This is project of child labor which is helpful for students who are studying about this. many picture are include which is inspire . and many references also input.

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1. Introduction
Child labourers are exploited, exposed to hazardous work conditions and
paid a pittance for their long hours of work. They belong to the
unorganized labour force. The Constitution of India says that:
Child labourers are exploited, exposed to hazardous work conditions and
paid a pittance for their long hours of work. They belong to the
unorganized labour force. The Constitution of India says that:
(a) No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any
hazardous employment (Article 24)
(b) Childhood and youth are to be protected against exploitation and
against moral and material abandonment (Article 39 (f)).
(c) The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of 10 year from the
commencement of the Constitution free and compulsory education for all
children until they have completed the age of 14 years (Article 45).
Seventy nine per cent working children are in the rural areas. Two thirds of
the working children belong to the 12-15 years age-group and the rest are
below 12 years. A survey conducted by the Operations Research Group
(ORG) Baroda (Vadodara) in 1985 had put the figure of working children
at 44.5 million.
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.[3]
This practice is considered exploitative by

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many international organisations. Legislations across the world prohibit
child labour.[4][5]
These laws do not consider all work by children as child
labour; exceptions include work by child artists, supervised training,
certain categories of work such as those by Amish children, and others.
Child labour was employed to varying extents through most of history.
Before 1940, numerous children aged 5–14 worked in Europe, the United
States and various colonies of European powers. These children worked in
agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, mining and in
services such as newsies. 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.
In developing countries, with high poverty and poor schooling
opportunities, child labour is still prevalent. In 2010, sub-saharan
Africa had the highest incidence rates of child labour, with several African
nations witnessing over 50 percent of children aged 5–14
working.Worldwide agriculture is the largest employer of child
labour. Vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal
urban economy; children are predominantly employed by their parents,
rather than factories.Poverty and lack of schools are considered as the
primary cause of child labour.

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2. Nature of Child Work
A majority of the working children are found in rural area. In urban areas,
they are found in canteens/restaurants, or are found engaged in picking
rags and hawking goods on foot-path. But some children are working in
highly hazardous conditions.
For examples fireworks and match box units in Sivakasi in
Ramanathapuram district in Tamil Nadu employ 45,000 children. A large
number of children are working in stone polishing units in Jaipur,
brassware industry in Moradabad, lock making units in Aligarh, Slate-
industry in Markapur (Andhra Pradesh), Mandsaur (Madhya Pradesh)
and the carpet-making in Jammu and Kashmir.
3.2- More laws vs. more freedom
“ These (child labour) state laws were not enforced.
Often the children themselves and their parents,
who wanted the money or could see no way to
survive without it - resisted. Federal legislations
were passed, but were declared unconstitutional
by the Supreme Court. Only in 1938 did child
labour laws become a reality. ”
—Smithsonian, on child labour in early 20th century
United States,

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Child labour in India
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, out of a total child population of
253 million in 5-14 age group.The child labour problem is not unique to
India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.

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In 2001, out of a 12.6 million child workers, about 120,000 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 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 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.
Childhood is the most innocent phase in human life. It is that stage of life
when the human foundations are laid for a successful adult life. Many
children, instead of spending it in a carefree and fun-loving manner while
learning and playing, are scarred and tormented. They hate their childhood
and would do anything to get out of the dungeons of being children and
controlled and tortured by others. They would love to break-free from this
world, but continue to be where they are, not out of choice, but force. This
is the true story of child labor.
Innocent children are employed by industries and individuals who put them
to work under grueling circumstances. They are made to work for long
hours in dangerous factory units and sometimes made to carry load even
heavier than their own body weight. Then there are individual households
that hire children as domestic help and beat and physically torture them
when they make a mistake. The children are at times made to starve and
are given worn out clothes to wear. Such is the story of millions of children
in India painful and yet true.
The two primary reasons for the ever-growing social malice of child labor
are poverty and lack of education. Poor parents give birth to children
thinking them as money-making machines. They carry infants to earn more
on the streets from begging. Then as they grow they make them beggars,

