CHILD LABOUR WITH REFERENCE TO NATIONAL LAW

Dissertation Submitted To

AMITY UNIVERSITY LUCKNOW CAMPUS UTTAR PRADESH

FOR THE PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE
OF
B.A. L.L.B.(HONS)
BY

ABHISHEK SINGH
ENROLLMENT NO : A 8111111038
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
MS. JYOTI YADAV

AMITY LAW SCHOOL

AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW CAMPUS UTTAR PRADESH
MOC, GOMTI NAGAR EXTENSION, LUCKNOW

DECLARATION
CHILD LABOUR WITH REFERENCE TO NATIONAL LAW
I Abhishek Singh Enrollment No. A8111111038 understand what plagiarism is and I am aware of
the Universitys policy in this regard.
I declare that
(a) The work submitted by me in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
degree of B.A. LL.B (Hons.) Assessment in this dissertation is my own; it has not
previously been presented for another assessment.
(b) I declare that this dissertation is my original work. Wherever work from other source has
been used, all debts (for words, data, arguments and ideas) have been appropriately
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with the requirements of NTCC regulations
and Guidelines.
(c) I have not used work previously produced by another student or any other person to
submit it as my own.
(d) I have not permitted, and will not permit, anybody to copy my work with the purpose of
passing it off as his or her own work.
(e) The work conforms to the guidelines for layout, content and style as set out in the
Regulations and Guidelines.
Date:
Abhishek Singh
A8111111038
B.A. LL.B. (H)

CERTIFICATE
I hereby certify that
a) Abhishek Singh , Enrolment No. A 8111111038 Student of B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) 201116 ( at Amity Law School, Amity University Uttar Pradesh has completed the Project
Report on Child Labour With Reference To National Law, during 9th Semester
under my supervision.
b) The presented work embodies original research work carried out by the student as per
the guidelines given in University Regulations.
c) The Research and writing embodied in the thesis are those of the candidate except
where due reference is made in the text.
d) I am satisfied that the above candidates prima facie, is worthy of examination both in
terms of its content and its technical presentations relative to the standards recognized
e)

by the university as appropriate for examination.

I certify that in accordance with NTCC guidelines, the report does not exceed the
prescribed maximum word limit; or Prior approval has been sought to go beyond the

word limit.
f) Wherever work form other source has been used, all debts (for words, data, arguments
and ideas) have been appropriately acknowledge and referenced in accordance with the
requirements of NTCC Regulations and Guidelience.

Ms. Jyoti Yadav

Lecturer

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
3

This dissertation is the outcome of the study by the Author. Any material used from different
sources has been thoroughly acknowledged. After the successful completion of my work I would
like to thank number of people.
I would like to give my heartfelt gratitude to Ms. Jyoti Yadav who undertook the role of
supervisor, mentor, and guide for the successful preparation of this dissertation. This work is an
outcome of an unparallel infrastructural support that I have received from staff and employees of
Amity Law School. It would never have been possible to complete this study without an untiring
support from my family.
This study bears testimony to the active encouragement and guidance of a host of friends
and well-wishers.

Abhishek Singh
A8111111038

List of Abbreviations
4

ILO

International Labor Organization

CRC

Convention on the Rights of the Child.

IPEC

International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour

GAP

Global Access Project

NGO

Non-governmental organization

BBC

British Broadcasting Corporation

CACL

Canadian Association for Community Living

RIDE

Research Issues in Data Engineering

UNICEF

United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund

TABLE OF CASES
5

EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOURERS IN INDIA

1. By T. Kala

56

2. The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu

57

3. A study by the Pasumai Trust, Tiruvallur

57

4. A Madras School of Social Work study

57

5. Parvathi, 12, lost her parents at a young age

58

6. Geetha, 14, lives with her parents and a younger brother

58

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR

CHAPTER 2

THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) ACT, 1986

14

AMENDED SCHEDULE

21

THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) RULES, 1988

28

CHAPTER 3:

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA AND ITS CAUSES

35

GOVERNMENTS POLICIES

43

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

44

STOP CHILD LABOR

46

CONSEQUENCES FOR CHILDREN

50

LEGAL CASES

56

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR

63

CHAPTER 4:

PRESENT DAY

64

RECENT CHILD LABOUR INCIDENTS

67

DEFENSE OF CHILD LABOUR

70

EFFORTS AGAINST CHILD LABOUR

72

CHAPTER 5:

CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS

73

BIBLIOGRAPHY

74
7

CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS CHILD LABOUR
Child labor 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 labor
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 labor.

It is obligatory for all countries to set a minimum age for employment according to the rules of
ILO written in Convention 138(C.138). The stipulated age for employment should not be below
the age for finishing compulsory schooling, that is not below the age of 15. Developing countries
are allowed to set the minimum age at 14 years in accordance with their socio- economic
circumstances.
C-138 has also made provisions for flexibility for certain countries, setting the minimum age of
12 and 13 for their children - but only for partaking in light work. Light work can be defined as
childrens participation in only those economic activities which do not damage their health and
development or interfere with their education. Yes, work that does not obstruct with a childs
education is considered light work and allowed from age 12 under the International Labor
Organization (ILO Convention 138). It is because of this that many children employed in part
time work like learning craft or other skills of a hereditary nature are not called child labors. The
same work translates into child labor if a child is thrown into weaving carpets, working into
factories or some other employment to earn money to sustain self, or augment his familys
income - without being given school education and allowed opportunities for normal social
interactions. A child working part time (3-4 hours) to learn and earn for self and parents after
8

school, is not considered child labor. The Industrial revolution had ushered in the horrendous
practice of employing children of 4 and 5 years in factories in environmental conditions, which
were risky for their health and well being, often proving fatal. Developed countries have reacted
sharply to this historical fact by equating child labor with human right violation. However poor
countries

are

more

accepting

about

child

labor

as

living

necessity.

The year 1990 witnessed all countries of the world except United States and Somalia become a
signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The strongest, most consistent
language in legal terminology prohibiting illegal child labor is provided by the CRC. However it
does

not

establish

the

practice

of

child

labor

as

legally

punishable.

Employment with others and self employment both come under the aegis of child labor. It has
been seen that children who are street sellers, street entertainers, rag pickers, child prostitutes or
pornography models, beggers etc - are mostly without natural guardians and exploited by
underground gangsters and racketeers. These children are mostly children of illegal migrants.
They are the victim of abandonment, riots, wars or just sheer poverty and homelessness. In poor
countries some children are helping hands for their parents or are employed in factories,
commercial organizations or households with the consent of the parents. The most appalling
form of child labor is prostitution and modeling for child pornography. Some children are even
sold to fiefs by their parents for money.
Child labour (U.S. child labor) 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.
In many developed countries, it is considered inappropriate or exploitative if a child below a
certain age works (excluding household chores or school-related work). An employer is usually
not permitted to hire a child below a certain minimum age. This minimum age depends on the
country and the type of work involved. States ratifying the Minimum Age Convention adopted
9

by the International Labour Organization in 1973, have adopted minimum ages varying from 14
to 16. Child labour laws in the United States set the minimum age to work in an establishment
without restrictions and without parents' consent at age 16.
The incidence of child labour in the world decreased from 25 to 10 percent between 1960 and
2003, according to the World Bank.

HISTORICAL
Child labourer, New Jersey, 1910
During the Industrial Revolution, children as young as four were employed in production
factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions. Based on this understanding of the
use of children as labourers, it is now considered by wealthy countries to be a human rights
violation, and is outlawed, while some poorer countries may allow or tolerate child labour.
The Victorian era became notorious for employing young children in factories and mines and as
chimney sweeps. Child labour played an important role in the Industrial Revolution from its
outset, often brought about by economic hardship, Charles Dickens for example worked at the
age of 12 in a blacking factory, with his family in debtor's prison. The children of the poor were
expected to help towards the family budget, often working long hours in dangerous jobs and low
wages.

Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City Labor
Day parade.
10

Agile boys were employed by the chimney sweeps; small children were employed to scramble
under machinery to retrieve cotton bobbins; and children were also employed to work in coal
mines to crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults. Children also worked as errand
boys, crossing sweepers, shoe blacks, or selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods. Some
children undertook work as apprentices to respectable trades, such as building or as domestic
servants (there were over 120,000 domestic servants in London in the mid 18th Century).
Working hours were long: builders worked 64 hours a week in summer and 52 in winter, while
domestic servants worked 80 hour weeks.
Bertrand Russell wrote that:
The industrial revolution caused unspeakable misery both on England and in America. ... In the
Lancashire cotton mills (from which Marx and Engels derived their livelihood), children worked
from 12 to 16 hours a day; they often began working at the age of six or seven. Children had to
be beaten to keep them from falling asleep while at work; in spite of this, many failed to keep
awake and were mutilated or killed. Parents had to submit to the infliction of these atrocities
upon their children, because they themselves were in a desperate plight. Craftsmen had been
thrown out of work by the machines; rural labourers were compelled to migrate to the towns by
the Enclosure Acts, which used Parliament to make landowners richer by making peasants
destitute; trade unions were illegal until 1824; the government employed agents provocateurs to
try to get revolutionary sentiments out of wage-earners, who were then deported or hanged. Such
was the first effect of machinery in England.
A high number of children also worked as prostitutes. Children as young as three were put to
work. In coal mines children began work at the age of five and generally died before the age of
25. Many children (and adults) worked 16 hour days. As early as 1802 and 1819 Factory Acts
were passed to regulate the working hours of workhouse children in factories and cotton mills to
12 hours per day. These acts were largely ineffective and after radical agitation, by for example
the "Short Time Committees" in 1831, a Royal Commission recommended in 1833 that children
aged 11-18 should work a maximum of 12 hours per day, children aged 9-11 a maximum of eight
hours, and children under the age of nine were no longer permitted to work. This act however

11

only applied to the textile industry, and further agitation led to another act in 1847 limiting both
adults and children to 10 hour working days.
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.

