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Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their

childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically,
socially or morally dangerous and harmful.[3] This practice is considered exploitative by
many international organisations. Legislations across the world prohibit child labour.[4][5] These laws
do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists,
supervised training, certain categories of work such as those by Amish children, some forms of child
work common among indigenous American children, and others.[6][7][8]
Child labour was employed to varying extents through most of history. Before 1940, numerous
children aged 514 worked in Europe, the United States and various colonies of European powers.
These children worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, mining and in
services such as newsies. Some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of household
income, availability of schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour
fell.[9][10][11]
In developing countries, with high poverty and poor schooling opportunities, child labour is still
prevalent. In 2010, sub-saharan Africa had the highest incidence rates of child labour, with several
African nations witnessing over 50 percent of children aged 514 working. [12] Worldwide agriculture is
the largest employer of child labour.[13] Vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and
informal urban economy; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than
factories.[14] Poverty and lack of schools are considered as the primary cause of child labour.[15]
The incidence of child labour in the world decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003,
according to the World Bank.[16]Nevertheless, the total number of child labourers remains high,
with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 517 worldwide, were
involved in child labour in 2013.[

Child labour laws and initiatives


Almost every country in the world has laws relating to and aimed at preventing child labour.
International Labour Organisation has helped set international law, which most countries have
signed on and ratified.
According to ILO minimum age convention (C138) of 1973, child labour refers to any work performed
by children under the age of 12, non-light work done by children aged 1214, and hazardous work
done by children aged 1517. Light work was defined, under this Convention, as any work that does
not harm a child's health and development, and that does not interfere with his or her attendance at
school. This convention has been ratified by 135 countries.
The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990, which was
subsequently ratified by 193 countries.[79] Article 32 of the convention addressed child labour, as
follows:
...Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be
harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. [4]
Under Article 1 of the 1990 Convention, a child is defined as "... every human being below the age of
eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier." Article 28 of
this Convention requires States to, "make primary education compulsory and available free to all." [4]
Three countries that have not ratified the 1990 Convention are Somalia, South Sudan and the United
States.[80][81]
In 1999, ILO helped lead the Worst Forms Convention 182 (C182),[82] which has so far been signed
upon and domestically ratified by 151 countries including the United States. This international law
prohibits worst forms of child labour, defined as all forms of slavery and slavery-like practices, such
as child trafficking, debt bondage, and forced labour, including forced recruitment of children into
armed conflict. The law also prohibits use of a child for prostitution or the production of pornography,
child labour in illicit activities such as drug production and trafficking; and in hazardous work. Both
the Worst Forms Convention (C182) and the Minimum Age Convention (C138) are examples
of international labour standards implemented through the ILO that deal with child labour.

The United States has passed a law that allows Amish children older than 14 to work in traditional wood enterprises
with proper supervision.

In addition to setting the international law, the United Nations initiated International Program on the
Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) in 1992.[83] This initiative aims to progressively eliminate child

labour through strengthening national capacities to address some of the causes of child labour.
Amongst the key initiative is the so-called time bounded program countries, where child labour is
most prevalent and schooling opportunities lacking. The initiative seeks to achieve amongst other
things, universal primary school availability. The IPEC has expanded to at least the following target
countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic
Republic of Congo, El Salvador, Nepal, Tanzania, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Philippines,
Senegal, South Africa and Turkey.
Targeted child labour campaigns were initiated by the International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour (IPEC) in order to advocate for prevention and elimination of all forms of child labour.
The global Music against Child Labour Initiative was launched in 2013 in order to involve socially
excluded children in structured musical activity and education in efforts to help protect them from
child labour.[84]

Action against Child Labour in India

India has legislation since 1986 which allows work by children in non-hazardous industry. In 2013,
the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave a landmark order that directed that there shall be total ban
on the employment of children up to the age of 14 years, be it hazardous or non-hazardous
industries. However, the Court ruled that a child can work with his or her family in family based
trades/occupations, for the purpose of learning a new trade/craftsmanship or vocation

Statistics
Number of children involved in ILO categories of work, by age and
gender in 2002

Ages

All

Economically

Children

Active

('000s)

Children

(2002)[144]

('000s)

Economically
Active
Children (%)

Child

Child

Labour Labour
('000s)

(%)

Children In

Children In

Hazardous

Hazardous

Work ('000s)

Work (%)