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and eventually sell them to employers. This malady is rampant across the
length and breadth of India.
According to the United Nations stipulation in article 32 of the Convention
on the Rights of the Child and the International Labor Organization, child
labor is to be considered if "...States Parties recognize the right of the child
to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work
that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to
be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or
social development."
In other words, child labor is any kind of work children are made to do that
harms or exploits them physically, mentally, morally, or by preventing
access to education. However, all work is not bad or exploitive for children.
In fact, certain jobs help in enhancing the overall personality of the child.
For example, children delivering newspapers prior to going to school or
taking up light summer jobs that do not interfere with their school timings.
When children are given pocket money earning oriented tasks, they
understand the value of money, as well as respect it even more.
Child labor coupled with child abuse has today become one of the greatest
maladies that have spread across the world. Each year statistics show
increasing numbers of child abuse, more so in the case of the girl child.
When a girl is probably abused by someone at home, to hide this fact she is
sold to an employer from a city as domestic help, or then as a bride to an
old man.
Though eradicating the menace seems like a difficult and nearly impossible
task, immense efforts have to be made in this direction. The first step would
be to become aware of the causes of child labor. The leading reason is that
children are employed because they are easier to exploit. On the other
hand, people sell their children as commodities to exploitive employers to
have additional sources of income.

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Most such employers pay a lump sum for the child and then keep him or
her imprisoned within the factory unit till the child cannot work due to
deteriorating health as a result of harsh living and working conditions.
Lack of proper educational facilities is another reason that forces parents to
send their children to work.
India accounts for the second highest number of child labor after Africa.
Bonded child labor or slave labor is one of the worst types of labor for
children. This system still continues in spite of the Indian Parliament
enacting the Bonded Labor System (Abolition) Act in 1976. It is estimated
that approximately 10 million bonded children laborers are working as
domestic servants in India. Beyond this there are almost 55 million bonded
child laborers hired across various other industries.
A recent ILO report says that about 80 per cent of child laborers in India
are employed in the agriculture sector. Generally, the children are sold to
the rich moneylenders to whom borrowed money cannot be returned.
'Street children' is another type of child labor where children work on the
streets as beggars, flower sellers, etc, instead of going to school. Sometimes
they are made to go hungry for days together so that people feel sorry for
them and give alms.
Among the industries, glass and bangle industry is estimated to employ
around 60,000 children who are made to work under extreme conditions of
excessive heat. An equal number are estimated to be employed in matchbox
factories, where they are made to work over twelve hours a day, beginning
work at around 4 a.m., everyday. The brass and the lock industries also
employ an estimated 50,000 children each. However, it is the carpet
industry in India which employs the largest number of children estimated
to be more than four lakhs.
The statistical information regarding child labor cannot be taken to be
precise, as there are areas where no accounting has been done. There are

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innumerable workshops and factories that have cramped up rooms where
children work, eat and sleep. No one from the outside world would even
know that they are working there. However, people working towards the
welfare of child laborers, with the tip-off from insiders, have been able to
rescue a number of children from such units.
The National Policy on Child Labor formulated in 1987 seeks to adopt a
gradual and sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children
working in hazardous occupations and processes. The Action Plan outlined
the Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labor Act and
other labor laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous
employments, and that the working conditions of children working in non-
hazardous areas are regulated in accordance with the provisions of the
Child Labor Act.
To bring the social malady of child labor under control, the government has
opened a special cell to help children in exploitive circumstances. These
cells comprise of social inspectors, as well as other administrative
personnel, employed specifically to deal with child labor issues. Also, in
recent years, the media has helped unravel what is happening in certain
industrial units with journalists visiting such places with a hidden camera.
The efforts made by sections of the government, social workers, non-
government organizations and others to rescue and rehabilitate the
children must be applauded.
In addition, each individual should also take responsibility of reporting
about anyone employing a child below the age of fourteen years. However,
considering the magnitude and extent of the problem, concerted efforts
from all sections of the society is needed to make a dent. Measures need to
be taken not only to stop this crime against children, but also to slowly,
steadily and surely provide every child a well-deserved healthy and normal
childhood.

