Child labour

Research Scholar

Shri. Jagdish Prasad Jhabarmal TibrewalaUniversity, Jhunjhunu,Rajasthan

Under the guidance ofDr. Chandan Bora

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

Child is Treasure of our Society …

Child is a pylon of our society. They are future of any developing as well as developed country, so literally they are treasure of society.

During the Industrial Revolution,

children as young as four were

employed in production factories with

dangerous, and often fatal, working

conditions. The children of the poor

were expected to help towards the

family budget, often working long hours

in dangerous jobs and low wages. In

England and Scotland in 1788, two-

thirds of the workers in 143 water-

powered cotton mills were described

as children.

By 1900, there were 1.7 million child

labourers reported in American industry

under the age of fifteen. The number of

children under the age of 15 who

worked in industrial jobs for wages climbed to 2 million in 1910.

Who is child labour?ILO defines child labour as :

“child labour means work done bychildren under fifteen. Exception ismade of work done by children withtheir parents at home is so far an aid inthe latter’s work is concerned and childis not deprived of the possibility ofgoing to school”

Who is child labour?Convention on Right of the child underArticle 32 of UN convention Definechild labour as:

“ any economic exploitation or the workthat is likely to be hazardous or whichinterferes with the child’s education oris harmful to the child’s health orphysical, mental, spiritual, moral orsocial development ”

Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadaswamy

Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it

In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated

in 1987.

The Action Plan outlined in the Policy for tackling this problem is as follows:

Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other labour laws to

ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments.

Focusing of General Developmental Programmes for Benefiting Child Labour - This

action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their families also under various

poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes of the Government.

Project Based Plan of Action: Envisages starting of projects in areas of high

concentration of child labour. Pursuant to this, in 1988, the National Child Labour Project

(NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labour endemicity in the country.

Did You KnowIndia has the highest number of child labourers

in the world

According to the National Sample Survey

Organisation, nearly 16.4 million Indian

children aged 5-15 are engaged in various

works

As per ILO 90% of child labourers are

employed in Agriculture Sector alone

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.

SITUATION IN INDIA

OVER POPULATION: Limited resources andmore mouths to feedILLITERACY : Illiterate parents do not realizethe need for a proper physical, emotionaland cognitive development of a child.POVERTY: Many a time poverty forcesparents to send their children tohazardous jobs.URBANIZATION:MNC's and exportindustries in the developing world employchild workers.UNEMPLOYMENT OF ELDERS: Elders often findit difficult to get jobs. The industrialistsand factory owners find it profitable toemploy children.

Is all work is bad for

children?

Some child workers

themselves think that illegal

work should not be

considered in the definition

of "child labor." The reason:

These child workers would

like to be respected for their

legal work, because they

feel they have no other choice but to work.

On the outskirts of Dhaka, children heat and

mix rubber in a barrel at a balloon factory.

A young Pakistani girl carries a load of

wool down a street in a poor section of

Peshawar. Pakistan has laws that limit

child labor, but the laws are often

ignored. An estimated 11 million

children work in Pakistan's factories.

A boy works in a tea stall in a

small village in Nepal. Nepal

is one of the world's poorest

countries, forcing huge

numbers of children to do

hard labor. For a majority of

children in Nepal, education

is a luxury.

Sakina, 9, and Javed,

6, work on a carpet

loom at a small

workshop in Kabul.

Afghanistan's deep

poverty forces many

children to work in

adult jobs.

A young Burmese boy climbs

on top of piles of teak wood in

a government-run lumberyard

in Pyin Ma Bin. The boy's job

is to label the teak wood. The

wood is common in Myanmar

and is in high demand in

Japan and most of Asia.

This 9-year-old girl used

to work long hours

weaving rugs in a carpet

factory. Today, she is

enrolled in a Rugmark

school in India. Rugmark

is an organization

working to end child labor

and provide educational

opportunities for children.

For child laborers all over

the world, education is

the ticket to a better

future.

The Menace called CHILD

LABOUR

Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu state,

about 45,000-50,000 childrenworking in the fireworks industry

Children earn about 15-18 rupees aday on piece-rates

When an inspector visits a factory,child workers are bundled intostore-rooms and sheds

When asked if the long hoursderived her of the pleasures ofchildhood, 12-year-old Kavithagave a resigned look.

