START YOUNG:
Many children begin working as rag pickers at the young age of five or six years. Most of them
never attend school and don't have any formal education. Their families are generally in need of
extra incomes from their children. Rag picking is the profession mostly dominated by children
aging 6 to 15 who do not have any other skill and thus by way of refuse collection contribute to
household income or own survival. These are mainly children of slum dwellers and poor people.
Some of them are abandoned or runaway children. Most of them don't go to school. They don't have
formal education.
There are two categories of child rag pickers:
I.The street pickers– they collect garbage in residential areas and street bins.
II.Dump pickers– they work on dumping grounds.
Both the categories of rag pickers have different living conditions and characteristics.
Street pickers are extremely mobile. They usually need is a shelter or reintegration with their
families. The children work for a middleman who takes the major share of the sales and only pays
only a small amount to the children.
The dump pickers often stay with their families. They work with their families in and around the

dumping ground. Initially girls were more involved in rag picking than boys. But the trends have
changed and more boys are now engaged in rag picking. Adolescent

Child Labor Essay examples
Kids working in factories, handling dangerous equipment, potentially hurting themselves. This is
everyday life for children in other countries. Everyday kids lose their innocence, they experience
something that is grueling and back–breaking everyday for, most likely, for their lives.
Children are considered the future, they are to be nurtured, cared, have a childhood, they are to be
loved, to be raised fairly as they pave the way for humans, the next generation, so the world would
have better technological advancement, medicine and overall a better world, so it is best to set
them to a straight path. Though many spirits of children who grew to adults were broken, they have
practically become a slave that earned little earnings and...show more content...
"India has the largest work force of children in the world. They are made to work as shares in
fields and factories in homes and in cottage industries. They are deprived of their childhood.
Children are also self–employed as shoeshine, milk boys, rag pickers and rickshaw pullers. They
are overworked and under paid. They miss the benefits of education" (R. H. Waghamode, J. L.
Kalyan). Many children suffer from the age of child to adulthood as they become exhausted and
usually deformed from working from a child because kids work jobs from stone quarries, in the
streets to working in the fields or hidden in another house that often makes them do domestic chores.
Child labor in India has a common cause why they use children because it is a socioeconomic
problem with India having illiteracy, poverty and other issues that fuel child labor. With the
continuation of child labor, India continues to be one of the prominent country that utilizes children
to work. Malaysia is another country that uses child labor, though somewhat developed, it still uses
child labor but not as harsh than India. They work as labourers in workshops, at eating–places and
other commercial sectors.
A great majority of the children, 77%, indicated that, at the time of the study, they have been
working for less than one year, while 19.2% had been working for between one to three years.
Children are also observed to work in restaurants, carrying goods, wet market works. Boys and

Child Labor in India
Child labor is not new to North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, basically every part
of the world inhabited by people (Herumin 10). Child labor is not something people noticed until the
rise of the industrial revolution, where new advancements in manufacturing increased the demand
for workers, mainly children because of their ability to reach in small spaces (Herumin 20). Child
labor involves children under the age of 18 who work in terrible, dangerous conditions for long
hours with little to no pay (Herumin 10). These conditions leave scars, physical and psychological
ones including deadly diseases and injuries, loneliness, isolation, IQ reduction and more (WHO).
The effects are infinite, endless. Many of the reasons why child labor is still a problem today is
because of poverty, lack of education, overpopulation, and lack of awareness – factors India is
greatly displaying (Bolla). Bolla also explains that child labor continues to be a problem in India
because of its previous use of a caste system. Most people weren't rich, so the majority of children
had to work to help the family survive instead of going to school and learning how to read and write
(Bolla).
The ILO estimates over 200 million children worldwide are current victims of child labor, with
30% of them in India (WHO). The reasons why this number is remarkably overwhelming lies in the
facts that children everyday are abused, starved, and worked for up to 12 hours a day (Kara).
Working conditions

Child Labour Essay
Child labour is defined as "work for children that harms them or exploits them in somewhat
physically, mentally, morally or blocking access to education" (Amery, Lecture 5, p2, 2017). Work
forms of child labour including the following: plantations, family farms, manufactures, construction
work, commercial work, sexual exploitation, mining and children illicit activities (Amery, Lecture 5,
p9 2017). Although these are just a few of the activities that child labour's perform working on
family's farms and in factories are often the most common. Both the International Labour
Organization (2017) and Diollo, Etienne, Mehran (2013) who have studied this topic suggest 56%
of child Labour's work on family farms. Furthermore, work performed on the...show more content...
Some of the children that have been studied in India's workforce have suggest that they are not
proud of themselves (23%), they are under extreme stress (55%), they are not happy (67%), they
are extremely shy (64%) of the 500 children studied during 2011(Gamlin et al., 2015). This is a
perfect indication of the damage these young children's brains are suffering from the impacts of the
working conditions and abuse faced during their work.
Furthermore, the reason why child labour is an issue around the 'work' is because of the
detrimental effects the working conditions and work has on the child's development into their
real career. Children in the workforce are not being treated as children they are essentially salves.
They work inhumane hours, are starved until a job is done or not fed at all, beaten and abused for
being tired or not performing at their regular capacity (Srivastava, 2012). But this is okay as many
workers or labour's suggest because we need their tiny hands and they are faster at getting the job
done. However, their childhood is stripped from them as they miss out on going to school and
forced into the labour force. These children are experiencing intense fast paced work, that they are
not ready for (Gamlin et al., 2015). The children are also severally hindered in their brain
development as they are being abused