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Sold by your parents. Beaten, starved. Laboring for hours. These are just
some of the things that come from child labor. One girl faced every single
one of those conditions in India. Her parents had sold her to job placement
agency, as some very destitute families will do in India, which sold her to a
couple. (Yardley).Although child labor helps people in India, it is a huge
problem that is immoral and inhumane.
One of the main reasons child labor occurs in India is poverty (it happens in
india). Parents sell their children so they can have enough money to live.
Another reason child labor happens in India is the growing gap between the
rich and the poor (Child Line). Children could also be abducted and sold
into slavery (United States Department of Labor). Still more reasons this
happens are the Lack of social security, basic needs being made private,
and bad schooling (Child Line). Without good social security more people
become poor leading to selling their children and the children being sold to
employers. With basic needs being privatized people will begin to die
making the family poorer leading to selling their kids into child labor and
so on. Finally without a good education, finding a job will become hard
either leading to the child dropping out of school to find a job now to help
their family, or causing their parents to be poor and sell them.
The effects of child labor can be very dangerous to an underage worker.
Some of the effects include greater risks of hearing loss, a much greater
need for food and clean water, and also a higher chemical absorption rate
(Child Labor Public Education Project). Children who work run a greater
risk of hearing loss because the loud noises of the machines can cause
permanent damage to their eardrums. The children in factories aren’t
always given food therefore they need food and water (Child Line).
Children working in the brassware industry constantly inhale toxic
chemical fumes from applying chemicals to the wares causing them to have
a lower tolerance for chemicals (United States Department of Labor).

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There are several products made by children in India including bidis
(hand-rolled cigars), textiles, fireworks, and gems. In the bidi industry
children are used because of their small hands needed to roll up the small
cigars (YGOY Health Community). Many girls in the textile industry are
treated as if they were in jail as they try to save money for their dowry or
help their parent’s income (ODAM). These girls are promised a lump sum
of an amount between 700 and 800 dollars after three years, but they are
often not paid or given faulty checks (ODAM). In one factory in India
children stuffing powder into fireworks are well aware of the dangers that
come with producing them, but if they didn’t work they wouldn’t be able to
eat because their families are so poor (Gupta). When working in the gem
industry, children have to drill holes, polish, and string gems for 8 hours
with a salary of 50 rupees (about $1.70) a month.
I personally think that child labor is something akin to slavery. Many of the
children are forced to work long hours every day for minimal pay, and the
work they do is pretty dangerous. Some of the industries in India that need
child labor force children to work for no pay. The food received by the
children is less than stellar, and the conditions they work in are absolutely
horrible. If I could work my will on every idiot who believes that using
young children in a working environment like that, then there would be far
less use of children as workers in the near future.
Child labor is something that India’s economy thrives on. Without the huge
child labor force there then many of the things we see and use every day
would be super expensive or not there all. Although there are laws against
child labor in India, they are not strongly enforced because the economy
relies so much on it. Child labor is wrong and immoral, but there is not
likely to be a decline in it any time soon in India.

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1. Definition
The term child labour, suggests ILO,[22]
is best defined as work that deprives
children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is
harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is
mentally, physically, socially or morally
dangerous and harmful to children, or work whose schedule interferes with
their ability to attend regular school, or work that affects in any manner
their ability to focus during school or experience healthy childhood.
UNICEF defines child labour differently. A child, suggests UNICEF, is
involved in child labour activities if between 5 to 11 years of age, he or she
did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic
work in a week, and in case of children between 12 to 14 years of age, he or
she did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of
economic activity and domestic work per week. UNICEF in another report
suggests, "Children’s work needs to be seen as happening along a
continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and beneficial
work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering
with their schooling, recreation and rest - at the other. And between these
two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s
development."
India's Census 2001 office defineschild labor as participation of a child less
than 17 years of age in any economically productive activity with or without
compensation, wages or profit. Such participation could be physical or
mental or both. This work includes part-time help or unpaid work on the
farm, family enterprise or in any other economic activity such as cultivation
and milk production for sale or domestic consumption. Indian government
classifies child laborers into two groups: Main workers are those who work
6 months or more per year. And marginal child workers are those who
work at any time during the year but less than 6 months in a year.

