Child Labour

An estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labour - one in
six children in the world. Millions of children are engaged in hazardous situations
or conditions, such as working in mines, working with chemicals and pesticides in
agriculture or working with dangerous machinery. They are everywhere but
invisible, toiling as domestic servants in homes, labouring behind the walls of
workshops, hidden from view in plantations.
In Sub-Saharan Africa around one in three children are engaged in child labour,
representing 69 million children.
In South Asia, another 44 million are engaged in child labour.
The latest national estimates for this indicator are reported in Table 9 (Child
Protection) of UNICEF's annual publication The State of the World's Children.
Children living in the poorest households and in rural areas are most likely to be
engaged in child labour. Those burdened with household chores are
overwhelmingly girls. Millions of girls who work as domestic servants are
especially vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.
Labour often interferes with children’s education. Ensuring that all children go to
school and that their education is of good quality are keys to
preventing child labour.

Earning on the streets

Wasim, a child labourer working at a tea stall; India, 9 July 2010
What is Child Labour?
Child labour refers to the
employment of children at
regular and
sustained labour. This
practice is considered
exploitative by many
international
organizations and is illegal
in many countries. Child
labour was utilized to
varying extents through
most of history, but
entered public dispute with
the advent of universal
schooling, with changes in
working conditions during
the industrial revolution,
and with the emergence of
the concepts of workers'
and children's rights.
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. 

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. In Northern India the exploitation of little
Seventy five percent of Indian population still resides in rural areas and are very children for labor is an accepted practice and
poor. Children in rural families who are ailing with poverty perceive their children perceived by the local population as a necessity
as an income generating resource to supplement the family income. Parents
to alleviate poverty. Carpet weaving industries
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.  pay very low wages to child laborers and make
them work for long hours in unhygienic
The Indian government has tried to take some steps to alleviate the problem of conditions. Children working in such units are
child labor in recent years by invoking a law that makes the employment of mainly migrant workers from Northern India,
children below 14 illegal, except in family owned enterprises. However this law who are shunted here by their families to earn
is rarely adhered to due to practical difficulties. Factories usually find loopholes some money and send it to them. Their families
and circumvent the law by declaring that the child laborer is a distant family
dependence on their income, forces them to
member. Also in villages there is no law implementing mechanism, and any
punitive actions for commercial enterprises violating these laws is almost non endure the onerous work conditions in the
existent.  carpet factories.

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. 
Causes of Child Labour

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.

Adult unemployment and urbanization also causes child

Poverty and over population have been identified as the two main causes of child labor. Adults often find it difficult to find jobs because factory
labor. Parents are forced to send little children into hazardous jobs for reasons of owners find it more beneficial to employ children at cheap
survival, even when they know it is wrong. Monetary constraints and the need for rates. This exploitation is particularly visible in garment
food, shelter and clothing drives their children in the trap of premature labor. Over factories of urban areas. Adult exploitation of children is also
population in some regions creates paucity of resources. When there are limited seen in many places. Elders relax at home and live on the
means and more mouths to feed children are driven to commercial activities and not labor of poor helpless children. 
provided for their development needs. This is the case in most Asian and African
countries. 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 problem with them. This attitude also
Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome proper
makes it difficult for adults to find jobs in factories, forcing
physical, cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are themselves
them to drive their little ones to work to keep the fire
uneducated and unexposed, so they don’t realize the importance of education for
burning their homes. 
their children.
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 The main legislative measures at the national level
are The Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act
through different articles in the Fundamental rights and the Directive
-1986 and The Factories Act -1948. The first act was
Principles of the State Policy. They lay down four specific policy rules categorical in prohibiting the employment of children
regarding child labor.  below fourteen years of age, and identified 57
processes and 13 occupations which were
considered dangerous to the health and lives of
1) ( Article 14) No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to children. The details of these occupations and
processes are listed in the schedule to the said Act. 
work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous
employment.  The factories act again prohibits the employment of
children less than fourteen years of age. However an
2) Article 39-E) The state shall direct its policy towards securing that adolescent aged between 15 and 18 can be recruited
the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age for factory employment only after securing a fitness
of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic certificate from a medical doctor who is authorized.
necessity to enter vocations unsuited to there are and strength.  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
3) ( Article 39-f ) Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to in night shifts. 
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.  Moreover, in the year 1996 the Supreme
Court of India came out with a judgment in
4) (Article 45 ) The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of court that directed the State and Union
ten years from the commencement of the constitution for free and government to make a list of all children
compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of embroiled in hazardous occupations and
processes. They were then told to pull them
fourteen years. 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. 
Government policies and programmes
In pursuance of India's development goals and strategies, a National Child Labour Policy was adopted in 1987 following the Child
Labour
Labour (Prohibition
(Prohibition and
and Regulation)
Regulation) Act,
Act, 1986.
1986. The
The national
national policy
policy reiterates
reiterates the
the directive
directive principle
principle of
of state
state policy
policy in
in India's
India's
Constitution. It resolves to focus general development programmes to benefit children wherever possible and have project based
action plans in areas of high concentration of child labour engaged in wage/quasi-wage employment.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment has been implementing the national policy through the establishment of National Child
Labour Projects (NCLPs) for the rehabilitation of child workers since 1988. Initially, these projects were industry specific and
aimed at rehabilitating children working in traditional child labour endemic industries. A renewed commitment to fulfil the
constitutional mandate resulted in enlarging the ambit of the NCLPs in 1994 to rehabilitate children working in hazardous
occupations
occupations inin child
child labour
labour endemic
endemic districts.
districts.
The strategy for the NCLPs includes the establishment of special schools to provide non-formal education and pre-vocational
skills training; promoting additional income and employment generation opportunities; raising public awareness, and conducting
surveys and evaluations of child labour.
The experience gained by the Government in running the NCLPs over several years resulted in the continuation and expansion of
the projects during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1997/02). Around 100 NCLPs were launched across the country to rehabilitate
children working in hazardous industries such as glass and bangles, brassware, locks, carpets, slate tiles, matches, fireworks, and
gems. The Central Government made a budgetary allocation of Rs 2.5 billion (about US$57 million) for these projects during the
Ninth Five-Year Plan. The Government of India has expanded the coverage of the NCLPs to an additional 150 districts and
increase the budgetary allocation to over Rs 6 billion (about US$131 million) during the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2003/07). Children
in the age group of 5 - 9 years were enrolled directly under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or the Education for All Movement
commenced under the 10th Five Year Plan. Further, those in the age group of 9 - 14 were admitted to special schools under the
NCLP schemes. Besides this, components of healthcare and vocational training were also augmented.
Most significantly in 2001 - 02 the Government launched the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or the Education for All Programme which is
an effort to universalize elementary education. This programme aims to achieve the goal of universal elementary education of
satisfactory quality by 2010.
Schemes for Children under the 10th Five Year plan include the Planning Commission's Integrated Programme for Street Children
which aims to prevent the destitution of children and engineer their withdrawal from streets by providing facilities like shelter,
nutrition, health care, education, recreation and protection against abuse and exploitation. Accordingly to the Government, during
the 10th Five Year Plan, over 200,000 children benefitted from this.
Further, the Scheme for Working Children in Need of Care and Protection by the Ministry of Women and Child Development
provides non-formal education, vocational training to working children to facilitate their entry into mainstream education. This
scheme
scheme has has been
been implemented
implemented through
through NGOs.
NGOs. According
According toto the
the Government,
Government, around
around 7,000
7,000 children
children benefited
benefited from
from this
this
programme from 2005 - 2007.
The strategy outlined for the 11th Five Year plan (2007 - 12) includes expanding the NCLP scheme to ensure universal enrolment
of children in the 6 - 14 age group to cover those in the hard-to-reach segment. It also includes substantial improvements in the
quality and standard of education and teacher training. Another notable Government initiative under the 11th plan is to amend all
laws to recognize everyone under the age of 18 as children and to take appropriate measures to protect their rights accordingly. In
September 2009, IPEC launched a Convergence Project against Child Labour which covers 5 States - Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand,
Madhya
Madhya Pradesh
Pradesh and
and Orissa.
Orissa. The
The project
project will
will demonstrate
demonstrate effective
effective convergence-based
convergence-based models
models for
for elimination
elimination and
and prevention
prevention of
of
child labour including trafficking/migration of children in each state.
Child Protection and Rights