Child Labour
CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
Poverty
Parental illiteracy
Tradition of making children learn the family skills
Absence of universal compulsory Primary education
Social apathy and tolerance of child labour
Ignorance of the parents about the adverse consequences of Child labour
Ineffective enforcement of the legal provisions pertaining to child labour
Non–availability of and non–accessibility to schools
Irrelevant and non–attractive school curriculum
Employers prefer children as they constitute cheap labour and they are not able to organize
themselves against exploitation.
Causes of Child Labour
Some common causes of child labor are poverty, parental illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of
education and exposure,...show more content...
India is the largest example of a nation plagued by the problem of child labour. Estimates cite
figures of between 60 and 115 million working children in India –– the highest number in the world
(Human Rights Watch 1996, 1).
What are the causes of child labour in India? How do governmental policies affect it? What role
does education play in regard to child labour in India? A critical analysis of the answers to these
questions may lead in the direction of a possible solution. These questions will be answered
through an analysis of the problem of child labour as it is now, investigating how prevalent it is
and what types of child labour exist. The necessity of child labour to poor families, and the role of
poverty as a determinant will be examined. Governmental policies concerning child labour will be
investigated.
The current state of education in India will be examined and compared with other developing
countries. Compulsory education policies and their relationship to child labour will be investigated
using Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala as examples of where these policies have worked.
Finally, India's policies concerning compulsory education will be assessed.
The Problem of Child Labour in India
How many children are involved?
It is difficult to cite a current figure for the number of children engaged in child labour. This
difficulty is attributed to the fact that the Indian Government "has been negligent in its refusal to

Child Labour Essay
Child labour is the practice of having children engage in economic activity, on 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 growth of informal economy are considered as the
important causes of child labour in India.
The 2001 national census of India estimated the total number of child labour, aged 5–14, to be at
12.6 million. In 2001, out of a 12.6 million, about 12 million children in India were in a hazardous
job. UNICEF estimates that India with its larger population has the highest number of labourers in
the world less than 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 India, 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 and others have been criticised for child labour in
their products. The companies claim they have strict policies against selling products made by
underage kids, but there are many links in a supply chain making it difficult to police them all. In
2011, after three years of Primark's effort, BBC

Causes Of Child Labour
Threatens children's physical, mental or emotional well being.
Involves intolerable abuse, such as child slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labour or
illicit activities.
Prevents children from going to school.
Uses children to undermine labour standards.
CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
For much of human history and across different cultures, children less than 17 years old have
contributed to family welfare in a variety of ways. There are various reasons which lead to child
labour. Some of the important reasons are as follows:
POVERTY: UNICEF suggests that poverty is a big cause for child labour. The report also notes
that in rural and impoverished parts of developing and undeveloped parts of the world, children have
no...show more content...
Many communities, particularly rural areas 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. In government–run
primary schools, even when children show up, government–paid teachers do not show up 25% of the
time. The 2008 ILO study suggests that illiteracy resulting from a child going to work, rather
than a quality primary and secondary school, limits the child's ability to get a basic educational
grounding which would in normal situations enable them to acquire skills and to improve their
prospects for a decent adult working life. An older report published by UNICEF outlines the
issues summarized by the ILO report. The UNICEF report claimed that while 90% of child
labour in India is in its rural areas, the availability and quality of schools is decrepit; in rural areas
of India, claims the old UNICEF report, about 50% of government funded primary schools that
exist do not have a building, 40% lack a blackboard, few have books, and 97% of funds for these
publicly funded school have been budgeted by the government as salaries for the teacher and
administrators. A 2012 Wall Street Journal article reports while the enrolment in India's school has
dramatically increased in recent years to over 96% of all children in the 6–14 year age group, the
infrastructure in

Child Labour In India
What is Child labour ? Child labour is work which is performed by an adolescent which usually
interferes with his or her right to education, or to be harmful to the child's health, physical,
spiritual, mental, social or moral development. It includes all forms of work done by children up
to 15 years old that deprives them of their right to education, as well as dangerous work done by
children up to the age of 18 years. Child labour is illegal worldwide, yet many companies employ
child labourers to complete dangerous work. Although child labour occurs in many places
throughout the world, it is mostly prevalent in Asian countries and in most particular India. Who
are the perpetrators? The perpetrators of child labour in India are companies like Nike because
they pay the children a very low wage and by doing that they save a large amount of money.Most
of the soccer balls in the world are made in India. Nike is not alone in making the children do
there work, the entire soccer ball industry including Nike and Reebok use child labor as their
workforce. There are many inhumane working conditions that these child workers have to endure
while they work . For example, workers aren't allowed to go to the bathroom more than once per an
eight hour shift, and they can't drink water more than twice per shift. It is also extremely common
for workers to faint from heat, exhaustion , fumes, and poor nutrition while they are working. Why
does this issue occur? According to the

Child Labour In India Essay

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