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Some child rights activists argue that child labour must include every child
who is not in school because he or she is a hidden child worker. UNICEF,
however, points out that India faces major shortages of schools, classrooms
and teachers particularly in rural areas where 90 percent of child labour
problem is observed. About 1 in 5 primary schools have just one teacher to
teach students across all grades.
2.Childlabour laws in India
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).

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India has a federal form of government, and child labour is a matter on
which both the central government and country governments can legislate,
and have. 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)

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initiative. This legal and development initiative continues, with a current
central government funding of 602 crores, targeted solely to eliminate
child labour in India. Despite these efforts, child labour remains a major
challenge for India.
3.Causes
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.
UNICEF suggests that poverty is the big cause of child labour. The report
also notes that in rural and impoverished parts of developing and
undeveloped parts of the world, children have no real and meaningful
alternative. Schools and teachers are unavailable. Child labour is the
unnatural result.A BBC report, similarly, concludes poverty and
inadequate public education infrastructure are some of the causes of child
labour in India.
Between boys and girls, UNICEF finds girls are two times more likely to be
out of school and working in a domestic role. Parents with limited
resources, claims UNICEF, have to choose whose school costs and fees they
can afford when a school is available. Educating girls tends to be a lower
priority across the world, including India. Girls are also harassed or bullied
at schools, sidelined by prejudice or poor curricula, according to UNICEF.

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Solely by virtue of their gender, therefore, many girls are kept from school
or drop out, then provide child labour.
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and spreading smiles
through education organisation(OSSE) suggests poverty is the greatest
single force driving children into the workplace. Income from a child's
work is felt to be crucial for his/her own survival or for that of the
household. For some families, income from their children's labour is
between 25 to 40% of the household income.
According to a 2008 study by ILO, among the most important factors
driving children to harmful labour is the lack of availability and quality of
schooling. 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 worthwhile. 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 albeit 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 enrollment in India's school has
dramatically increased in recent years to over 96% of all children in the 6-

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14 year age group, the infrastructure in schools, aimed in part to reduce
child labour, remains poor - over 81,000 schools do not have a blackboard
and about 42,000 government schools operate without a building with make
shift arrangements during monsoons and inclement weather.
Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that
encourage child labour. They focus their study on five Asian nations
including India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They
suggestthat child labour is a serious problem in all five, but it is not a new
problem. Macroeconomic causes encouraged widespread child labour
across the world, over most of human history. They suggest that the causes
for child labour include both the demand and the supply side. While
poverty and unavailability of good schools explain the child labour supply
side, they suggest that the growth of low paying informal economy rather
than higher paying formal economy - called organised economy in India - is
amongst the causes of the demand side. India has rigid labour laws and
numerous regulations that prevent growth of organised sector where work
protections are easier to monitor, and work more productive and higher
paying. The unintended effect of Indian complex labour laws is the work
has shifted to the unorganised, informal sector. As a result, after the
unorganised agriculture sector which employs 60% of child labour, it is the
unorganised trade, unorganised assembly and unorganised retail work that
is the largest employer of child labour. If macroeconomic factors and laws
prevent growth of formal sector, the family owned informal sector grows,
deploying low cost, easy to hire, easy to dismiss labour in form of child
labour. Even in situations where children are going to school, claim Biggeri
and Mehrotra, children engage in routine after-school home-based
manufacturing and economic activity.Other scholars too suggest that
inflexibility and structure of India's labour market, size of informal
economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of modern
manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting
demand and acceptability of child labour.