CHILD LABOUR TODAY

Child labor is a very complicated development issue, effecting human society all over the world.
It is a matter of grave concern that children are not receiving the education and leisure which is
important for their growing years, because they are sucked into commercial and laborious
activities which is meant for people beyond their years. According to the statistics given by ILO
and other official agencies 73 million children between 10 to 14 years of age re employed in
economic activities all over the world. The figure translates into 13.2 of all children between 10
to 14 being subjected to child labor.

Child labor is most rampant in Asia with 44.6 million or 13% percent of its children doing
commercial work followed by Africa at 23.6 million or 26.3% which is the highest rate and Latin
America at 5.1 million that is 9.8%.

In India 14.4 % children between 10 and 14 years of age are employed in child labor. in
Bangladesh 30.1%, in China 11.6%,in Pakistan 17.7%, in Turkey 24%, in Cote Dlvoire 20.5%,
in Egypt 11.2%, in Kenya 41.3% , in Nigeria 25.8%, in Senegal 31.4%, in Argentina 4.5%, in
Brazil 16.1%, in Mexico 6.7%, in Italy 0.4% and in Portugal 1.8%. The above figures only give
part of the picture. No reliable figures of child workers below 10 years of age are available,
though they comprise a significant amount. The same is true of children in the former age group
on whom no official data is available. If it was possible to count the number of child workers
properly, and the number of young girls occupied in domestic labor taken into account - the
figure will emerge as hundreds of million.

12

Child labour is also prevalent in rich and industrialized countries, although less compared to poor
nations. For example there are a large of children working for pay at home, in seasonal cycles,
for street trade and small workshops in Southern Europe. India is a glaring example of a nation
hounded by the evil of child labor. It is estimated that there are 60 to 115 million working
children in India- which was the highest in 1996 according to human rights watch.
The problems coming from a centrally planned to market economy has led to the creation of
many child workers in central and eastern Europe. Same is the case in America. The growth of
the service sector, increasing provision of part time jobs and the need for flexible work force has
given

birth

to

big

market

for

child

workers

here.

Historically the working force of child workers is more in rural areas compared to urban settings.
Nine out of ten village children are employed in agriculture or household industries and
craftwork. In towns and cities children are more absorbed in service and trading sectors rather
that marketing. This is due to the rapid urbanization of the modern world. Survey done by
experimental statisticians of ILO in India, Indonesia and Senegal have revealed that child labor
under the age of fourteen takes place in family enterprises mostly, with the exception of Latin
America. Child labor is also found to be gender specific, with more boys than girls employed in
laborious activities. But this is also because it is difficult to take a count of girls working in
households.

13

CHAPTER 2
THE CHILD LABOUR
(Prohibition and Regulation) ACT, 1986
OBJECT:
To prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the
conditions of work or children in certain other employments.

DEFENITION:
Child: Child means a person who has not completed his fourteen years of age.

II APPLICABILITY: In extends to the whole of India.

III PROHIBITION OF EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN CERTAIN

OCCUPATIONS AND PROCESSES:
No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the following occupations: Set
forth in part of A of the schedule or in any workshop where in any of the process set forth in
part B of the schedule to this Act Transport of passengers, goods; or mails by railway
Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in the railway premise.
Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving the movement of vendor or
any other employee of the establishment from one platform to another or into or out of a
moving train.

14

Work relating to the construction of railway station or with any other work where such work
is done in close proximity to or between the railway lines. The port authority within the limits
of any port.

Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks in shops with temporary licenses

Abattoirs/slaughter Houses

Automobile workshops and garages.

Founderies

Handling of taxies or inflammable substance or explosives

Handlom and powerloom industry

Mines (Under ground and under water) and collieries

Plastic units and Fiber glass workship

OR
In any workshop wherein any of the following processes is carried on.
1 Beedi making
2 Carpet Weaving
3 Cement manufacture including bagging of cement.
4 Cloth printing, deying and weaving.
5 Manufacture of matches, explosive and fire works.
6 Mica cutting and splitting.
15

7 Shellac manufacture
8 Soap manufacture
9 Tanning.
10 Wool cleaning
11 Building and construction industry
12 Manufacture of slate pencils (including packing)
13 Manufacture of products of agate
14 Manufacturing processes using toxic metals and substances such as lead,
mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos
(Section-3)
15 All Hazardous prossess an defined in section 2(cb) and dangerous operations as notified in
ruler made under section 87 of the factories Act 1948
16 Printing (as defined in section 2(k) of the factories Act 1948
17 Cashew and cashew nut descaling and processing
18 Soldering process in electronic industries
19 Agarbathi manufacturing
20 Automobile repairs and maintenance (namely welding lather work , dent beating and
printing)
21 Brick kilns and Roof files units
22 Cotton ginning and processing and production of hosiery goods
16

23 Detergent manufacturing
24 Fabrication workshop (ferrous and non-ferrous)
25 Gem cutting and polishing
26 Handling of chromites and manganies ores
27 Jute textile manufacture and of coir making
28 Lime kilns and manufacture of lime
29 Lock making
30 Manufacturing process having exposure to lead such as primary and secondary smelting,
welding etc. ( See item 30 of part B process)
31 Manufacture of glass, glass ware including bangles fluorescent tubes bulbs and other
similar glass products
32 Manufacturing of cement pipes, cement products, and other related work.
33 Manufacture of dyes and dye stuff
34 Manufacturing or handling of pesticides and insecticides
35 Manufacturing or processing and handling of corrosive and toxic substances, metal
cleaning and photo enlarging and soldering processes in electronic industry
36 Manufacturing of burning coal and coal briquette
37 Manufacturing of sports goods involving to synthetic materials, chemicals and leather
38 Moulding and processing of fiberglass and plastics
39 Oil expelling and refinery
17

40 Paper making
41 Potteries and ceramic industry
42 Polishing, moulding, cutting welding and manufacture of brass goods in all forms.
43 Process in agriculture where tractors, threshing and harvesting machines are used and
chabt cutting
44 Saw mill all process
45 Sericulture processing
46 Skinning dyeing and process for manufacturing of leather and leather products
47 Stone breaking and stone crushing
48 Tobacco processing including manufacturing of tobacco, tobacco paste and handling of
tobacco in any form
49 Tyre making repairing, re-trading and graphite beneficiation
50 Utensils making polishing and metal buffing
51 Zari Making (all process)

IV CHILD LABOUR TECHNICAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

The central government may by notification constitute a child Labour technical advisory
committee to advise the central govt. for the purpose of addition of occupations to the
schedule of the Act. (Section-5).

18

V HOURS AND PERIOD OF WORK:

No child shall be required or permitted to work in any establishment in excess of number of
hours prescribed (Section-7) In Kerala the working hours in limited to four and half hours in
a day. (Rule -3).
The period of work on each day shall not exceed three hours and no child shall work for
more than three hours before he has had an interval for rest for at least one hour. No child
shall be permitted or required to work between 7 P.m. and 8 a.m. No child shall be required
or permitted to work overtime. (Section-7).
VI WEEKLY HOLIDAY:
Every child shall be allowed in each week a holiday of one whole day.
(Section-8).
VII NOTICE TO INSPECTOR:
Every occupier shall within 30 days send a written notice in Form-A to the inspector within
whose local limits the establishment is situated. (Section-8 read with Rule-4).
VIII DISPUTES AS TO AGE:
If any question arises between an inspector and an occupier as to the age of any child, in the
absence of a certificate in Form-C as to the age of such child granted by the prescribed
medical authority, be referred by the inspector for decision to the prescribed medical
authority. ( A govt. medical officer not below the rank of an Assistant surgeon of a district or
on officers having equivalent rank in ESI Dispensaries or hospitals (Section-10 read with
Rule - 16)
Ix REGISTERS:
Every occupier of an establishment shall maintain a register in respect of children employed
or permitted to work at the establishment in F orm-B. (Sect. II read with Rule-15)
19

X DISPLAY OF NOTICE:
Every occupier shall display in the establishment the abstract of section-3 and 14 in form-D
of the Act (Section 12 read with Rule -17)
X1 PENALITIES:
Violations under Section-3 shall be punishable with imprisonment which shall not be less
than three months which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than ten
thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both. Continuing
offence under section (3) shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be
less than six months but which may extend to two years.
Any other violations under the Act shall be punishable with simple imprisonment, which may
extend to one month or with fine, which may extend to ten thousand rupees or with both.
X11 WHO CAN FILE PROSPECUTIONS:
Any person
Police Officer
Inspector appointed under the Act
No. court inferior to that of a metropolitan Magistrate or a Magistrate of the
First Class shall try any offence under this Act. (Section-16)
Shall be a Government Medical Officer not below the rank of an Assistant
Surgeon of a district or an officer of equivalent rank employed on a regular basis in
Employees State Insurance dispensaries or hospitals.
17. Abstract of the Act.- An abstract of sections 3 and 14 of the Act shall be
displayed in form D suspended to these rules (Rule 17)
20

AMENDED SCHEDULE
THE SCHEDULE
(See Sec.3)
PART A
Occupations
Any occupation concerned with: (1) Transport of passengers, goods or mails by railways;
(2) Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in the railway premises;
(3) Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving the movement of a vendor or
any other employee of the establishment from the one platform to another or in to or out of a
moving train;
(4) Work relating to the construction of a railway station or with any other work where such
work is done in close proximity to or between the railway lines;
(5) A port authority within the limits of any port;
* (6) Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks in shops with temporary licenses;
# (7) Abattoirs/Slaughter House;
$ (8) Automobile workshops and garages;
(9) Foundries;
21

(10) Handling of toxic or inflammable substances or explosives;

(11) Handloom and power loom industry;
(12) Mines (underground and under water) and collieries;
(13) Plastic units and fibreglass workshops;
**(14) Domestic workers or servants and
**(15) Dhabas (roadside eateries), restaurants, hotels, motels, tea shops, resorts, spas or other
recreational centres.
$$ (16) Diving
PART B
Processes
(1) Beedi-making.
(2) Carpet-weaving.
(3) Cement manufacture, including bagging of cement.
(4) Cloth printing, dyeing and weaving.
(5) Manufacture of matches, explosives and fire-works.
(6) Mica-cutting and splitting.
(7) Shellac manufacture.
(8) Soap manufacture.
(9) Tanning.

