Introduction, Causes, Child Labour in India, Case studies, Child Labour Policies In India, Child Labour Today, Stop Child Labour

1. INTRODUCTION:
The term ‘child labor’ means ‘working child’ or ‘employed child’. ‘Child labor’ is
any work done by child for profit. ‘Child labor’ is a derogatory term which translates
into child exploitation and inhumanity according to sociologists, development workers,
medical professionals and educationists. They have identified child labor as harmful
and hazardous to the child’s development needs, both mental and physical.
SHRI V.V. Giri – the former president of India has arrived on two concepts of
child labor – first as a bad economic practice and second as an overt social evil. In
the first it is involvement of a child labor in profitable activities to augment the
family income. The second context, namely child labor a social evil – is more complex
in nature and extent. In order to assess the nature of the evil, and gauge the extent
of damage it becomes necessary to understand the character of the job in which the
child is engaged, the dangers to which they are exposed and the development
opportunities they are denied.
Technically the term ‘child labour’ is used for children occupied in profitable
activities, whether industrial or non industrial. It is especially applicable for activities
which are detrimental to their physical, psychological, emotional, social and moral
development needs. It has been researched and proved that the brain of a child
develops till the age of ten, muscles till the age of seventeen and his lungs till the
age of fourteen. To be more specific, any activity which acts as a hazard for the
natural growth and enhancement of these vital organs, can be considered harmful for
natural human growth and development and termed – ‘child labor’.
It has been observed in India and other countries, that the practice of ‘child
labor’ is a socio- economic problem. Many appalling relities like poverty, illiteracy,
unemployment, low wages, ignorance, social prejudices, regressive traditions, poor
standard of living, backwardness, superstition, low status of women have combined to
give birth to the terrible practice of child labor. Mr. Madan, Deputy Director in the
Ministry of labor has been quoted as saying that “the children are required to seek
employment either to augment the income of their families or to have a gainful
occupation in the absence of availability of school going facilities at various places.”
It has been observed and repeatedly stated in recent times that ‘child labor’
does not remain a mere means of economic exploitation but has become a necessity
due to the economic needs of the parents and the child himself. Professor Gangrade
has iterated that child labor is also caused by different factors like social traditions,
family attitude, customs, and dearth of schools or parental reluctance to send

2. children to school, industrialization, urbanization, migration etc. To counter the real
situation called child labor and save little humans from abuse at a tender age, the
government should be compelled to provide compulsory and free education to all
children up to the age of fourteen years. The recommendations of the convention
No.138 should be kept in mind by those who formulate child labor laws. The working
age limit for an individual should also be raised to allow consistent and full physical
and mental growth for every individual.
Child labor is done by any working child who is under the age specified by law.
The word, “work” means full time commercial work to sustain self or add to the
family income. Child labor is a hazard to a Child’s mental, physical, social,
educational, emotional and spiritual development. Broadly any child who is employed in
activities to feed self and family is being subjected to “child labor’.
It is obligatory for all countries to set a minimum age for employment
according to the rules of ILO written in Convention 138(C.138). The stipulated age
for employment should not be below the age for finishing compulsory schooling, that is
not below the age of 15.
Work that does not obstruct with a child’s education is considered light work
and allowed from age 12 under the International Labor Organization (ILO Convention
138). A child working part time (3-4 hours) to learn and earn for self and parents
after school, is not considered ‘child labor’
It has been seen that children who are street sellers, street entertainers, rag
pickers, child prostitutes or pornography models, beggers etc - are mostly without
natural guardians and exploited by underground gangsters and racketeers. These
children are mostly children of illegal migrants. They are the victim of abandonment,
riots, wars or just sheer poverty and homelessness. In poor countries some children
are helping hands for their parents or are employed in factories, commercial
organizations or households with the consent of the parents. The most appalling form
of child labor is prostitution and modeling for child pornography. Some children are
even sold to fiefs by their parents for money.
The most inhuman and onerous form of child exploitation is the age old practice
of bonded labor in India. In this, the child is sold to the loaner like a commodity for
a certain period of time. His labor is treated like security or collateral security and
cunning rich men procure them for small sums at exorbitant interest rates.
The children who are sold as bonded labor only get a handful of coarse grain