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Cigno et al. suggest the government planned and implemented land
redistribution programs in India, where poor families were given small
plots of land with the idea of enabling economic independence, have had the
unintended effect of increased child labour. They find that smallholder
plots of land are labour-intensively farmed since small plots cannot
productively afford expensive farming equipment. In these cases, a means
to increase output from the small plot has been to apply more labour,
including child labour.
4.Bondedchild labourin India
Srivastava describes bonded child labour as 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, Srivastava claims debt-
bondage in India emerged during the colonial period, as a means to obtain
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 by colonial administration
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 labourers 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

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extent of 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 seldom 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.

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5.Consequencesof child labour
A young fruit seller in streets of Kolkata
The presence of a large number of child labourers is regarded as a serious
issue in terms of economic welfare. Children who work fail to get necessary
education. They do not get the opportunity to develop physically,
intellectually, emotionally and psychologically.Children in hazardous
working conditions are in worse condition. Children who work, instead of
going to school, remain illiterate which limits their ability to contribute to
their own well being as well as to community they live in. Child labour has
long term adverse effects for India.
To keep an economy prospering, a vital criteria is to have an educated
workforce equipped with relevant skills for the needs of the industries. The
young labourers today, will be part of India’s human capital tomorrow.
Child labour undoubtedly results in a trade-off with human capital
accumulation.
Child labour in India are employed with the majority (70%) in
agriculture some in low-skilled labour-intensive sectors such as sari

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weaving or as domestic helpers, which require neither formal education nor
training, but some in heavy industry such as coal mining.[54]
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are
tremendous economic benefits for developing nations by sending children to
school instead of work.Without education, children do not gain the
necessary skills such as English literacy and technical aptitude that will
increase their productivity to enable them to secure higher-skilled jobs in
future with higher wages that will lift them out of poverty.
5.1-Diamondindustry
In the year 1999, the International Labour Organisation co-published a
report with Universal Alliance of Diamond Workers, a trade union. The
ILO report claimed that child labour is prevalent in the Indian diamond
industry. International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a
separate 1997 press release observed that child labour continued to flourish
in India's diamond industry.Not everyone agreed with these claims. The
South Gujarat Diamond Workers Association, another trade union,
acknowledged child labour is present but it is not systematic, is less than
1% and against local industry norms. Local diamond industry businessmen
too downplayed these charges.
According to the 1999 ILO paper,India annually cuts and polishes 70 per
cent of the world’s diamonds by weight, or 40 per cent by value.
Additionally, India contributes 95 percent of the emeralds, 85 percent of the
rubies, and 65 percent of the sapphires worldwide. India processes these
diamonds and gems using traditional labour-intensive methods. About 1.5
million people are employed in the diamond industry, mostly in
the unorganized sector. The industry is fragmented into small units, each
employing a few workers. The industry has not scaled up, organised, and
big operators absent. The ILO paper claims that this is to avoid the
complex labour laws of India. The export order is split, work is

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subcontracted through many middlemen, and most workers do not know
the name of enterprise with the export order. In this environment, claims
the ILO report, exact number of child labourers in India's diamond and
gem industry is unknown; they estimate that child labourers in 1997 were
between 10,00 to 20,00 out of 1.5 million total workers (about 1 in 100). The
ILO report claims the causes for child labour include parents who send
their children to work because they see education as expensive, education
quality offering no real value, while artisan work in diamond and gem
industry to be more remunerative as the child grows up.
A more recent study from 2005, conducted at 663 manufacturing units at 21
different locations in India's diamond and gem industry, claims incidence
rates of child labour have dropped to 0.31%.
5.2-Fireworksmanufacture
The town of Sivakasi in South India has been reported to employ child
labour in the production of fireworks. In 2011, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu was
home to over 9,500 firecracker factories and produced almost 100 percent
of total fireworks output in India. The fireworks industry employed about
150,000 people at an average of 15 employees per factory. Most of these
were in unorganised sector, with a few registered and organised companies.
In 1989, Shubh Bhardwaj reported that child labour is present in India's
fireworks industry, and safety practices poor. Child labour is common in
small shed operation in the unorganized sector. Only 4 companies scaled up
and were in the organised sector with over 250 employees; the larger
companies did not employ children and had superior safety practices and
resources. The child labour in small, unorganised sector operations suffered
long working hours, low wages, unsafe conditions and tiring schedules.
A more recent 2002 report by International Labour Organisation
claims that child labour is significant in Tamil Nadu's fireworks, matches