22

(10) Wool-cleaning.
(11) Building and construction industry.
* (12) Manufacture of slate pencils (including packing).
* (13) Manufacture of products from agate.
* (14) Manufacturing processes using toxic metals and substances such as lead, mercury,
manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos.
# (15) Hazardous processes as defined in Sec. 2 (cb) and dangerous operation as notice in
rules made under section 87 of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948)
# (16) Printing as defined in Section 2(k) (iv) of the Factories Act, 1948 (63 of 1948)
# (17) Cashew and cashewnut descaling and processing.
# (18) Soldering processes in electronic industries.
$ (19) Aggarbatti manufacturing.
(20) Automobile repairs and maintenance including processes incidental thereto namely,
welding, lathe work, dent beating and painting.
(21) Brick kilns and Roof tiles units.
(22) Cotton ginning and processing and production of hosiery goods.
(23) Detergent manufacturing.
(24) Fabrication workshops (ferrous and non ferrous)
(25) Gem cutting and polishing.
(26) Handling of chromite and manganese ores.
23

(27) Jute textile manufacture and coir making.

(28) Lime Kilns and Manufacture of Lime.
(29) Lock Making.
(30) Manufacturing processes having exposure to lead such as primary and secondary smelting,
welding and cutting of lead-painted metal constructions, welding of galvanized or zinc silicate,
polyvinyl chloride, mixing (by hand) of crystal glass mass, sanding or scraping of lead paint,
burning of lead in enameling workshops, lead mining, plumbing, cable making, wiring patenting,
lead casting, type founding in printing shops. Store type setting, assembling of cars, shot making
and lead glass blowing.
(31) Manufacture of cement pipes, cement products and other related work.
(32) Manufacture of glass, glass ware including bangles, florescent tubes, bulbs and other similar
glass products.
(33) Manufacture of dyes and dye stuff.
(34) Manufacturing or handling of pesticides and insecticides.
(35) Manufacturing or processing and handling of corrosive and toxic substances, metal cleaning
and photo engraving and soldering processes in electronic industry.
(36) Manufacturing of burning coal and coal briquettes.
(37) Manufacturing of sports goods involving exposure to synthetic materials, chemicals and
leather.
(38) Moulding and processing of fiberglass and plastic.
(39) Oil expelling and refinery.
(40) Paper making.
24

(41) Potteries and ceramic industry.

(42) Polishing, moulding, cutting, welding and manufacturing of brass goods in all forms.
(43) Processes in agriculture where tractors, threshing and harvesting machines are used and
chaff cutting.
(44) Saw mill all processes.
(45) Sericulture processing.
(46) Skinning, dyeing and processes for manufacturing of leather and leather products.
(47) Stone breaking and stone crushing.
(48) Tobacco processing including manufacturing of tobacco, tobacco paste and handling of
tobacco in any form.
(49) Tyre making, repairing, re-treading and graphite beneficiation.
(50) Utensils making, polishing and metal buffing.
(51) Zari making (all processes).
@ (52) Electroplating;
(53) Graphite powdering and incidental processing;
(54) Grinding or glazing of metals;
(55) Diamond cutting and polishing;
(56) Extraction of slate from mines;
(57) Rag picking and scavenging.
$$(58) Processes involving exposure to excessive heat (e.g. working near furnace) and cold;
25

(59) Mechanised fishing;

(60) Food Processing;
(61) Beverage Industry;
(62) Timber handling and loading;
(63) Mechanical Lumbering;
(64) Warehousing;
(65) Processes involving exposure to free silica such as slate, pencil industry, stone grinding,
slate stone mining, stone quarries, agate industry.
a. for item (2), the following item shall be substituted, namely:- (2) carpet weaving including
preparatory and incidental process thereof;
b. for item(4), the following item shall be substituted, namely:- (4) cloth printing, dyeing and
weaving including processes preparatory and incidental thereto:
c. for item (11) the following shall be substituted, namely:- (11) Building and Construction
Industry including processing and polishing of granite stones.
* Ins. by Notification No. S. O. 404(E) dated the 5 th June 1989 published in the Gazette of India,
Extraordinary.
# Ins. by Notification No. S. O. 263 (E) dated 29 th March, 1994 published in the Gazette of India,
Extraordinary.
$ Ins. Sr. No. 8-13 in Part A and Sr. No. 19-51 in Part B by Notification No. S. O. 36 (E) dated
27th January 1999 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary.
@ Ins.Sr. No. 52 57 part B By Notification No. S.O. 397 (E) dated the 10th May 2001 published
in the Gazette of India,
26

Extraordinary.
** Ins. Sr. 14 & 15 in Part A by Notification No. S.O. 1742
(E) dated the 10th October, 2006 published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary.
$$ Ins. Sr. 16 in Part A & Sr, No. 58 to 65 in Part B by Notification No. S.O. 2280 (E) dated
the 25th September,2008.

27

THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND

REGULATION) RULES, 1988
G.S.R. 847(E), dated 10th August, 1988 In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section
(1) of Sec. 18 of the said Act, the Central Government, hereby makes the following rules, namely
Comment
Rule-making power The general power of framing rules for effectuating the purposes of the
Act, would plainly authorize and sanctify the framing of such a rule.
1. Short title and commencement (1) These rules may be called the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 1988.
(2) They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the official Gazette.
Comment
These rules have been farmed by the Central Government in the exercise of the powers conferred
by Sec. 18 (1) of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 1986.
Rules Whether validly farmed The question whether rules are validly framed to carry out
the purposes of the Act can be determined on the analysis of the provisions of the Act.
2. Definitions In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires
(a) Act means the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 1986 (61 0f 1986);
(b) Committee means the Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under
subsection
28

(1) of Sec. 5 of the Act;

(c) Chairman means the Chairman of the Committee appointed under sub-section (2) of Sec. 5
of the Act;
(d) Form means a Form appended to these ruels;
(e) Register means the register required to be maintained under Sec. 11 of the Act;
(f) Schedule means the schedule appended to the Act;
(g) Section means a section of the Act.
Comment
This rule defines the various expressions occurring in the Rules.
Interpretation by a court The Court can merely interpret the section; it cannot re-write, recast or redesign the section.
Otherwise What amounts to The words otherwise is not to be construed ejusdem generic
with the word circulars, advertisement.
3. Term of office of the members of the Committee (1) The term of office of the members of
the Committee shall be one year from the date on which their appointment is notified in the
official Gazette.
Provided that the Central Government may extend the term of office of the member of the
Committee for a maximum period of two years.
Provided further that the member shall, notwithstanding the expiration of his term, continue to
hold office until his successor enters upon his office.
(2) The member appointed under sub-rule(1) shall be eligible for re-appointment.

29

Comment
shall cannot be interpreted as may
Proviso In Abdul Johar Butt v. State of Jammu and Kashmir, it was held that a proviso must be
considered with relation to the principal matter to which it stands as a proviso.
4. Secretary to the Committee The Central Government may appoint an officer not below the
rank of an Under-Secretary to the Government of India as Secretary of the Committee.
Comment
This rule empowers the Central Government to appoint an officer not below the rank of an nderSecretary to the Government of India as the Secretary to the Child Labour Technical Advisory
Committee.
5. Allowances to non-official members The non-official members and Chairman of the
Committee shall be paid such fees and allowances as may be admissible to the officers of the
Central Government drawing a pay of rupees four thousand and five hundred or above.
6. Registration (1) A member may resign his office by writing under his hand addressed to the
Chairman.
(2) The Chairman may resign his office by writing under his hand addressed to the Central
Government.
(3) The resignation referred to in sub-rule (1) and sub (2) shall take effect from the date of its
acceptance or on the expiry of thirty days from the date of receipt of such resignation, whichever
is earlier, by the Chairman or the Central Government, as the case may be.
7. Removal of Chairman or member of the Committee The Central Government may
remove the Chairman or any member of the Committee at any time before the expiry of the term
of office after giving him a reasonable opportunity of showing cause against the proposed
removal.
30

Comment
This rule lays down procedure for removal of Chairman or member of the Committee by the
Central Government.
8. Cessation of membership if a member
(a) is absent without leave of the Chairman for three or more consecutive meetings of the
Committee; or
(b) is declared to be of unsound mind by a competent court; or
(c) is or has been convicted of any offence which, in the opinion of the Central Government,
involves moral turpitude; or
(d) is, or at any time, has been adjudicated insolvent or has suspended his debts or has
compounded with his creditors, shall cease to be a member of the Committee.
Comment
This rule deals with the matter relating to cessation of membership.
9. Filling up of casual vacancies in case a member resigns his office under rule 6 or cases to
be a member under rule 8, the casual vacancy thus caused shall be filled up by the Central
Government and the member so appointed shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the term
of his predecessor.
Comment
This rule empower the Central Government to fill up casual vacancies and it lays down that the
member so appointed shall hold office for the unexpired portion of the term of his predecessor.
10. Time and place of meetings The Committee shall meet at such times and places as the
Chairman may fix in this behalf.
31

11. Notice of meetings The Secretary to the Committee shall give at least seven days notice to
every member of the Committee of the time and place fixed for each meeting along with the list
of business to be transacted at the said meeting.
12. Presiding at meetings The Chairman shall preside at every meeting of the Committee at
which he is present; if, however, the Chairman is unable to attend a meeting, any member elected
by the members present among themselves shall preside at the meeting.
Comment
Shall It is well-known principle that in the interpretation of statutes that where the situation
and the context warrants it, the word shall used in a sectionor rule of a statute has to be
construed as may.
13. Quorum No business shall be transacted at a meeting of the Committee unless atleast three
members of the Committee other than the Chairman other than the Chairman and the Secretary
are present.
Provided that at any meeting in which less than three of the total members are present, the
Chairman may adjourn the meeting to a date as he deems fit and inform the members present and
notify other members that the business of the scheduled meeting shall be disposed of at the
adjourned meeting irrespective of the quorum and it shall be lawful to dispose of the business at
such adjourned meeting irrespective of the member of members attending the meeting.
Comment
Scope of proviso The scope of a proviso is well settled. In Ram Narain Sons Ltd. V. Asstt.
Commissioner of Sales Tax, it was held :
It is a cardinal rule of interpretation that a proviso to a particular provision of statute only
embraces the field which is covered by the main provision. It carves out an exception to the main
provision to which it has been enacted as a proviso and to no other.