838,800

109,700

13.1

109,700 13.1

60,500

7.2

360,600

101,100

28.0

76,000

50,800

14.1

1,199,400 210,800

17.6

186,300 15.5

111,300

9.3

332,100

140,900

42.4

59,200

17.8

59,200

17.8

Boys 786,600

184,100

23.4

132,200 16.8

95,700

12.2

Girls 744,900

167,600

22.5

113,300 15.2

74,800

10.5

Total 1,531,500 351,700

23.0

245,500 16.0

170,500

11.1

511

Ages
12

21.1

14

Ages
514

Ages
15
17

Steps to Implement The Child Labour


Protection Act
The Ministry of Labour & Employment has carried out 13,60,117 inspections and launched 49092
prosecutions under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act sinceare launched and 4774
employers convicted which includes enforcement data on domestic child labour.
Child Labour is an outcome of various socio-economic problems such as poverty, economic
backwardness and illiteracy, being addressed in the National Child Labour Policy announced in
1987. The action plan under this policy is multi-pronged and mainly consists of:

Legislative Action Plan

and

Focus on general development programmes for the benefit of the families of child labour;

Project-based action in areas of high concentration of child labour.

In pursuance of this policy, the Government is implementing National Child Labour Project
(NCLP) in 266 districts of the country for rehabilitation of children rescued/withdrawn from work.
Under the Project, children rescued/withdrawn from work are enrolled in the special schools,
where they are provided with bridge education, vocational training, nutrition, stipend, health care,
etc. before being mainstreamed into formal education system.
The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1988 which prohibits the
employment of children in 18 occupations and 65 processes and regulates the working conditions
of children in employment where they are not prohibited from working. The employment of
children as Domestic servant and in Dhabas, restaurants, tea stalls, etc. has been banned w.e.f.
10.10.2006.

CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR

Stunted growth of future generation

Depreciation in wages

Inability to harness human resources


Inability to contribute to development
Inability to benefit from development
Citizens with accumulated frustration
Adult unemployment
Perpetuation of poverty
Persistence of child labour
Perpetuation of economic inequality
Increased abuse of children
Increased illiteracy
Ignorant populace
Citizens with inferiority complex
Malnourished citizens
Sick citizens
Political instability
Early morbidity of citizens
Mental deformity of citizens
Perpetuation of ill treatment
Inter generational phenomenon of child labour
Increased bottlenecks in the development process
Wasted human resources
Wasted human talents and skills
Scientists, artists and persons of eminence lost to child labour

CONSEQUENCES FOR CHILDREN


Child labour does more than deprive children of their education and mental
and physical development - their childhood is stolen.
Immature and inexperienced child labourers may be completely unaware of
the short and long term risks involved in their work.
Working long hours, child labourers are often denied a basic school
education, normal social interaction, personal development and emotional
support from their family. Beside these problems, children face many
physical dangers - and death - from forced labour:

Physical injuries and mutilations are caused by badly maintained


machinery on farms and in factories, machete accidents in plantations,
and any number of hazards encountered in industries such as mining,
ceramics and fireworks manufacture

Pesticide poisoning is one of the biggest killers of child labourers. In Sri


Lanka, pesticides kill more children than diphtheria, malaria, polio and
tetanus combined. The global death toll each year from pesticides is
supposed to be approximately 40'000

Growth deficiency is prevalent among working children, who tend to be


shorter and lighter than other children; these deficiencies also impact
on their adult life

Long-term health problems, such as respiratory disease, asbestosis


and a variety of cancers, are common in countries where children are
forced to work with dangerous chemicals

HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases are rife among the
one million children forced into prostitution every year; pregnancy,
drug addiction and mental illness are also common among child
prostitutes

Exhaustion and malnutrition are a result of underdeveloped children


performing heavy manual labour, working long hours in unbearable
conditions and not earning enough to feed themselves adequately

Conclusions
While child-labor laws enjoy strong support among politicians around the world
their popularity among economists is limited. In this paper we have, within the
context of various extensions of the neoclassical growth model, identified conditions
under which such legislation is not, and conditions under which such
legislation may be desirable. Since we came to the conclusion that child-labor
legislation tends to be at most a poor substitute for more direct policies addressing
underlying economic inefficiencies we then delved into the realm of political
economics to explain the persistence of child-labor legislation. Indeed, we found
that if children and adults compete in the labor market, adult workers have an
incentive to lobby for the abolition of child labor. This incentive will be especially
powerful for workers who face labor-market competition from children, but do
not rely on child labor income in their own family. The political-economy approach
can account for a number of features of real-world child-labor legislation,
such as the widespread introduction of restrictions right after an expansion of
education
lessened dependency on child labor income, and the fact that restrictions
usually extend only to formal employment, but not to child labor in the context
of traditional family-based agriculture.
An alternative explanation for why child-labor laws abound is that it is politically
advantageous for politicians to impose them, and it is inconsequential for the

economy if these laws are not enforced effectively. We have ignored the issue of
law enforcement altogether here, always implicitly assuming that enforcement of
child-labor legislation is perfect. In addition to developing the political-economy
approach to child-labor legislation further, we view the enforcement issue as a
fruitful field for future research.

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