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or incense sticks industries. However, these children do not work in the
formal economy and corporate establishments that produce for export. The
child labourers in manufacturing typically toil in supply chains producing
for the domestic market of fireworks, matches or incense sticks. The ILO
report claims that as the demand for these products has grown, the formal
economy and corporate establishments have not expanded to meet the
demand, rather home-based production operations have mushroomed. This
has increased the potential of child labour. Such hidden operations make
research and effective action difficult, suggests ILO.

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5.3-Silkmanufacture
A 2003 Human Rights Watch report claims children as young as five years
old are employed and work for up to 12 hours a day and six to seven days a
week in silk industry. These children, claims, are bonded labour; even
though the government of India denies existence of bonded child labour,
these silk industry child are easy to find in Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu,
claims Children are forced to dip their hands in scalding water
to palpate the cocoons and are often paid less than Rs 10 per day.
In 2010, a German news investigative report claimed that in states
like Karnataka, non-governmental organisations had found up to 10,000
children working in the 1,000 silk factories in 1998. In other places,
thousands of bonded child labourers were present in 1994. But today, after
UNICEF and NGOs got involved, child labour figure is drastically lower,
with the total estimated to be fewer than a thousand child labourers. The
released children were back in school, claims the report.
5.4-Domesticlabour
Official estimates for child labour working as domestic labour and in
restaurants is more than 2,500,000 while NGOs estimate the figure to be
around 20 million. The Government of India expanded the coverage of The
Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act and banned the employment
of children as domestic workers and as workers in restaurants, dhabas,
hotels, spas and resorts effective from 10 October 2006.
5.5-Coal 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.

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6.Initiatives against child labour
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.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.
6.1-Non-governmental organisations
Many NGOs like Bachpan Bachao Andolan, CARE India, Child Rights and
You, Global march against child labour, RIDE India 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 1994, 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.

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7.Demography of child labour
According to 2005 Government of India NSSO survey, 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%.
7.1 Action againstChild Labour in India
Child maid servant in India. Child domestic workers are common in India.
India has legislation since 1986 which allows work by children in non-
hazardous industry. Social activist Hemant Goswami was a leading
opponent of the law. On 9 April 2013, the Punjab and Haryana High Court
gave a landmark order that accepted the position argued by Goswami.
Among other provisions it directed that:
There shall be total ban on the employment of children up to the age of 14
years, be it hazardous or non-hazardous industries. However, the Court
ruled that a child can work with his or her family in family based

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trades/occupations, for the purpose of learning a new trade/craftsmanship
or vocation.
There shall be no forced labour even for children between the age of 14
years to 18 years; and whenever a child above the age of 14 years is forced
to work, it has to be treated as an offence under Section 374 IPC and it is to
be dealt with sternly.
The above order by the High Court is considered a landmark in "Child
Right Protection" in India, as the court declared many existing provisions
of the 1986 Indian Child Labour legislation as illegal and against the
Constitution of India.

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8. Statistics
8.1- Number of children involved in ILO categories of work, by age and
gender
All
Childre
n
('000s)
Economical
ly Active
Children
('000s)
Economical
ly Active
Children
(%)
Child
Labou
r
('000s)
Child
Labou
r (%)
Children
In
Hazardo
us Work
('000s)
Children
In
Hazardo
us Work
(%)
Ages
5–11
838,800 109,700 13.1
109,70
0
13.1 60,500 7.2
Ages
12–
14
360,600 101,100 28.0 76,000 21.1 50,800 14.1
Ages
5–14
1,199,40
0
210,800 17.6
186,30
0
15.5 111,300 9.3
Ages
15–
17
332,100 140,900 42.4 59,200 17.8 59,200 17.8
Boys 786,600 184,100 23.4
132,20
0
16.8 95,700 12.2
Girl
s
744,900 167,600 22.5
113,30
0
15.2 74,800 10.5
Tota
l
1,531,50
0
351,700 23.0
245,50
0
16.0 170,500 11.1