3. to keep them alive in return for their labor. Sometimes their period of thrall extends
for a life time, and they have to simply toil hard and depend on the mercy of their
owners, without any hope of release or redemption. The impoverished parents of the
bonded child is usually a poor, uneducated landless laborer and the mortgagee is
traditionally some big landlord, money lender or a big business man who thrives on
their vulnerability to such exploitation.
The practice of bonded child labor is prevalent in many parts of rural India,
but is very conspicuously in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu. Here the bonded child
is allowed to reside with his parents, if he presents himself for work at 8 a.m. every
day. The practice of child bonded labor persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of
many laws against it. These laws although stringent and providing for imprisonment
and imposition of huge fines on those who are found guilty are literally non- functional
in terms of implementation.
However most of their efforts were sabotaged by high level government
officials covering the fact that children were doing bonded work in factory promises.
They deliberately employed their energy in running public awareness campaigns and
made claims of creating propaganda against child labor, instead of punishing erring
employers and freeing and rehabilitating the bonded children.
Governments did take few directions on the right track initially, but most of
their efforts came to naught with time. Moreover the government efforts did not
reach high profile industries like bidi, cigarette making and carpet weaving. According
to Cousen Neff - an official of the Human Rights watch – “Instead of living up to its
promises, the Indian government is starting to backtrack, claiming the problem is
being solved. Our research shows that it is not.”
Neff also identified a major link between caste and bondage in Indian society.
Dalit family’s functions as bonded labor due to caste based discrimination and violence
and not poverty in many cases. The caste system in India is one of the main
foundations on which the edifice of bonded labor rests. Dalits or the so called
untouchable are denied access to land in India, forced to work in inhuman conditions,
and expected to perform labor for free. This is due to the so called upper castes
boycotting them socially and subjecting them to economic exploitation. This attitude
of society keeps the poor families bonded in a scourge of perpetual poverty and
labor. It is now very important for all International donors to put pressure on the
Indian government to enforce bonded labor and child labor laws in the country.
Causes:

4. Some common causes of child labor are poverty, parental illiteracy, social
apathy, ignorance, lack of education and exposure, exploitation of cheap and
unorganized labor. The family practice to inculcate traditional skills in children also
pulls little ones inexorably in the trap of child labor, as they never get the
opportunity to learn anything else.
Absence of compulsory education at the primary level, parental ignorance
regarding the bad effects of child labor, the ineffictivity of child labor laws in terms
of implementation, non availability and non accessibility of schools, boring and
unpractical school curriculum and cheap child labor are some other factors which
encourages the phenomenon of child labor. It is also very difficult for immature minds
and undeveloped bodies to understand and organize them selves against exploitation in
the absence of adult guidance.
Poverty and over population have been identified as the two main causes of
child labor. Parents are forced to send little children into hazardous jobs for reasons
of survival, even when they know it is wrong. Monetary constraints and the need for
food, shelter and clothing drives their children in the trap of premature labor. Over
population in some regions creates paucity of resources. When there are limited
means and more mouths to feed children are driven to commercial activities and not
provided for their development needs. This is the case in most Asian and African
countries.
Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome
proper physical, cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are
themselves uneducated and unexposed, so they don’t realize the importance of
education for their children.
Adult unemployment and urbanization also causes child labor. Adults often find
it difficult to find jobs because factory owners find it more beneficial to employ
children at cheap rates. This exploitation is particularly visible in garment factories
of urban areas. Adult exploitation of children is also seen in many places. Elders
relax at home and live on the labor of poor helpless children.
The industrial revolution has also had a negative effect by giving rise to
circumstances which encourages child labor. Sometimes multinationals prefer to
employ child workers in the developing countries. This is so because they can be
recruited for less pay, more work can be extracted from them and there is no union

5. problem with them. This attitude also makes it difficult for adults to find jobs in
factories, forcing them to drive their little ones to work to keep the fire burning
their homes.
The incidence of child labor would diminish considerably even in the face of poverty,
if there are no parties willing to exploits them. Strict implementation of child labor
laws and practical and healthy alternatives to replace this evil can go a long way to
solve the problem of child labor. Children who are born out of wedlock, orphaned or
abandoned are especially vulnerable to exploitation. They are forced to work for
survival when there are no adults and relatives to support them. Livelihood
considerations can also drive a child into the dirtiest forms of child labor like child
prostitution and organized begging.
CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA:
Child labor in India is a human right issue for the whole world. It is a serious
and extensive problem, with many children under the age of fourteen working in
carpet making factories, glass blowing units and making fireworks with bare little
hands. According to the statistics given by Indian government there are 20 million
child laborers in the country, while other agencies claim that it is 50 million.
In Northern India the exploitation of little children for labor is an accepted
practice and perceived by the local population as a necessity to alleviate poverty.
Carpet weaving industries pay very low wages to child laborers and make them work
for long hours in unhygienic conditions. Children working in such units are mainly
migrant workers from Northern India, who are shunted here by their families to earn
some money and send it to them. Their families dependence on their income, forces
them to endure the onerous work conditions in the carpet factories.
The situation of child laborers in India is desperate. Children work for eight
hours at a stretch with only a small break for meals. The meals are also frugal and
the children are ill nourished. Most of the migrant children who cannot go home, sleep
at their work place, which is very bad for their health and development. Seventy five
percent of Indian population still resides in rural areas and are very poor. Children in
rural families who are ailing with poverty perceive their children as an income
generating resource to supplement the family income. Parents sacrifice their
children’s education to the growing needs of their younger siblings in such families and
view them as wage earners for the entire clan.
The Indian government has tried to take some steps to alleviate the problem