When asked if she would like togo to school like other girls, sheshot back: "Who will feed me,then?"

Beedi Industry Over 1.7 million children work

as laborers in India’s beedi-rolling industry.

Children are engaged as theirnimble fingers are more adept atrolling beedis.

Children are made to work up to14 hours a day with no breaks orholidays.

Earning is as little as Rs.30 per1,000 beedis on an average andthe children hardly get anything.

Suffer from tuberculosis,postural and eye problems,anemia, lung and skin diseases.

Some times children are abandonedby their parents or sold to factoryowners

70-80% of the 8,000 to 50,000children work in the glass industryin Ferozabad.

The two hazardous types of furnacesused are the Pot furnaces the Tankfurnaces

One of the most dangerousindustries, where many deaths andmishaps occur on a regular basis,makes it imperative for theemployers to hire mafia gangs tohush up the occurrence of suchincidents.

Carpet Industry 300,000 children employed in

this industry.

Low wages and docileacceptance.

Work for 10-16 hours a day interrible conditions.

Vast majority of migrant childworkers sleep alongside oftheir loom, further invitingsickness and poor health.

Eyesight is damaged and lungdiseases are common as aresult of the dust and flufffrom the wool.

Silk Industry Over 50,000 children between the

ages of 5 and 13 slog it out in the

silk-weaving industry in

Kancheepuram and Tiruvannamalai

districts of Tamil Nadu.

Many work seven days a week round

the year.

Average monthly income ranges

from Rs.80 to Rs.250.

Require to dip hands in boiling hot

water causing blisters.

Handle dead worms breeding

infections.

Twist thread injuring their fingers .

CHILD LABOR IN

ENTERTAINMENT

INDUSTRYINCONSPICUOUS FORM OF CHILD LABOUR

Why is it a Form of Child Labor? No Bar of Age Limit

More than 12 hours of work

Education Suffers

Parent’s force their children to go for talent search

programmes

The programmes in question are'Chotta Packet Bada Dhamaka' and'Maayka' on ZEE TV, 'Chotte Ustad','Balika Vadhu', 'Jai Krishna' and'Utaran' on Colors

Producers of nine Indian televisionshows, who hired child actors, are tobe dragged to court.

Under the Act, offenders face simpleimprisonment of six months or a fineof Rs. 10,000, or both.

Pati Patni Aur Woh… The show is testing child-rearing skills of celebrities and

for that purpose kids of 4-5 years are shown

It is a cause of great concern that kids’ parents are willful

accomplices in this crime

Ponder…

How can we contribute to eradicate child labour?

Your missionTo analyse causes for child labour in

your village

Find solution to eradicate child labour

Develop plan of action

Create awareness to local people on the importance of education and child’s right to education

Persuade local audience and rope in their support to combat child labourproblem by mobilising opinion

Your Role

You will be working as agents of International Labour Organisation

How do you go about? Collect the database of school drop-outs

Interview and collect data

Analyse reasons for child labour in your village

Research on Internet referring to the list of websites to gather information on child labourand strategies adopted by other countries to combat the problem

Suggest strategies and find solution to the local problem

Share your ideas on a blog

How do you go about? Contd…

Develop plan of action to address child labour problem

Organise an awareness rally to create awareness to local people on the importance of education and child’s right to education

Persuade local audience and rope in their support to combat child labour problem by mobilising opinion

Child labour has been among and with us in the very

society we live in. But we have rarely paid heed to

them. And we have tried to look at them we have

turned our back because we have been guilty at the

heart somewhere..

The question is not–”Who is to be held responsible for

the situation ?”; Decades have been lost over it and yet

no fruitful step has yielded out, the question should be

“Are we ready to change their lives for the better?” ,if

not then it is high time for all of us to reach out our

helping hands to them and get them out of this inferno

at the earliest, lest our future is CONDEMNED………

It’s up to us all..

It’s the ILO

It’s Member States

It’s Workers

It’s Employers

It’s NGOs

And it’s us – you and me.

Together we can reach the goal – an end to

child labour in our time

THANK YOU