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9 .Child Labour (Prohibitionand Regulation) Act
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 is one the most
debated acts regarding children in India. It outlines where and how
children can work and where they can not. The provisions of the act are
meant to be acted upon immediately after the publication of the act, except
for part III that discusses the conditions in which a child may work. Part
III can only come into effect as per a date appointed by the Central
Government (which was decided as 26th of May, 1993).
The act defines a child as any person who has not completed his fourteenth
year of age. Part II of the act prohibits children from working in any
occupation listed in Part A of the Schedule; for example: Catering at
railway establishments, construction work on the railway or anywhere near
the tracks, plastics factories, automobile garages, etc. The act also prohibits
children from working in places where certain processes are being
undertaken, as listed in Part B of the Schedule; for example: beedi making,
tanning, soap manufacture, brick kilns and roof tiles units, etc. These
provisions do not apply to a workshop where the occupier is working with
the help of his family or in a government recognised or aided school.

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The act calls for the establishment of a Child Labour Technical Advisory
Committee (CLTAC) who is responsible for advising the government about
additions to the Schedule lists.
Part III of the act outlines the conditions in which children may work in
occupations / processes not listed in the schedule. The number of hours of a
particular kind of establishment of class of establishments is to be set and
no child can work for more than those many hours in that particular
establishment. Children are not permitted to work for more than three
hour stretches and must receive an hour break after the three hours.
Children are not permitted to work for more than six hour stretches
including their break interval and can not work between the hours of 7 pm
and 8 am No child is allowed to work overtime or work in more than one
place in a given day. A child must receive a holiday from work every week.
The employer of the child is required to send a notification to an inspector
about a child working in their establishment and keep a register of all
children being employed for inspection.
If there is a dispute as to the age of the child, the inspector can submit the
child for a medical exam to determine his / her age when a birth certificate
is not available. Notices about prohibition of certain child labour and
penalties should be posted in every railway station, port authority and
workshop / establishment.
The health conditions of work being undertaken by children shall be set for
each particular kind of establishment of class of establishments by the
appropriate government. The rules may cover topics such as cleanliness,
light, disposal of waste and effluents, drinking water, bathrooms, protection
of eyes, maintenance and safety of buildings, etc.

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Section IV of the act outlines various remaining aspects such as Penalties.
The penalty of allowing a child to work in occupations / processes outlined
in the schedule which are prohibited is a minimum of 3 months prison time
and / or a minimum of Rs. 10,000 in fines. Second time offenders are
subject to jail time of minimum six months. Failure to notify an inspector,
keep a register, post a sign or any other requirement is punishable by
simple imprisonment and / or a fine up to Rs. 10,000 . Offenders can only be
tried in courts higher than a magistrate or metropolitan magistrate of the
first class. Courts also have the authority to appoint people to be inspectors
under this act.
Rules of this act must be passed by the respective parliaments (state or
central). Any changes or added provisions must be passed by the
parliament. The establishment of this act also calls for a change in a
number of other acts. The Employment of Children Act of 1938 is repealed.
The enactment of this act changes the definition of child to one who has not
completed his fourteenth year of age. Hence under provisions of this act the
age of a child is also changed in the Minimum Wages Age 1948, the
Plantations Labour Act 1951, the Merchant Shipping Act 1958, and the
Motor Transport Workers Act 1961.