32

14. decision by majority All questions considered at a meeting of the Committee shall be
decided by a majority of votes of the members present and voting and in the event of equality of
votes, the Chairman, or in the absence of Chairman, the member presiding at the meeting, as the
case may be, shall have a second or casting cote.
Comment
This rule lays down that the matters considered by the Committee in its meeting should be
decided by a majority votes of the members present. The rule further lays down that the
Chairman or in his absence the member presiding at the meeting shall have a casting vote.
15. Sub-Committees The Committee may constitute one or more Sub-Committees, whether
consisting only of members of the Committee or partly of members of the Committee and partly
of other persons as it thinks fir, for such purposes, as it may decide and any Sub-Committee so
constituted shall discharge such functions as may be delegated to it by the Committee.
16. Register to be maintained under Sec. 11 of the Act. (1) Every occupier of an
establishment shall maintain a register in respect of children employed or permitted to work, in
Form A.
(2) The register shall be maintained on a yearly basis but shall be retained by the employer for a
period of three years after the date of the last entry made therein.
Comment
Under this rule every occupier of an establishment is required to maintain an yearly register
showing the children employed or permitted to work and to retain such registers for a period of
three years.
17. Certificate of age. - (1) All young persons in employment in any of the occupations set-forth
in Part A of the Schedule or in any workshop wherein any of the processes set forth in Part B of
the Schedule is carried on, shall produce a certificate of age from the appropriate medical
authority, whenever required to do so by an Inspector.

33

(2) The certificate of age referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be issued in Form B.
(3) The charges payable to the medical authority for the issue of such certificate shall be the
same as prescribed by the State Government or the Central Government, as the case may be for
their respective Medical Boards.
(4) The charges payable to the medical authority shall be borne by the employer of the young
person whose age is under question.
Explanation - For the purposes of sub-rule (1), the appropriate Medical authority shall be
Government medical doctor not below the rank of an Assistant Surgeon of a District or a regular
doctor or equivalent rank employed in Employees State Insurance dispensaries of hospitals.
Comment
Explanation - It is not well settled that an explanation added to a statutory provision is not a
substantive provision in any sense of the term but as the paling meaning of the word itself shows
it is merely meant to explain and clarify certain ambiguities which may have crept in the
statutory provision.

34

CHAPTER 3:

CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA AND ITS CAUSES

INTRODUCTION:
India is a country where child is considered as the appearance of god. But in todays world
specially in India child is not considered as a appearance of god. They are under the threat of
child labour. Once when I was sitting at a local hotel one day , i went there for having some food
when I saw a little boy cleaning a table in the far corner of the hotel. He was tiny and the
innocence, of childhood had not left his face. On the next table to me sat a happy family of four,
parents and their two children who would more or less be of the same age as of the child clearing
the table. While one set of kids were biting into tasty food, the other, half- starved, was working
hard to feed himself and his family at least one meal a day. So we can see child working to earn
their livelihood everyday everywhere.
Children are the gifts, they are the precious gifts presented by God to human life for filling the
world with smile, happiness, and hope. Children are the future citizens; it is childhood which
determines a childs future, his/her life and their worthy contributions to the world. . Childhood
is the time to develop the best physical, intellectual and mental capacity of children. But in the
present world most of the child doesnt get a childhood in which they can get education and
develop their physical, intellectual and mental capacity. The main reason behind this is Child
labour. Child labour is absolutely violations of a range of rights of children and it is recognised
as a serious and enormously complex social problem in India. Working children are denied their
right to survival and development, education, leisure and play, and adequate standard of living,
opportunity for developing personality, talents, mental and physical abilities, and protection from
abuse and neglect.
Usually, when we think of child labour, the first thing that comes to our mind is a child working
in a factory. But this is not only like that , child labour ranges from factories to mines, to
construction areas to small tea stalls and every other work. Children, who are at the receiving

35

end, end up with ruined lives, bleak and a misty future and physical as well as psychological
disorders.
The main reason behind the child labour is the poor families and illiteracy. The problem of child
labour is mostly seen in villages. Most of the families in villages are Below Poverty Line they
dont even have the sufficient foot of two times to eat so they all wants to engage in works and
wants to earn their livelihood and that is why they give pressure to their child to work and to earn
money. They are unaware of what is going on in outside of the world they always thinks that if a
child study then he will forget their parents and also he will not live with them. Because of that
they send their child to work in factories.
In India, officially there are around 16 million child labourers, but if we trust the unofficial
sources, the number crosses 60 million. A country where 70% of the population lives in rural
areas, around 50-60% children are being forced into child labour. Lets understand this evil and
try to curb it.

DEFINITIONS:
Child Labour, in general, means the employment of children in any work with or without
payment. Every child out of school in the age group of 5 to 14 years, children who are paid in
work, children who work outside the homes or children who in hazardous industries can be said
to be child labourers.
Child labor is defined by many organizations as any kind of work for children that harms them
or exploits them in some way may it be physically, mentally, morally or by depriving a child of
education. Child labor is a social menace in many parts of the world, especially developing
countries. There is a widespread practice of child labor in places like agriculture, factories,
mining, and quarrying etc.
According to Stein and Davies, child labour means any work by children that interferes with
their full physical development, the opportunities for a desirable minimum education and for
their needed recreation.
36

ORIGIN :
History of child labour can be traced to some dark realms of industrialisation. But a more
detailed study of this heinous, shameful practice can reveal that child labour was there much
before industrialisation in various forms like in child slavery.
If we turn the pages of History we see that there was a custom for youths from the Mediterranean
basin to serve as aides, charioteers and armed bearers to their adult counterparts. A few of such
examples can be found in Bibles when David serves his King Soul; we find the examples of
Hercules and Hylash in Greek Mythology as well. In Greece this practice was considered to be
an educational tradition and boys were considered to be an efficient fighting force. Hitler Youth
was an official organisation in the Nazi Army. During the battle of Berlin, this youth force was a
major part of the German Defences.
In India, children used to help and accompany their parents in agricultural and other household
activities in ancient times. Thus we see that child labour is not quite a new thing to the world.

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR :

India accounts for the second highest number where child labour of the world is concerned.
Africa accounts for the highest number of children employed and exploited. Over population,
poverty, parental illiteracy, lack of proper education, urbanisations, availability of cheap child
labour are some common causes of wide-spread child labour.

POVERTY:
In India over 40% of population is under the poverty line and this is where the child labour is
endemic. The unrelenting poverty forces the parents to push their young children in all forms of
hazardous occupations. Child labour is a source of earning bread and butter for poor families. In
some cases, a childs income accounted for between 34 and 37 percent of the total household
income for these families. Some parents being in huge debts, sold or abandoned their children to
factory owners.
37

It is poverty that makes parents/guardians send their children to the streets to hawk, it is poverty
that makes parents send out their children to prostitute, it is poverty that make the elders sell their
children for child trafficking, it is poverty that makes parents allow their children to be employed
into formal and informal sectors for daily or monthly pay, it is poverty that makes parents deny
their children education and allow them to wallow in dirt and unhygienic conditions in the name
of working and it is poverty that makes the child to work for gaining money in his early age. In
fact, every form of child exploitation is linked to poverty.
Most of the children involved are working to assist their families. For some it is necessary to
work to raise money for their education. To others it is a way to help their parents generate more
income to pay for basic needs such as food.
As i described above that in India in villages most of the families are BPL families and they do
not have sufficient food to eat so they wants to send their child in to factories and somewhere to
work.
Its poverty that forces them to push their young kids into the gallows because at the end of the
day, its money that matter to them. We can say, child labour and poverty are just two sides of a
coin. Poverty is the head and child labour is the tail. If the tail has to be cut then the head needs
to be chopped off first.

ILLETERACY AND LACK OF EDUCATION:

This is also considered as the one of the greatest reason behind child labour. In india in villages
most of the peoples are illiterate and they never wished to send their children outside of their
villages. Once when i was doing my winter internship in Vikalp Sansthan we went to schedule
areas and we were asking them that why they are not sending their children to the school then
they replied that we do not want to send our child to the schools because he will earn more
money if he will do his paternal work. They also said that if he study and became an officer he
will forget us and never comes to meet us.

38

Illiteracy is a situation when a person is not able to read and/or write. This is when the person is
not in a position to get even primary education. Lack of education is another aspect which is a
result of illiteracy and lack of information. An uneducated person is one who is generally
unaware of things which an average person is required to know. Such people are normally
unaware of their human rights and the rights of their children too. The children of such people
normally become child labourers around their homes.

Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome proper physical,
cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and
unexposed, so they dont realize the importance of education for their children.
Illiteracy is at the root of many problems. Parents who are uneducated tend to send their children
to work instead of to study. Moreover, they may feel that primary education, which is offered for
free by the government, will not be enough to earn the child a good wage. Therefore, they prefer
to send their children to work at very young ages so that they can master the work by the time
they become teenagers. In addition, parents with a large number of children and often other
family members at home need extra income from their children to lead a normal life, having
39

three meals every day. Thus, often parents, who want their children to go to school, dont send
their child to the school.