According to International Law, a ‘child’ means every human being below the age of 18 years. Childhood is
characterized as a period of special consideration in human rights terms, as a period of evolving abilities and
vulnerabilities relative to those of adults. 
Today this is a universally accepted definition of a child which comes from the 
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), an international legal instrument agreed and
ratified by 192 States in the world to promote Child Protection and Child Rights.

What is ‘Child ‘Protection?

Child protection is crucial to ensuring that children under 18 years of age have the rights, confidence and
environment  in which they can make choices, express their views and communicate effectively with
other children and adults. 
It is a broad term to describe philosophies, policies, standards, guidelines and procedures whose aim is to
protect children from both intentional and unintentional harm and from vulnerability. 
Child protection incorporates both prevention and care as well as recovery and rehabilitation aspects.
Children can only become change agents to improve their lives and that of their families and communities
if they are safeguarded from abuse, discrimination and harm of any kind, be it physical, sexual, emotional
or neglect.

What are ‘Child’ Rights?

A right is as an agreement or a “social contract” established between the persons who hold a right
(often referred to as the “rights-holder”) and the persons or institutions which then have obligations
and responsibilities in relation to the realisation of that right (often referred to as the “duty-bearer”.)
Child Rights can be defined as the fundamental, vital freedoms and the inherent rights of all human
beings below the age of 18. These rights apply to every child, irrespective of the child's, parent's / legal
guardian's race, colour, sex, creed or other status.
CHILD LABOUR
- Statistics, Newspaper clippings, maps and posters
Child Labour throughout the world
CHILDLINE 1098

CHILDLINE 1098 SERVICE

The calls would come late in the night. 

"Didi, can you come? There's been a fight at the

station." 

"Didi, can you help? The police have battered

Raju." 

And a CHILDLINE volunteer would get up and rush

out to where a street child was waiting. On one of
those dashes across the sleeping city of Mumbai ,
an idea was born. 

What street children in Mumbai needed was a

helpline, their own helpline. 

In 1996, Mumbai launched CHILDLINE, the

country's first toll-free tele-helpline for street
children in distress. It has responded a total of 15,
883, 547 calls from inception till March 2009 and
operates in 83 cities/districts in 22 States and 3
Union Territories, through its network of 196
partner organisations across India.
Struggle against Child Labour
Resources :
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 THANK YOU

NAME – SHUBHAM MAURYA

CLASS – XI-C
SUB- ENGLISH PROJECT # CHILD LABOUR
ROLL NO.- 41