Economic Highlights
New Delhi,
12 July 2007
Scourge Of
Child Labour
NEED TO RAISE
JOBS, LITERACY LEVEL
By Dr. Vinod Mehta
Most of
the shops in the metropolitan cities are displaying the following notice in
their show windows, “We do not sell products made by child labour.” Whether
they really do so or not is very difficult to check but the very fact that they
are displaying these signs shows that they are aware of the rights of child.
Child
labour is a worldwide phenomenon but India has the largest number of
child labourers in the world. Studies by various NGOs reveal shockingly high
levels of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse among children working as
domestic helpers. According to the National Sample Survey Organization, nearly
16.4 million Indian children aged 5-14 years are engaged in economic activities
and domestic or non-remunerative work. The World Bank puts that figure at 44
million.
Many international agencies
concerned with welfare of children have been asking India to eliminate child labour.
The country has taken steps to tackle this problem but we have still to go a
long way. It is acknowledged the world over that children should not be made to
take up economic activity. But there is no answer to this problem.
The Second National Commission on
Labour had gone into this problem in detail. It begins with the question as to
what constitutes child labour. Does a child chasing goats or cows or a very
young girl washing utensils, carrying a pot of water or minding her younger
brother constitute child labour? Or do children rolling beedis, working
in a glass factory, match-making or carpet weaving constitute child labour?
These issues have been debated
for a very long time in this country. It is generally agreed that children
helping in household work, family work or working as an apprentice to learn
craft skills do not constitute child labour. But children working in factories,
dhabas with a view to earning money are considered as child labour.
Regarding the statistical profile
of child labour in the country while the 1991 census puts the number at 11.28
million, the 50th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS)
conducted in 1993-94 estimated the child labour population at 13.5 million.
There are about 74 million children who are neither enrolled in schools nor
accounted for in the labour force and come under the category of “Nowhere
Children”.
The National Commission on Labour
further points out that the incidence of child labour is more rural than urban.
More than 90.87 per cent of the working children are in the rural areas and are
employed in agricultural and allied activities. Namely, cultivation,
agricultural labour, livestock, forestry and fisheries account for 85 per cent
of child labour.
In the urban informal sector
(unorganized) child labour is found in small-scale cottage industries, in dhabas,
restaurants, workshops, domestic service and on the streets. Children working
in the manufacturing, servicing and repairs account for 8.7 per cent of the
urban child labour force, out of this only 0.8 per cent works in factories.
About 2 million children are engaged in employment, which is characterized as
hazardous. In certain communities where social and caste factors are important
bonded child labour is also present.
The National Commission also
found that the incidence of child labour is high amongst SC and ST and
agricultural labourers. As for the States, child labour is predominant in the States
of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and is mainly found in poor
areas and among disadvantaged and marginalized groups of societies. There is no
appreciable predominance of male or female children in the child labour population.
Male children constitute 54.28 per cent and
females 45.18 per cent of the total child labour.
The Central Government has
already banned the employment of children below the age of 14 in 13 hazardous
occupations and 57 risky processes as per “Child Labour Prohibition and
Regulation Act, 1986. The hazardous occupation cover automobile workshops and
garages, slaughter houses, foundries, handling of the toxic or inflammable
substances or explosives, handloom and power-loom industries, mines and
collieries, plastic units and fibre glass factories. The risky processes cover beedi-making, carpet weaving, agarbati manufacturing, gem cutting
and polishing, lock making, bangle making, brassware making and zari making.
Importantly, the Government is
doing its best to tackle and eliminate child labour. Under the National Child
Labour Project (NCLP) started in 1987 special schools have been set up to
provide non-formal and formal education, vocational training, stipend, health
check up and supplementary nutrition to the children withdrawn from jobs. The
Government was hopeful that through such measures it would be able to eliminate
child labour by the end of 10th Plan, i.e., 2007. The Tenth Plan has
ended but there is no word on it from the Government.
However, looking at the size of
the problem it is unlikely that Government laws and Government-supported
projects will be able to eliminate child labour. It is for the society at large
and the community at the local level to ensure that children are sent to schools
and not to the labour market.
True, there are a number of
reasons which forces parents to send their children to work as child labourers.
The main reason is poverty which compels them to push their children to
contribute to the family income. Secondly, the poor families are not educated
enough to understand the implications of sending their small children to work.
Most of the researches have shown
that a family which has crossed the threshold of the poverty line and where the
women have become literate, those families are conscious enough not to send
their children to join the labour market but to send them to schools.
Therefore, efforts should be made
to generate more jobs and raise the literacy level of the poor families so that
it obviates the need for the parents to push their child to the labour market
and also sensitizes the family to send their child to school.
There is also an urgent need to educate the employers not to employ
children in their factories or service centres. Since the wages paid to the
child labour are much lower than the ones paid to the adult labour, employers
would always find it economical to employ a child worker rather than an adult
worker. Laws or no laws.
Clearly, we will have to make the employees conscious of the fact that
a child’s place is in school and not in a factory or a farm as a labourer. There should be a moral code of conduct among
employers not to employ child workers. ----- INFA
(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)
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