IRRESPONSIBLE ATTITUDE OF EMPLOYERS:

A general sense of irresponsibility towards society is seen the employers in India who are least
bothered as to how their employees survive. In spite of being aware of the high cost of living and
inflation they are least bothered and least ashamed to pay wages which are much below
sustenance levels. Also if the employers were responsible they in the first place would not
employ children at all

HIGH POPULATION:
This is also the thinking of the people that in todays world the population is very high and
continuously increasing and each and every person will not get job. Even if our child will go to
the schools and we spend money on that that will in vain because he will not job. I have seen
many instances of small children in villages caring for the cows and doing other household work,
because their parents do not send them to the school.
The industrialists in India have been successful in taking advantage of this disadvantage faced by
job seekers. Due to high population the job seekers not in a position to bargain a higher wage. As
a result the poor remain poor working for low wages and people engage their child in the work.

IMPORTANCE TO THE AGRICULTURE:

Historically the working force of child workers is more in rural areas compared to urban
settings. Nine out of ten village children are employed in household industries and craftwork
and in agriculture. Children are more employed by their parents in the agriculture sector because
as India is the agriculture based country and more people are willing to do the agriculture and
definitely they earn good money from that but when the period of drought comes people cannt
do agriculture as there is no water especially in Rajasthan then the people starts to go to the
factories for working and also they took their childrens with them.

BONDED CHILD LABOUR:

40

Bonded labour is a hidden cause of child labour. Bonded labour means the employment of a
person against a loan or debt or social obligation by the family of the child or the family as a
whole. It is a form of slavery. Children who are bonded with their family or inherit a debt from
their parents are often found in agricultural sector or assisting their families in brick kilns, and
stone quarries. Individual pledging of children is a growing occurrence that usually leads to
trafficking of children to urban areas for employment and have children working in small
production houses versus factories. Bonded labourers in India are mostly migrant workers, which
opens them up to more exploitation. Also they mostly come from low caste groups such as dalits
or marginalised tribal groups. Bonded child labourers are at very high risk for physical and
sexual abuse and neglect sometimes leading to death. They often are psychologically and
mentally disturbed and have not learnt many social skills or survival skills.

THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION:

The industrial revolution has also had a negative effect by giving rise to circumstances which
encourages child labour. Sometimes multi-nationals prefer to employ child labourers in
developing countries especially in garment industries only because they can be recruited for less
pay and more work can be extracted from them and there is no problem of union with them. This
attitude also makes it difficult for adults to find job in factories, forcing them to drive their little
ones to work in factories.

FATALIST ATTITUDE OF THE POOR TOWARDS LIFE :

Most of the people belonging to the lowest strata of society in India have a fatalist and
submissive attitude towards life. They do not believe that that their lot can be better. Their fathers
were workers and they will also engage their children in the labour, they dont think that their
position can be better if their child study.

ORPHANAGE:
Orphanage is another reason of child labour. Children born out of wed-lock, children with no
parents and relatives, often do not find anyone to support which forces them to work for their
41

own survival. The person who is the owner of the orphanage 1 st tells the people that they will
allow the children to study but slowely and gradually they starts to put them under the child
labour .

TRADITION OF MAKING CHILDREN LEARNS THE FAMILY SKILLS:

It is evident in the rural areas that the paternalistic profession is generally imitated by his sons
also, Since the collective aim of the family is to yield pecuniary benefits, they have none other
resort left but to incorporate ones own child in the money making so as to facilitate their
prosperity. A person who is by work Potter in the village always tries and wants to make his
child more skilful in this wok he will not admit his son in the school.

SOCIAL APATHY AND TOLERANCE OF CHILD LABOUR:

It is a socially rooted conviction in the common people that rather than sending their children to
schools for receiving education, they should be used in labouring so as to achieve the target of
money making for their sole survival. In today in villages if a person send their girl daughter to
schools then the person of the society tells them that why are you westing your money on her one
day she will go in others house so its better to engage her in the work and hence they give her
stress to work in the factories etc.

PARENTAL IGNORANCE REGARDING THE BAD EFFECTS OF CHILD

LABOUR :
The practice of child labour not just devoid a child of his basic rights to live and study but also
affects his future. Parents are ignorant about what will be the bad effects of child labour They
put stress on their child to work in the factories and in reaustraunts and at cheap shops they are
unaware about the bad effects of child labour, they are unaware It is also very difficult to
immature minds and undeveloped bodies to understand and organise themselves against
exploitation in the absence of adult guidance.

42

Thus we can say that

ineffectiveness of child labour laws in terms of implementation, non-

availability and non-accessibility to schools are some of the other factors which encourages the
phenomenon of child labour.

GOVERNMENTS POLICIES
Child labour is a matter on which both the Union Government and state governments can
legislate. A number of legislative initiatives have been undertaken at both levels. The problem of
child labour continues to pose a challenge before the state. Government has been taking various
pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of
the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty
and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the
problem.
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: The Act prohibits the employment
of children below the age of 14 years in 13 occupations and 57 processes that are hazardous to
the children's lives and health. These occupations and processes are listed in the Schedule to the
Act;
The Factories Act, 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14
years. A teenager aged between 15 and 18 years can be employed in a factory only if he obtains a
certificate of fitness from an authorized medical doctor. According to this Act child aged between
14 and 18 can work per day four and a half hour and prohibits their working during night hours.
An important judicial intervention in the action against child labour in India was the 1996
Supreme Court judgment, directing the Union and state governments to identify all children
working in hazardous processes and occupations, to withdraw them from work, and to provide
them with quality education. The Court also directed that a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cumWelfare Fund be set up using contributions from employers who contravene the Child Labour
Act.
43

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.

In Northern India the exploitation of little children for labor is an accepted practice and
perceived by the local population as a necessity to alleviate poverty. Carpet weaving industries
pay very low wages to child laborers and make them work for long hours in unhygienic
conditions. Children working in such units are mainly migrant workers from Northern India, who
are shunted here by their families to earn some money and send it to them. Their families
dependence on their income, forces them to endure the onerous work conditions in the carpet
factories. 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. Seventy five percent of Indian population still resides
in rural areas and are very poor. Children in rural families who are ailing with poverty perceive
their children as an income generating resource to supplement the family income. Parents
sacrifice their childrens education to the growing needs of their younger siblings in such
families and view them as wage earners for the entire clan.

The Indian government has tried to take some steps to alleviate the problem of child labor in
recent years by invoking a law that makes the employment of children below 14 illegal, except in
family owned enterprises. However this law is rarely adhered to due to practical difficulties.
Factories usually find loopholes and circumvent the law by declaring that the child laborer is a
44

distant family member. Also in villages there is no law implementing mechanism, and any
punitive actions for commercial enterprises violating these laws is almost non existent.
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.

Bonded labor traps the growing child in a hostage like condition for years. The importance of
formal education is also not realized, as the child can be absorbed in economically beneficial
activities at a young age. Moreover there is no access to proper education in the remote areas of
rural India for most people, which leaves the children with no choice

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. Poverty and over population have
been identified as the two main causes of child labor. Parents are forced to send little children
into hazardous jobs for reasons of survival, even when they know it is wrong. Monetary
constraints and the need for food, shelter and clothing drives their children in the trap of
45

premature labor. Over population in some regions creates paucity of resources. When there are
limited means and more mouths to feed children are driven to commercial activities and not
provided for their development needs. This is the case in most Asian and African countries.
Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for wholesome proper physical,
cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and
unexposed, so they dont realize the importance of education for their children. Adult
unemployment and urbanization also causes child labor. 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 labor of poor helpless
children.
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 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.
The incidence of child labor would diminish considerably even in the face of poverty, if there are
no parties willing to exploits them. Strict implementation of child labor laws and practical and
healthy alternatives to replace this evil can go a long way to solve the problem of child labor.
Children who are born out of wedlock, orphaned or abandoned are especially vulnerable to
exploitation. They are forced to work for survival when there are no adults and relatives to
support them. Livelihood considerations can also drive a child into the dirtiest forms of child
labor like child prostitution and organized begging.

STOP CHILD LABOR

46

The future of a community is in the well being of its children. The above fact is beautifully
expressed by Wordsworth in his famous lines child is father of the man. So it becomes
imperative for the health of a nation to protect its children from premature labor which is
hazardous to their mental, physical, educational and spiritual development needs. It is urgently
required to save children from the murderous clutches of social injustice and educational
deprivation, and ensure that they are given opportunities for healthy, normal and happy growth.
The venerable Indian poet Rabindranth Tagore has said time and again, that every country is
absolutely bound by its duty to provide free primary education to its children. It is important to
remember that industrialization can afford to wait but youth cannot be captured for long. It is
imperative that the basic tenet made in article 24 of the Indian constitution - prohibiting the
employment of any child below fourteen years of age, in a factory, mine or any other hazardous
employment be stopped be adhered to. There should be no ambiguity in ensuring the right of
every child to free basic education and the promise of the constitution should be fully
implemented in the here and now.

Projects related with human resource development, dedicated to the child welfare issues must be
given top priority by the central and state governments to stop the menace of child labor. Child
labor laws need to be strictly implemented at the central and state levels. Corruption and
negligence in child labor offices and employee circles should be dealt with very strictly by the
judiciary and the police force.

The development needs of growing children can only be provided for, by stopping the onerous
practice of child labor in organized and non organized sectors with utmost sincerity. This is the
only way a nation can train its children to be wholesome future citizens, who are happy and
prosperous. The provision of equal and proper opportunities for the educational needs of growing
children in accordance with constitutional directives will go a long way in stopping the evil
practice of child labor.

47

Concerned about the future of its children India has implemented a country- wide ban recently,
on children below fourteen working in the hospitality sector and as domestics. It is intended that
those who are found to violate the law will be fined with 430 dollars and sent into rigorous
imprisonment for two years. Children in India are not allowed to work in mines, factories and
other hazardous jobs already. Two more professions have been added in a list of fifty seven
occupations which were considered hazardous for a childs development needs in the child labor
act passed in 1986. Childs rights activists are waxing eloquent in high pitched voices about the
absolute importance of stopping child labor. But legislation in this regard is just like an intention.
It is more important to take development measures to ensure its practical application by
eliminating the reasons of child labor from our society. The reasons giving birth to child labor are
poverty, illiteracy, scarcity of schools, ignorance, socially regressive practices, blind customs and
traditions, migration and last but not the least corruption amongst employees and government
labor organizations. People should not be able to get away with employing and exploiting
children.