6. of child labor in recent years by invoking a law that makes the employment of
children below 14 illegal, except in family owned enterprises. However this law is
rarely adhered to due to practical difficulties. Factories usually find loopholes and
circumvent the law by declaring that the child laborer is a distant family member.
Also in villages there is no law implementing mechanism, and any punitive actions for
commercial enterprises violating these laws is almost non existent.
Child labor is a conspicuous problem in India. Its prevalence is evident in the child
work participation rate, which is more than that of other developing countries.
Poverty is the reason for child labor in India. The meager income of child laborers is
also absorbed by their families. The paucity of organized banking in the rural areas
creates a void in taking facilities, forcing poor families to push their children in harsh
labor, the harshest being bonded labor.
Bonded labor traps the growing child in a hostage like condition for years. The
importance of formal education is also not realized, as the child can be absorbed in
economically beneficial activities at a young age. Moreover there is no access to
proper education in the remote areas of rural India for most people, which leaves the
children with no choice.
IN SWEETS SHOP:
Indian sweet shops are notorious for profiting from child labor which is
tantamount to slavery. These shop also profit from illegal retail activities and use
small and vulnerable children in the manufacturing process. Children as young as
eleven and thirteen toil in these shops for hours on end and suffer from exertion and
fatigue. They have no fixed working hours and are constantly threatened with the
fear of being fired, are depressed and deprived of education and entertainment.
Indian sweet shops function quietly and illegally as household industries making
little children toil for long hours on very low wages before huge cauldrons of burning
fat. Many children working in Indian sweet shops remain unpaid or poorly paid, are
scolded, ill treated and underfed. Studies of children toiling in Indian sweet shops
show that they mainly hail from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. These children
sometimes also double up as domestic help for the owners of the sweet shops and
their families.
Most of the children working in this sector are not paid more than 300 to 800
rupees in a month, for more than twelve hours of labor each day - in suffocating

7. rooms which are hot and smoky. The different processes of making Indian sweets also
tantamount to hard and relentless labor. A study shows that most of the children
working in Indian sweet shops want to quit work and go to school. They also pine to
stay with their parents and other family members. The owners of sweet shop
discourage their ambitions and shun the attempts of any social activists who try to
bring their plight in the lime light.
Sweet shop owners prefer to employ small children due to their vulnerability in
terms of wanting remuneration. Also, it is considerably easy to bully and scold a
child. They mostly employ minors, and are reluctant to divulge details about these
little employers and their working conditions. Besides the official statistics of 11
million child workers in India, thousands working in these sweet shops go unreported,
because of the unorganized nature of their labor. The economic boom in India has
given a fillip to the profits of sweet shops, ironically worsening the lot of these
children. They are forced to work for longer hours at lesser wages to fulfill the
demand for the sweets, they help to make.
In a recent raid in Delhi, India’s political capital, many boy child workers were
rescued from several sweet shops. Agents had lured them from India’s poorest
regions with promises of good wages and decent working conditions. India’s poor
children are locked up in hidden floors of garment factories, match stick making huts,
carpet making work shops and sweltering sweet shop kitchens to create goods for
export. Some of their produce is sold in top shops in the UK and America for huge
profits, while they wither in dire poverty and abject deprivation.
CHILD LABOUR:
Child labor is a reality in spite of all the steps taken by the legal machinery to
eliminate it. It prevails and persists as a world phenomenon in spite of child labor
laws.
The causes of child labor in the contemporary world are the same as those in
U.S. hundred years ago- namely poverty, lack of education and exposure, poor access
to education, suppression of workers rights, partial prohibition of child labor and
inadequate enforcement of child labor laws.
The existing law and codes of conduct regarding child labor are blatantly
violated by the beneficiaries and the victims of this terrible practice all over the
developing world. There are ambiguities in the export and manufacturing sector, which
means multiple layers of outsourcing and production- making the monitoring of labor
performers not only difficult but impossible. Extensive subcontracting also makes it