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10.Government’sPoliciesfor Enacting Lass against Child Labor
The first Act to regulate the employment of children and their hours of
work was the Factory Act of 1881. A Commission was established in 1929 to
fix the minimum age of child employment, on whose recommendation, the
Child Labour Act 1933 was passed prohibiting employment of children
below 14 yeas of age.
The Factory Act of 1948 provided some safeguards to child labourers. In
1986, the Parliament enacted the Child Labour Act (Regulation and
Prohibition), planning the employment of children in certain jobs and
regulating the condition of work in hazardous occupations. The Juvenile
Justice Act came into force on October 2, 1987 after superseding different
Children's Act of different States/UTs.
India has ratified six ILO conventions relating to labour and three of them
as early as in the first quarter of the 20th century. Through a Notification
dated 27 January 1999, the Schedule to the Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act, 1986, has been substantially enlarged bringing the total
number of occupations and processes listed in the Schedule 13 and 51
respectively.
The National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987 which
enforces legal actions to protect the interests of children, makes
development programmes for the benefit of child labour and projects based
plan of action in the areas of high concentration of child labour. National
Child Labour Projects (NCLP) has been set up to rehabilitate child labour.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in their meeting on
January 20, 1999 approved continuance of the scheme of National Child
Labour Project (NCLP) during the Ninth Plan. The CCEA also approved
the increase in the number of such projects from 76 to 100.

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The Government's commitment to address the problem of child labour is
reflected in the statement of National Agenda for Governance (1998), where
it says that no child should remain illiterate, hungry/lack medical care and
that measures will be taken to eliminate child labour.
The Supreme Court of India in its judgement dated December 10, 1986 has
directed to pay compensation of Rs 20,000 by the offending employers for
every child employed in hazardous occupations. Efforts will be made to
modify the existing National Child Labour Project under the Ninth Plan.

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11.Stop Child Labour - School is the Best Place to Work
The Stop Child Labour campaign is a joint lobby, education and awareness
raising campaign that seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision
of full time formal education. Hivos has been leading the campaign during
the first two EU co-financed phases and continues to do so with IBIS, Cesvi
and People in Need.
11.2 The campaign has four guiding principles:
Principle 1:
Child labour is the denial of a child’s right to education
The elimination of child labour and the provision of full time formal
education are inextricably linked. The focus of attention must be to actively
integrate and retain all ‘out of school’ children into formal education
systems. Children have the right to education at least until the age they are
allowed to work which is 15 (while developing countries can choose 14). In
addition efforts must be made to remove all barriers to local schools as well
as ensuring the necessary financial and infrastructural support for the
provision of quality education.
Principle 2:
All child labour is unacceptable
The Convention on the Rights of the Child along with a host of other
international agreements unequivocally affirm the right of all children to
live in freedom from exploitation. Approaches to the issue have tended to
prioritize and segregate solutions to different types of child labour
depending on certain categories. These range from children working in
hazardous industries to children doing so-called non-hazardous work -
including domestic work- but missing out on school.

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The Stop Child Labour campaign believes that such distinctions, while
helping to cast a spotlight on the worst abuses, tend to be too narrow in
their focus and offer only partial solutions. Efforts to eliminate child labour
should focus on all its forms, preferably aiming at all children in a certain
community.
Principle 3:
It is the duty of all Governments, International Organisations and
Corporate Bodies to ensure that they do not perpetuate child labour
All governments have a duty to ensure that they do not permit, or allow
child labour to exist within their state. Furthermore they have a duty to
ensure that state agencies, corporate bodies as well as their suppliers and
trading partners worldwide, are fully compliant with the Convention on the
Rights of the Child and other international agreements protecting the rights
of the child.

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As part of their corporate social responsibility, all transnational and other
business enterprises using child labour should create and implement a plan
to remove children from their workforce, including their supply-chain, and
enrol them in full time education.
Principle 4:
Core Labour standards must be respected and enforced to effectively
eliminate child labour
The eradication of child labour is closely linked to the promotion of other
labour standards in the workplace: the right to organise and collective
bargaining, freedom from forced labour, child labour and discrimination. A
living wage, health and safety at work, and the absence of forced excessive
overtime are also crucial. Child labour undermines the opportunities for
adult employment and decent wages. Experience has shown that child
labour is highly unlikely to exist when a free trade union is present and
where core labour standards are respected.