ILO/IPEC
CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
Poverty is undoubtedly a dominant factor in the use of child labour; families on or below the
poverty line force their children into work to supplement their household's meager income.
Eradicating poverty, however, is only the first step on the road to eliminating child labour.

48

There are many other factors that conspire to drive children into employment, none of which is
unique to any one country or any one family's circumstances. Only when we fully understand
these reasons can we begin to address the problems associated with child labour:
Cuts in social spending - particularly education and the health services - have a direct impact on
poverty. With little or no access to schooling, children are forced into employment at an early age
in order to survive
Child labour may not even be recognised when children work as part of the family unit. This is
particularly common in agriculture, where an entire family may have to work to meet a particular
quota or target and cannot afford to employ outside help
Children may also be expected to act as unpaid domestic servants in their own home, taking care
of the family's needs while both parents work
Parents may effectively "sell" their children in order to repay debts or secure a loan
The prevalence of AIDS throughout many developing countries has resulted in an enormous
number of orphans who are forced to become their own breadwinners
The demand for cheap labour by contractors means that children are often offered work in place
of their parents. With such narrow margins, contractors such as produce-growers and loomowners know that children can be exploited and forced to work for much less than the minimum
wage
Children may also be sent into hazardous jobs in favour of parents, who can less afford the time
or money to become ill or injured
Child soldiers are forcibly enlisted into military service and operations
Employers often justify the use of children by claiming that a child's small, nimble hands are
vital to the production of certain products such as hand-knotted carpets and delicate glassware
-although evidence for this is limited

49

The international sex trade places great value on child prostitutes. Girls -and to a lesser extent
boys- are kidnapped from their homes (or sold) to networks of child traffickers supplying
overseas markets; poverty and sexual and racial discrimination also drive children into the tourist
sex trade
Young workers are unaware of their rights and less likely to complain or revolt. In many
countries, the legislation is simply not effective enough to support these workers
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

50

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.
Child labour
This section looks at the issue of child labour and its links with HIV/AIDS. Children and young
people are being forced to work more as a result of HIV/AIDS. This is one of the problems
which occur as result of responses to the economic problems faced by orphans and other
vulnerable children. Another section looks in detail at issues of economic and sexual
exploitation.
Key points about child labour are:
1. Most societies expect children and young people to do some form of work. This is particularly
the case in developing countries. Children are expected to play a part in family work from an
early age. Some tasks, such as herding of livestock are done almost exclusively by children.
2. The extent to which children and young people are expected to work appears to be increasing
in developing countries. Poverty, disasters and HIV/AIDS all increase the number of children
working. Working children may also be more vulnerable to being infected with HIV.
3. Some documents distinguish between child labour, which harms the child and child work,
which does not.
4. Children and young people carry out a wide-variety of work. Working children are vulnerable
to exploitation and abuse. However, there are also benefits to children and young people from
working.

51

5. Worst forms of child labour include prostitution, slavery, trafficking of children, debt bondage
and forced labour.
6. Effective responses will seek to empower children and young people and to protect them from
abuse and exploitation.
Child Work and Child Labour
Most societies expect children and young people to do some form of work. This is particularly
the case in developing countries. Children and young people are expected to play a part in family
work from an early age. Some tasks, such as herding of livestock are done almost exclusively by
children.
Some documents, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, distinguish between
child work and child labour. Child work is seen as activities which do not harm the child,
whereas child labour does. However, other documents see both as forms of child labour. This
section uses the term child labour to mean all forms of child work, not necessarily those that are
harmful.
Much of the focus on the problems of child labour has been on paid work. However, this may not
be helpful because unpaid child labour may harm the child. In fact, unpaid child labour may be
more exploitative than paid labour.
HIV/AIDS and Child Labour
Until recently, there had been little direct research into the linkages between child labour and
HIV/AIDS. However, this has been studied intensively in several countries in recent years. These
studies show that the economic effects of HIV/AIDS are resulting in more children and young
people working. This is particularly true of children and young people who have no adult to care
for them. Other factors, such as poverty and disasters also increase child labour. Working
children are also more vulnerable to contracting HIV infection.
Types of Child Labour

52

Children and young people work in a wide variety of different areas. These include:
Providing care within a family, for example to a sick adult relative.
Domestic work - This may be paid or unpaid and provided wither to a relative or non-relative.
This is sometimes referred to as a hidden form of child labour. This is because it is not easily
visible and is rarely covered by campaigns on child labour. Most of the children and young
people involved in domestic work are girls.
Different forms of agriculture - including both commercial and subsistence farming.
Selling items on the street .
Transportation of goods.
Work in warehouses and factories.
Work in the fishing industry.
Mining.
Work in the military.
Selling sex. This may involve very young children.
Some forms of child labour may not always be harmful to a child, such as domestic work or
agriculture. Whether or not harm occurs will depend on the conditions the child works under.
However, other forms of child labour such as working as a soldier or selling sex always mean
that the child involved is vulnerable to harm.
Harmful Effects of Child Labour
There are many harmful effects of child labour. These include:
Low pay . Children and young people are often paid much less for work done than adults, for
example they may only receive one quarter of adult wages. There is also evidence that increased
53

use of child labour reduces adult wages. This is because child labour increases competition for
jobs directly and indirectly by enabling more women to work.
Long hours . Some children and young people are expected to work excessive hours, for
example, up to 12-16 hours per day.
Loss of educational opportunities . Many children and young people who work either withdraw
from school or find that their educational performance declines because of the work they are
doing.
Physical harm . Working children may experience physical harm in a number of ways. These
include:
- Increased risk of accidents - children and young people often work in unregulated environments
where little attention is paid to safety.
- Assault - working children often experience violence in the workplace from adult staff and
managers. Children and young people working in the street are also at risk of physical violence
from police officers and other authority figures.
- Violent theft - this is also a risk faced by street vendors.
- Risk of illness from poor hygiene and exposure to bad weather.
- Harmful effects of pesticides.
Sexual abuse . This includes rape. Effects include unwanted pregnancy, sexually-transmitted
infections and HIV infection.
Abuse and exploitation . These include prostitution, slavery, trafficking, debt bondage and forced
labour.
In general, girls are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of child labour than boys.
Responses to Child Labour
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Many of the responses to child labour have focused on introducing laws to make child labour
illegal. Sanctions have then sometimes been applied to companies which break those laws.
However, there are problems with this approach. These problems include:
Failing to clearly distinguish between harmful and non-harmful forms of child labour.
Failing to recognise the benefits to children and their families of working. These benefits
include:
- The financial contribution made by the child to individual and family livelihoods. These can be
essential for survival.
- Learning important skills for living and earning.
- Improving education opportunities. This may be by making funds available or by working in a
place where education is provided.
- The pride and self-esteem felt by children and young people because of the work they do.
Failing to recognise the harmful effects of children and young people not working, particularly in
situations of extreme poverty.
Rules and regulations are usually only able to be enforced in formal employment. This forces
children and young people to work in informal, unregulated work where they are more
vulnerable. For example, children and young people are not allowed to work in the formal
mining sector. However, many children and young people work in informal mines in appalling
conditions.
Laws which prevent children and young people from working can be used by people in authority,
such as the police, to harass and physically assault children and young people who are working.
Consequently, it may be more effective to work in ways which recognise that children and young
people do work in most societies and that this is an essential survival mechanism in situations of
poverty. Actions could then focus on:
55

Targeting abusive and exploitative forms of child labour, such as child prostitution.
Training children and finding other ways of protecting them from risk.
Finding new ways of educating children and young people who are working other than
traditional schools.
Supporting working children to speak and act for themselves through the formation of their own
organisations and movements
LEGAL CASES
EXPLOITATION OF CHILD LABOURERS IN INDIA
1. By T. Kala
8 June 2006
The desperate conditions affecting the rural as well as the urban poor in India are forcing
growing numbers of children to toil often in subhuman conditions. They are deprived of their
most basic rights as children, including education and a joyful childhood. Most have never been
to school or dropped out at very young ages.
Estimates of the number of child labourers vary widely. According to a 1991 census, 11.2 million
children aged between 5 and 14 were working in India. But other estimates put the figure far
higher. In a supreme court case last December, Ashok Aggarwal, an advocate for a group of nongovernment organisations, submitted that 100 million children were out of school and working
half of Indias 200 million children.
India has the largest number of child workers in the world. They are employed in many
industries and trades, including garments, footwear, brick kilns, stainless steel, hotels, and textile
shops. Many work in export-oriented hazardous industries like carpet weaving, gem polishing,
glass blowing, match works, brassware, electro-plating, lead mining, stone quarrying, lock
making and beedi rolling.
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2. The south Indian state of Tamil Nadu has a large concentration of child labourers. An
estimated 100,000 childrenthree quarters of them girlsare employed in the match
factories, tobacco mills, tea houses and rock quarries located on the drought-prone plains
of interior Tamil Nadu (see http://ssmu.mcgill.ca/journals/latitudes/4india.htm).
Small hotels account for much of the child labour in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadus capital,
according to a survey by Peace Trust, a non-government organisation. As much as 43.28 percent
of Chennai citys total child workforce work in small hotels and are badly exploited, while
medium hotels employ 29.10 percent, and nearly 27.62 percent are employed by large units. It
adds: Nearly 52 percent of child labourers in the city are between 12 and 14 years of age and
these children have been subjected to poor working conditions, long hours of work, low payment
and sexual abuse.
3. A study by the Pasumai Trust, Tiruvallur, and the Peoples Forum for Human Rights in
Chennai in 2005 found that children working in brick kilns in Tamil Nadu suffered
prolonged exposure to sand, dust and heat, leading to skin and stomach problems. They
also experienced wheezing, asthma and stunted development, as well as menstrual
dysfunction among adolescent girls. Accidents were also common, leading to face
fractures and other major injuries.

