According to a recent estimate of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), more than 120

million children between the ages of 5-14 are employed as full time labourers around the world.
A good number of such children labour in the most hazardous and dangerous industries. In India
itself, it is estimated that there are at least 44 million child labourers in the age group of 5-14.
More than eighty percent of child labourers in India are employed in the agricultural and non-
formal sectors and many are bonded labourers. Most of them are either illiterate or dropped out
of school after two or three years.

What is child labour?

Child labour is not child work. Child work can be beneficial and can enhance a child’s physical,
mental, spiritual, moral or social development without interfering with schooling, recreation and
rest. Helping parents in their household activities and business after school in their free time also
contributes positively to the development of the child. When such work is truly part of the
socialisation process and a means of transmitting skills from parents to child, it is not child
labour. Through such work children can increase their status as family members and citizens and
gain confidence and self-esteem.
Child labour, however, is the opposite of child work. Child labour hampers the normal physical,
intellectual, emotional and moral development of a child. Children who are in the growing
process can permanently distort or disable their bodies when they carry heavy loads or are forced
to adopt unnatural positions at work for long hours. Children are less resistant to diseases and
suffer more readily from chemical hazards and radiation than adults. UNICEF classifies the
hazards of child labour into three categories, namely (i) physical; (ii) cognitive; (iii) emotional,
social and moral:
I. Physical hazards
There are jobs that are hazardous in themselves and affect child labourers immediately. They
affect the overall health, coordination, strength, vision and hearing of children. Working in
mines, quarries, construction sites, and carrying heavy loads are some of the activities that put
children directly at risk physically. Jobs in the glass and brassware industry in India, where
children are exposed to high temperatures while rotating the wheel furnace and use heavy and
sharp tools, are clearly physically hazardous to them.
II. Cognitive hazards
Education helps a child to develop cognitively, emotionally and socially, and needless to say,
education is often gravely reduced by child labour. Cognitive development includes literacy,
numeracy and the acquisition of knowledge necessary to normal life. Work may take so much of
a child’s time that it becomes impossible for them to attend school; even if they do attend, they
may be too tired to be attentive and follow the lessons.
III. Emotional, social and moral hazards
There are jobs that may jeopardise a child’s psychological and social growth more than physical
growth. For example, a domestic job can involve relatively ‘light’ work. However, long hours of
work, and the physical, psychological and sexual abuse to which the child domestic labourers are
exposed make the work hazardous.

The Extent and General Pattern of Child Labour and its Hazards in India
Researchers give a range of incidence of child labour in India from about 14 million to about
100 million. Some studies show every fourth child in the age group of 5-15 is employed. It is
estimated that over 20% of the country’s GNP is contributed by child labour. The figures
released by the non-governmental agencies are much higher than those of the State. UNICEF
cites figures from various resources that put child labour in India at between seventy-five to
ninety million. For some observers, the exact number of child labourers in India could be as high
as 150 million. In brief, India is the largest producer of child labour and illiteracy on this earth.
According to at least one study, a quarter of the world’s total number of child labourers are in
India and every third household in that country has a child at work.
Children in India are employed in almost all the activities of the non-formal sector. However,
most of them are employed in the agricultural sector or in jobs closely related to agriculture, as is
the pattern in many developing countries. A unique factor in India is that a significant number of
these children are bonded labourers. Slave labour or bonded labour is one of the worst forms of
labour not only for children but also for adults. In India, bonded labour has been illegal since
1976 when Parliament enacted the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act. However, the
practice is still widespread. Children or adults are bonded in order to pay off debts that they or
members of their families have incurred. They toil all their lives and endure physical attacks that
often amount to torture.
The areas or industries in which child labour is widely relevant are the Agricultural sector,
Street work, Glass factories, Match factories, Carpet industry, Brass industry, Lock
industry.

Child Labour Laws

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.

Conclusion
Often, child labour is considered to be a "necessary evil" in poor countries such as India for the
maintenance of the family. In that context, some consider it virtuous to give a job to a child. In
fact, some academics and activists campaign not for the reduction of child labour but only for a
reduction in the exploitation of children. However, the question has to be asked whether it is
justifiable to allow children from poor families to undergo physical, cognitive, emotional and
moral hazards because they must help their families. The closest example is the children working
in LIBA Canteen and Loyola mess. Although this might not be illegal under child labour act but
is illegal under the Right to Education Act which states “Every child between the ages of 6 to 14
years has the right to free and compulsory education”.
I remember that two years ago when I was in Delhi, this law was used by government authorities
to stop children being used in ‘Dabas’ as cleaners and waiters. Although nobody had bothered to
make a call to the authorities about these illegal activities in Loyola campus I expect some day
someone will take the initiative.
Reference:-
http://www.childlabor.in/child-labour-laws.htm
http://www.oikonomia.it/pages/ott2000/introducingchildlabourinindi.htm
http://www.indg.in/primary-education/policiesandschemes/right-to-education-bill

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