8. impossible to identify the use of child labor whether intentional or unintentional.
Even when laws or codes of conduct exist, they are often violated.
The Indian constitution categorically states that child labor is a wrong
practice, and standards should be set by law to eliminate it. The child labor act of
1986 implemented by the government of India makes child labor illegal in many
regions and sets the minimum age of employment at fourteen years.
There are many loop holes in this law in terms of affectivity. First is that it
does not make child labor completely illegal and does not meet the guidelines set by
ILO concerning the minimum age for employment, which is fifteen years. Moreover
the policies which are set to reduce incidences of child labor are difficult to
implement and enforce. The government and other agencies responsible for the
enforcement of these laws are not doing their job. Without proper enforcement all
policies and laws concerning child labor prove useless.
Moreover certain sectors like agriculture and domestic work are not included in
the exemption of child labor. In some countries very strict child labor laws exist but
the offices and departments responsible for implementing them are under funded and
under staffed. The judicial machinery and courts are also found to be faltering and
falting where proper enforcement of such laws is concerned. Many state governments
are feisty in allocating resources to enforce child labor laws.
There are also many loop holes while setting laws and rules for child labor
which allows exploitation. For example in Nepal, the minimum age for a person to go
for work is 14 years, but plantation of brick clines is exempted from this.
Kenya prohibits children under 16 from going to work in industries but excludes
agriculture. Bangladesh also specifies a minimum age to go to work, but excludes
agriculture and domestic work.
Indeed laws become unpractical and redundant in the face of necessity. Poor
children and their family members depend so much on little ones to provide the basic
necessities of life in the impoverished areas that it becomes impossible for them to
adhere to any laws and regulations regarding child labor. We must also remember,
that about one fifth of the world’s six billion humans live in absolute poverty.
CHILD LABOUR POLICY IN INDIA:
There are specific clauses in the draft of Indian constitution dated 26th
January 1950, about the child labor policy in India. These are conveyed through
different articles in the Fundamental rights and the Directive Principles of the State
Policy. They lay down four specific policy rules regarding child labor.

9. They are as following:- 1) ( Article 14) No child below the age of 14 years
shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous
employment.
2) Article 39-E) The state shall direct its policy towards securing that the health
and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not
abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations
unsuited to there are and strength.
3) ( Article 39-f ) Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a
healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth
shall be protected against moral and material abandonment.
4) (Article 45 ) The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of ten years from
the commencement of the constitution for free and compulsory education for all
children until they complete the age of fourteen years. It was also decided that both
the Union government and the State government could legislate on matters concerning
child labor. Various legislative initiatives were also taken in this regard at both the
State and Union level.
The main legislative measures at the national level are The Child Labor Prohibition and
Regulation Act -1986 and The Factories Act -1948. The first act was categorical in
prohibiting the employment of children below fourteen years of age, and identified 57
processes and 13 occupations which were considered dangerous to the health and lives
of children. The details of these occupations and processes are listed in the schedule
to the said Act.
The factories act again prohibits the employment of children less than fourteen years
of age. However an adolescent aged between 15 and 18 can be recruited for factory
employment only after securing a fitness certificate from a medical doctor who is
authorized. The Act proceeds to prescribe only four and and hour’s work period per
day for children between 14 and 18 years. Children are also not allowed to work in
night shifts.
Moreover, in the year 1996 the Supreme Court of India came out with a
judgment in court that directed the State and Union government to make a list of all
children embroiled in hazardous occupations and processes. They were then told to