4. A Madras School of Social Work study found that among children employed as
mechanics, factory and construction workers and weavers, 31 percent worked 10 to 11
hours daily and 22 percent worked 12 to 13 hours. In the unorganised sectors, children
were paid piece rates, resulting in even longer hours for very low pay.
WSWS correspondents spoke to some child labourers in Chennai about their working and living
conditions. Ramesh, 14, lives with his mother and younger sister in Ayanavaram, a Chennai
suburb. His mother works in an embroidery company and earns 100 rupees ($US2) per day. Her
work starts at 10 am and she returns home at 9 pm. There is no work for her many days. I studied
up to 6th standard, but I found it difficult to continue my studies. When I was 11 years I took this

57

job in order to learn mechanical work. My work starts at 9 am and finishes at 7 pm. I get paid 50
rupees ($1) per week.
5. Parvathi, 12, lost her parents at a young age. Her elder sister Selvi is 16. Our mothers
elder sister sent us to a Christian mission hostel. There we ate only low quality rice and
rasam every day. Apart from study time, we used to do washing and cleaning. Since we
didnt want to stay in the hostel any longer, our auntie took us home. She persuaded my
sister to get a job in a leather company and I found a job in an export company. I get paid
800 rupees ($16) per month.
For her work in the leather factory, Selvi gets 900 rupees ($18) a month. Since I started this job
I have been suffering from breathlessness. I often fall sick and have to go to a government
hospital for treatment. I have become slim as a result, she said.
6. Geetha, 14, lives with her parents and a younger brother. I studied up to 3rd standard
only as I couldnt continue my studies due to poverty. My father is a load lifter but
doesnt get regular work. My mother works at five places as a domestic maid. Generally
she cooks only dinner at home, and at other times we eat food that she brings from her
workplaces.
She has been doing domestic work since she was young. As a result, she falls sick frequently.
She suffers from headaches and sores in her hands and feet. Unable to afford proper treatment,
she just buys medicine at the medical shop for 5 rupees (US10 cents). Although we are both
working, we are struggling to pay the rent and other family expenses.
Because of our poverty, my parents wanted me to become an apprentice at an embroidery
company when I was 10. Then I was paid 15 rupees (US 30 cents) per day. My normal working
day is 11 hours, from 8 am to 7 pm. Now after four years I get 50 rupees ($1) per day. When I do
overtime from 7 pm to 10 pm, I get an extra wage of 20 rupees (40 cents).

58

Governments turn blind eye to sweatshops

In Indias commercial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), there are thousands of small units known as
zari factories. Boys aged 6-14 work 20 hours a day, seven days a week, kneeling at low tables
sewing beads and coloured threads on to vast lengths of fabric. A zari factory is a 3 m x 3 m
room with dirty floors and hardly any ventilation. The boys have to work, wash, eat and sleep in
the same room, with a small smelly bathroom in one corner. They are given only two meals a
day.
Following the deaths last year of 12-year-old Afzai Ansari and 11-year-old Ahmed Khan, child
workers in zari factories, the Maharastra state government was forced to carry out some raids,
which rescued over 16,000 children and sent them back to their villages. However, many of
the saved children have returned to the sweatshops. This is nothing but recycling of child
labour, Ashok Agarwal, a lawyer and civil rights activist, said.
According to the Maharastra labour department, most of the boys are migrants from very poor
districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in northern India. There are no schools in their villages or
even close by. Their parents have no land for cultivation and work for pittances like 10-20 rupees
(20-40 cents) a daythat is, if they can find work. Parents send their children to work in
Mumbai mistakenly believing that they would escape misery.
Regardless of various legislation and court orders to abolish child labour, it has continued for
more than a half century. Civil rights organisations insist that child labour violates the
fundamental rights of children under the Indian constitution. Yet, Indian governments have
consistently refused to ratify an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention that seeks to
outlaw the worst forms of child labour.
The ILO convention defines a child as one below 18 years of age and stipulates that the
minimum age for employment shall not be less than the age for completion of compulsory
schooling. Indian legal provisions define the maximum age for compulsory education, and also
the minimum age for employment, as 14.

59

Indian laws, such as the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, do not prohibit
child labour but ban it only in certain sectors such as hazardous industries. But even if tougher
laws were introduced, they would not substantially reduce the use of child workers because the
root causes lie deeper, in the terrible poverty of their families.
In 2003, the previous Tamil Nadu government of chief minister Jayalalitha Jayaram pledged to
end child labour in hazardous industries by 2005 and abolish it altogether by 2007. The central
United Peoples Alliance governments Common Minimum Programme also promised to put an
end to the practice. Instead, the barbaric exploitation of children is intensifying.
During the recent Tamil Nadu election campaign, various political parties promised assorted
welfare measures to deceive the people. Not accidentally, none of them even addressed child
labour. The first step in ensuring tens of millions of children are able to continue their education
is ensure a decent income to their parentssomething that the capitalist class is organically
incapable of doing.
Child labour, or child labor, 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. ...
The employment of children who are under the legal (or generally recognised) minimum age

1. Employment of children under a specified minimum age. 2. Work that harmful to a child's
physical or mental health, development, or education, and that is therefore targeted for
elimination by labor standards.

No workers under the age of 15; (or 14 where the law of the country permits) or under the
minimum age for employment in the country.

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CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR

Stunted growth of future generation
Inability to harness human resources
Inability to contribute to development
Inability to benefit from development
Citizens with accumulated frustration
Adult unemployment
Depreciation in wages
Perpetuation of poverty
Persistence of child labour
Perpetuation of economic inequality
Increased abuse of children

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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

62

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR

OVER POPULATION: Most of the Asian and African countries are overpopulated. Due to
limited resourses and more mouths to feed, Children are employed in various forms of work.

ILLITERACY: Illiterate parents do not realize the need for a proper physical,emotional and
cognitive development of a child. As they are uneducated, they do not realize the importance of
education for their children.

POVERTY: Many a time poverty forces parents to send their children to hazardous jobs.
Although they know it is wrong,they have no other alternative as they need the money.

URBANIZATION: The Industrial Revolution has its own negative side. Many a time MNC's and
export industries in the developing world employ whild workers, particularly in the garment
industry.

UNEMPLOYMENT OF ELDERS: Elders often find it difficult to get jobs. The industrialists and
factory owners find it profitable to employ children. This is so because they can pay less and
extract more work. They will also not create union problem.

ORPHANS: Children born out of wedlock, children with no parents and relatives, often do not
find anyone to support them. Thus they are forced to work for their own living.

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WILLINGNESS TO EXPLOIT CHILDREN: This is at the root of the problem Even if a family
is very poor, the incidence of child labour will be very low unless there are people willing to
exploit these children

CHAPTER 4:
PRESENT DAY

A young boy recycling garbage in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in 2006

Child labour is still common in some parts of the world, it can be factory work, mining,
prostitution, quarrying, agriculture, helping in the parents' business, having one's own small
business (for example selling food), or doing odd jobs. Some children work as guides for
tourists, sometimes combined with bringing in business for shops and restaurants (where they
may also work as waiters). Other children are forced to do tedious and repetitive jobs such as:
64

assembling boxes, polishing shoes, stocking a store's products, or cleaning. However, rather than
in factories and sweatshops, most child labour occurs in the informal sector, "selling many things
on the streets, at work in agriculture or hidden away in housesfar from the reach of official
labour inspectors and from media scrutiny." And all the work that they did was done in all types
of weather; and was also done for minimal pay. As long as there is family poverty there will be
child labour.
According to UNICEF, there are an estimated 158 million children aged 5 to 14 in child labour
worldwide, excluding child domestic labour. The United Nations and the International Labour
Organization consider child labour exploitative, with the UN stipulating, in article 32 of the
Convention on the Rights of the Child that:
...States Parties recognize 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.
Although globally there is an estimated 250 milllion children working.
In the 1990s every country in the world except for Somalia and the United States became a
signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or CRC. However according to the
United Nations Foundation Somalia signed the convention in 2002, the delay of the signing was
believed to been due to Somalia not having a government to sign the convention. The CRC
provides the strongest, most consistent international legal language prohibiting illegal child
labour; however it does not make child labour illegal.

65

A boy repairing a tire in Gambia

Poor families often rely on the labours of their children for survival, and sometimes it is their
only source of income. This type of work is often hidden away because it is not always in the
industrial sector. Child labour is employed in subsistence agriculture and in the urban informal
sector; child domestic work is also important. In order to benefit children, child labour
prohibition has to address the dual challenge of providing them with both short-term income and
long-term prospects. Some youth rights groups, however, feel that prohibiting work below a
certain age violates human rights, reducing children's options and leaving them subject to the
whims of those with money.
In a recent paper, Basu and Van (1998) argue that the primary cause of child labour is parental
poverty. That being so, they caution against the use of a legislative ban against child labour, and
argue that should be used only when there is reason to believe that a ban on child labour will
cause adult wages to rise and so compensate adequately the households of the poor children.
Child labour is still widely used today in many countries, including India and Bangladesh. CACL
estimated that there are between 70 and 80 million child labourers in India.

66

Child labour accounts for 22% of the workforce in Asia, 32% in Africa, 17% in Latin America,
1% in US, Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations. The proportion of child labourers varies a
lot among countries and even regions inside those countries.
RECENT CHILD LABOUR INCIDENTS

Young girl working on a loom in At Benhaddou, Morocco in May 2008.

