A BACKWARD GLANCE TO CHILD LABOUR

1. INTRODUCTION Childhood is the most innocent stage in a human life. It is that phase of life where a child is free from all the tensions, fun-loving, play and learns new things, and is the sweetheart of all the family members. But this is only one side of the story. The other side is full of tensions and burdens. Here, the innocent child is not the sweetheart of the family members, instead he is an earning machine working the entire day in order to satisfy the needs and wants of his/her family. So here i would like to demonstrate the various aspects of child labour. 2. WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR? Child labour 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 labour is a hazard to a Childs 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 labour. Child labour includes working children who are below a certain minimum age. This practice is going on since long and is one of the worst forms of child exploitation. Child labour not only causes damage to a childs physical and mental health but also keep him deprive of his basic rights to education, development, and freedom. According to statistics provided by UNICEF there were an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 years in child labour worldwide in the year 2007, and this figure is continuously increasing. Child labour is not only affecting under-developed and developing countries but developed countries are also facing this though the rate is comparatively very less. Child labour in Asia accounts for the highest percentage of child labour (61%) followed by Africa (32%). According to International Labour Organization (ILO), if child labour will be banned and all children get proper education, world's total income would be raised by nearly 22% over 20 years. Banning child labour will help in boosting the economy of a country. 3. CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOUR The main causes of child labour include poverty, unemployment, and excess population. Among these, poverty is the primary cause of child labour. You must have observed that poor families have more number of children, so it becomes very difficult for them to survive on the income of only one family member which is also quite less. So they make their small children their source of income. They make their children work in factories, shops, even selling items on streets. Some parents even carry infants on the streets to earn money from begging. There are very bad effects of child labour for our society, which

forces some children to steal things from others in order to satisfy their daily living. Many small girls are even made to indulge in prostitution. Some percentage of child labour also comes from harassment by parents, step-parents or relatives. There are many cases of child labour where a child has to work against the repayment of a loan which was taken by his father who was unable to pay it off. This is called as bonded child labour.. Bonded child labour normally happens in villages. Such children work like slaves in order to pay the loan taken. Not only poor families, but some well established business families also put their children into business at a quite young age instead of making them complete their education Business or corporations around the world are one of the major causes. Due to their influence and money driven attitudes, many factories are placed strategically in poor areas. This is to attract cheap labour and millions of children end up working for them. Another cause is the lack of protection from governments. Many developing nations and some industrial countries fail to provide millions of children proper education. Some common causes of child labour are parental illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of education and exposure, exploitation of cheap and unorganized labour. The family practice to inculcate traditional skills in children also pulls little ones inexorably in the trap of child labour, as they never get the opportunity to learn anything else. Adult unemployment and urbanization also causes child labour. 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 labour of poor helpless children. The industrial revolution has also had a negative effect by giving rise to circumstances which encourages child labour. 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 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. 4. CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA Child labour 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 labourers in the country, while other agencies claim that it is 50 million.

The practice of bonded child labour 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 labour persists like a scourge to humanity in spite of many laws against it. These laws although providing for imprisonment and imposition of huge fines on those who are found guilty are literally non- functional in terms of implementation. There is a major link between caste and bonded labour in Indian society. Dalit familys functions as bonded labour 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 labour rests. Dalits or the so called untouchables are denied access to land in India, forced to work in inhuman conditions, and expected to perform labour 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 labour. It is now very important for all International donors to put pressure on the Indian government to enforce bonded labour and child labour laws in the country. 5. CONCLUSION 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 labour, instead of punishing erring employers and freeing and rehabilitating the bonded children. There are various organizations which are fighting against child labour by helping children and imparting education among that part of society from where majority of the child labour comes. Poor families should be given knowledge about family planning. So that they are not burdened by children. It would be advisable not to keep small children at home for taking domestic help in daily household chores. Let us all take some step in this direction so that we can bring smiles to many faces and make this world a beautiful place for a child to live in. REFERENCE 1) Child labour in India: cases, consequences and cures by Dr. S Muty. 2) Children and human rights by S.K khanna. 3) Child development by Laura E Berk. 4) Child abuse by Gupta Manju. 5) Child hood by Gorky Maxim. 6) Childhood adolescence youth by Tolstoy Lev.