10. pull them out of work and asked to provide them with proper education of quality.
The judiciary also laid down that Child Labor and Welfare Fund is set up. The
contribution for this was to be received from employers who contravened the Child
Labor Act.
India is also a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ILO
Abolition of Forced Convention – No 105 and ILO Forced labor Convention – No. 29.
A National Labor Policy was also adopted in the year 1987 in accordance with India’s
development strategies and aims. The National Policy was designed to reinforce the
directive principles of state policy in the Indian constitution.
CHILD LABOIUR TODAY:
Child labor is a very complicated development issue, effecting human society all
over the world. It is a matter of grave concern that children are not receiving the
education and leisure which is important for their growing years, because they are
sucked into commercial and laborious activities which is meant for people beyond their
years. According to the statistics given by ILO and other official agencies 73 million
children between 10 to 14 years of age re employed in economic activities all over
the world. The figure translates into 13.2 of all children between 10 to 14 being
subjected to child labor.
Child labor is most rampant in Asia with 44.6 million or 13% percent of its
children doing commercial work followed by Africa at 23.6 million or 26.3% which is
the highest rate and Latin America at 5.1 million that is 9.8%.
In India 14.4 % children between 10 and 14 years of age are employed in
child labor. in Bangladesh 30.1%, in China 11.6%,in Pakistan 17.7%, in Turkey 24%,
in Cote D’lvoire 20.5%, in Egypt 11.2%, in Kenya 41.3% , in Nigeria 25.8%, in
Senegal 31.4%, in Argentina 4.5%, in Brazil 16.1%, in Mexico 6.7%, in Italy 0.4%
and in Portugal 1.8%. The above figures only give part of the picture. No reliable
figures of child workers below 10 years of age are available, though they comprise a
significant amount. The same is true of children in the former age group on whom no
official data is available. If it was possible to count the number of child workers
properly, and the number of young girls occupied in domestic labor taken into account
- the figure will emerge as hundreds of million.
Child labour is also prevalent in rich and industrialized countries, although less
compared to poor nations. For example there are a large of children working for pay
at home, in seasonal cycles, for street trade and small workshops in Southern
Europe. India is a glaring example of a nation hounded by the evil of child labor. It is

11. estimated that there are 60 to 115 million working children in India- which was the
highest in 1996 according to human rights watch.
The problems coming from a centrally planned to market economy has led to
the creation of many child workers in central and eastern Europe. Same is the case in
America. The growth of the service sector, increasing provision of part time jobs and
the need for flexible work force has given birth to a big market for child workers
here.
Historically the working force of child workers is more in rural areas compared
to urban settings. Nine out of ten village children are employed in agriculture or
household industries and craftwork. In towns and cities children are more absorbed in
service and trading sectors rather that marketing. This is due to the rapid
urbanization of the modern world. Survey done by experimental statisticians of ILO in
India, Indonesia and Senegal have revealed that child labor under the age of
fourteen takes place in family enterprises mostly, with the exception of Latin
America. Child labor is also found to be gender specific, with more boys than girls
employed in laborious activities. But this is also because it is difficult to take a count
of girls working in households.
STOP CHILD LABOUR:
The future of a community is in the well being of its children. The above fact is
beautifully expressed by Wordsworth in his famous lines “child is father of the man”.
So it becomes imperative for the health of a nation to protect its children from
premature labor which is hazardous to their mental, physical, educational and spiritual
development needs. It is urgently required to save children from the murderous
clutches of social injustice and educational deprivation, and ensure that they are
given opportunities for healthy, normal and happy growth.
The venerable Indian poet Rabindranth Tagore has said time and again, that
every country is absolutely bound by its duty to provide free primary education to its
children. It is important to remember that industrialization can afford to wait but
youth cannot be captured for long. It is imperative that the basic tenet made in
article 24 of the Indian constitution - prohibiting the employment of any child below
fourteen years of age, in a factory, mine or any other hazardous employment be
stopped – be adhered to. There should be no ambiguity in ensuring the right of every
child to free basic education and the promise of the constitution should be fully
implemented in the here and now.

12. Projects related with human resource development, dedicated to the child
welfare issues must be given top priority by the central and state governments to
stop the menace of child labor. Child labor laws need to be strictly implemented at
the central and state levels. Corruption and negligence in child labor offices and
employee circles should be dealt with very strictly by the judiciary and the police
force.
The development needs of growing children can only be provided for, by
stopping the onerous practice of child labor in organized and non organized sectors
with utmost sincerity. This is the only way a nation can train its children to be
wholesome future citizens, who are happy and prosperous. The provision of equal and
proper opportunities for the educational needs of growing children in accordance with
constitutional directives will go a long way in stopping the evil practice of child labor.
Concerned about the future of its children India has implemented a country-
wide ban recently, on children below fourteen working in the hospitality sector and as
domestics. It is intended that those who are found to violate the law will be fined
with 430 dollars and sent into rigorous imprisonment for two years. Children in India
are not allowed to work in mines, factories and other hazardous jobs already. Two
more professions have been added in a list of fifty seven occupations which were
considered hazardous for a child’s development needs in the ‘child labor act’ passed in
1986. Childs rights activists are waxing eloquent in high pitched voices about the
absolute importance of stopping child labor. But legislation in this regard is just like
an intention. It is more important to take development measures to ensure its
practical application by eliminating the reasons of child labor from our society. The
reasons giving birth to child labor are poverty, illiteracy, scarcity of schools,
ignorance, socially regressive practices, blind customs and traditions, migration and
last but not the least corruption amongst employees and government labor
organizations. People should not be able to get away with employing and exploiting
children.