BBC recently reported on Primark using child labour in the manufacture of clothing. In
particular a 4.00 hand embroidered shirt was the starting point of a documentary produced by
BBC's Panorama (TV series) programme. The programme asks consumers to ask themselves,
"Why am I only paying 4 for a hand embroidered top? This item looks handmade. Who made it
for such little cost?", in addition to exposing the violent side of the child labour industry in
countries where child exploitation is prevalent. As a result of the programme, Primark took
action and sacked the relevant companies, and reviewed their supplier procedures.
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company operate a metal plantation in Liberia which is the focus
of a global campaign called Stop Firestone. Workers on the plantation are expected to fulfil a
high production quota or their wages will be halved, so many workers brought children to work.
The International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Firestone (The International Labor
Fund vs. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) in November 2005 on behalf of current child
67

labourers and their parents who had also been child labourers on the plantation. On June 26,
2007, the judge in this lawsuit in Indianapolis, Indiana denied Firestone's motion to dismiss the
case and allowed the lawsuit to proceed on child labour claims.
On November 21, 2005, An Indian NGO activist Junned Khan, with the help of the Labour
Department and NGO Pratham mounted the country's biggest ever raid for child labour rescue in
the Eastern part of New Delhi, the capital of India. The process resulted in rescue of 480 children
from over 100 illegal embroidery factories operating in the crowded slum area of Seelampur. For
next few weeks, government, media and NGOs were in a frenzy over the exuberant numbers of
young boys, as young as 5-6 year olds, released from bondage. This rescue operation opened the
eyes of the world to the menace of child labour operating right under the nose of the largest
democracy in the whole world.
After the news of child labourers working in embroidery industry was uncovered in the Sunday
Observer on 28 October 2007, BBA activists swung into action. The GAP Inc. in a statement
accepted that the child labourers were working in production of GAP Kids blouses and has
already made a statement to pull the products from the shelf. In spite of the documentation of the
child labourers working in the high-street fashion and admission by all concerned parties, only
the SDM could not recognise these children as working under conditions of slavery and bondage.
Distraught and desperate that these collusions by the custodians of justice, founder of BBA
Kailash Satyarthi, Chairperson of Global March Against Child Labour appealed to the
Honourable Chief Justice of Delhi High Court through a letter at 11.00 pm. This order by the
Honourable Chief Justice comes when the government is taking an extremely retrogressive
stance on the issue of child labour in sweatshops in India and threatening 'retaliatory measures'
against child rights organisations.
In a parallel development, Global March Against Child Labour and BBA are in dialogue with the
GAP Inc. and other stakeholders to work out a positive strategy to prevent the entry of child
labour in to sweatshops and device a mechanism of monitoring and remedial action. GAP Inc.
Senior Vice President, Dan Henkle in a statement said: "We have been making steady progress,
and the children are now under the care of the local government. As our policy requires, the
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vendor with which our order was originally placed will be required to provide the children with
access to schooling and job training, pay them an ongoing wage and guarantee them jobs as soon
as they reach the legal working age. We will now work with the local government and with
Global March to ensure that our vendor fulfils these obligations."
On October 28, Joe Eastman, president of Gap North America, responded, "We strictly prohibit
the use of child labor. This is non-negotiable for us and we are deeply concerned and upset by
this allegation. As we've demonstrated in the past, Gap has a history of addressing challenges
like this head-on, and our approach to this situation will be no exception. In 2006, Gap Inc.
ceased business with 23 factories due to code violations. We have 90 people located around the
world whose job is to ensure compliance with our Code of Vendor Conduct. As soon as we were
alerted to this situation, we stopped the work order and prevented the product from being sold in
stores. While violations of our strict prohibition on child labor in factories that produce product
for the company are extremely rare, we have called an urgent meeting with our suppliers in the
region to reinforce our policies."
In early August 2008, Iowa Labor Commissioner David Neil announced that his department had
found that Agriprocessors, a kosher meatpacking company in Postville which had recently been
raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, had employed 57 minors, some as young as
14, in violation of state law prohibiting anyone under 18 from working in a meatpacking plant.
Neil announced that he was turning the case over to the state Attorney General for prosecution,
claiming that his department's inquiry had discovered "egregious violations of virtually every
aspect of Iowa's child labor laws." Agriprocessors claimed that it was at a loss to understand the
allegations.
In 1997, research indicated that the number of child labourers in the silk-weaving industry in the
district of Kanchipuram in India exceeded 40,000. This included children who were bonded
labourers to loom owners. Rural Institute for Development Education undertook many activities
to improve the situation of child labourers. Working collaboratively, RIDE brought down the
number of child labourers to less than 4,000 by 2007

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Child labour is also often used in the production of cocoa powder, used to make chocolate. See
Economics of cocoa.

DEFENSE OF CHILD LABOUR

Child workers on a farm in Maine, October 1940

Concerns have often been raised over the buying public's moral complicity in purchasing
products assembled or otherwise manufactured in developing countries with child labour.
However, others have raised concerns that boycotting products manufactured through child
labour may force these children to turn to more dangerous or strenuous professions, such as
prostitution or agriculture. For example, a UNICEF study found that after the Child Labor
Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from
their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stonecrushing, street hustling, and prostitution", jobs that are "more hazardous and exploitative than
garment production". The study suggests that boycotts are "blunt instruments with long-term
consequences, that can actually harm rather than help the children involved."
According to Milton Friedman, before the Industrial Revolution virtually all children worked in
agriculture. During the Industrial Revolution many of these children moved from farm work to
factory work. Over time, as real wages rose, parents became able to afford to send their children
to school instead of work and as a result child labour declined, both before and after legislation.

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Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard also defended child labour, stating that British and
American children of the pre- and post-Industrial Revolution lived and suffered in infinitely
worse conditions where jobs were not available for them and went "voluntarily and gladly" to
work in factories.
However, the British historian and socialist E. P. Thompson in The Making of the English
Working Class draws a qualitative distinction between child domestic work and participation in
the wider (waged) labour market. Further, the usefulness of the experience of the industrial
revolution in making predictions about current trends has been disputed. Economic historian
Hugh Cunningham, author of Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500, notes that:
"Fifty years ago it might have been assumed that, just as child labour had declined in the
developed world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, so it would also, in a trickledown fashion, in the rest of the world. Its failure to do that, and its re-emergence in the
developed world, raise questions about its role in any economy, whether national or global."

According to Thomas DeGregori, an economics professor at the University of Houston, in an

article published by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think-tank operating in Washington D.C., "it
is clear that technological and economic change are vital ingredients in getting children out of
the workplace and into schools. Then they can grow to become productive adults and live longer,
healthier lives. However, in poor countries like Bangladesh, working children are essential for
survival in many families, as they were in our own heritage until the late 19th century. So, while
the struggle to end child labour is necessary, getting there often requires taking different routes -and, sadly, there are many political obstacles.
Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education contends that the
infamously brutal child labour conditions during the early industrial revolution were those of
"apprentice children" (who were forced to work, even actually sold as slaves, by governmentowned Workhouses) and not those of "free-work children" (those who worked voluntarily). So,
the government and State-managed institutions, and not Laissez-faire capitalism, is to blame. He
further contends that, although work conditions of free-work children were far from ideal, those
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have been wildly exaggerated in such "authoritative" sources as the Sadler report, a fact that even
the anti-capitalist Friedrich Engels acknowledged.

EFFORTS AGAINST CHILD LABOUR

The International Labour Organizations International Programme on the Elimination of Child
Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child
labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the
problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour. IPEC currently has
operations in 88 countries, with an annual expenditure on technical cooperation projects that
reached over US$61 million in 2008. It is the largest programme of its kind globally and the
biggest single operational programme of the ILO.
The number and range of IPECs partners have expanded over the years and now include
employers and workers organizations, other international and government agencies, private
businesses, community-based organizations, NGOs, the media, parliamentarians, the judiciary,
universities, religious groups and, of course, children and their families.
IPEC's work to eliminate child labour is an important facet of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda.
Child labour not only prevents children from acquiring the skills and education they need for a
better future, it also perpetuates poverty and affects national economies through losses in
competitiveness, productivity and potential income. Withdrawing children from child labour,
providing them with education and assisting their families with training and employment
opportunities contribute directly to creating decent work

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CHAPTER 5:
CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS

Child labour is a big issue in India. Government made many policies for stopping the child
labour but the problem is that thses policies are not properly implemented. Most of the peoples in
the villages are illiterate government should implement policise by which they can be make
aware of the bad impact of child labour.

Eradication of child labour is not an easy task;

preventive strategies are more sustainable in the long run. One of the major preventive strategies,
which must feature in any national child labour eradication policy, is the role of social

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mobilization and community participation. It is vital to ensure that children stay at home and go
to formal government schools rather than leave home to work full time. There has to be a
national campaign to invoke public interest and large-scale awareness on this issue, there is a
need for an extensive awareness generation campaign launched over a period of time at the
Centre and State on a sustained basis. Child labourers are spread across the country; working in
dispersed villages and slums. The eradication of child labour cannot be done by the labour
department alone, as it is so under-staffed. Labour department needs to have a cadre of youth
volunteers who can be trained as Social Mobilisers who will be responsible for withdrawing
children from work as well as monitoring school dropouts and children with irregularity of
attendance. It is understood that if such children are not tracked they would join the labour force
as child labour. children are the future of country, they must be protected from any type of
works .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A)

CHILD LABOUR Basu, K. "The intringuing relation between adult minimum

wage and child labour," in The Economic Journal, Vol 110, No 462, (Mar 2000), Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers.

B)

Bonnet, M. "Que penser du travail des enfants?" in Etudes. Paris: Assas Editions
No. 3944 (avril 2001).

C)

Boonpala, P. and J. Kane. Trafficking of Children: The Problem and Responses

Worldwide. Geneva: ILO/IPEC, 2001.

D)

Dorman, P. "Child labour in the developed economies". Geneva: ILO-IPEC

working paper, 2001.

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E)

Fassa, A.G., et. al. "Child labor and health, problems and perspectives" in
International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health,Vol 6, No 1, Jan-Mar
2000,

F) Philadelphia.

Gupta, M. R. "Wage determination of a child worker, a theoretical

analysis", in Review of development economics, Vol 4, No 2 (June 2000), Oxford:

Blackwell Publishers.

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