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In spite of international and national conventions prohibiting employment of children, child labour is prevalent in almost all countries of the world. Even developed countries of west Europe and like the United States are not free from its bane. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates the number of working children in the age group of 5-14 years all over the world to be around 250 million. Of them 120 million work full time at the expense of their education, health and development. The rest are said to be combining their employment with other commitments.
Indian Scenario
The statistics on the extent of the problem in India, as anywhere else in the world, largely vary. According to the provisional figures of Census 2001, out of the total child population of 252 million, 12.5 million children in the age group of 5-14 are working. This is slightly higher than the 11.8 million figure mentioned in the 1991 Census. The working children’s population in 1991 represented a 17.3 per cent fall during the decade from 1981.
The percentage of working children vis-à-vis the total child population also fell during the 1981-91 period. According to the 1981 Census, 7.6 per cent of child population in the age group of 5-14 years was working. Their percentage, as per the 1991 Census, fell to 5.2 per cent. Professor D.P. Choudhury of the University of Wollongong (Economics Department), Australia has classified working children in India into three categories. According to him, the first category comprises of about 6 per cent of child labourers who work for wages full time in activities prohibited under anti-child labour laws. The second category of working children constitutes around 14 per cent of child labourers who also work for wages but in activities not prohibited by law. The majority of 80 per cent working children constitutes the third category. They are partly or fully employed in family economic enterprises like farms, household industry and petty trades in which they and their parents work jointly.
Compared to many developing countries, the proportion of working children to the total labour force in India is low. It is 5.2 per cent of the total labour force as compared to 27.3 per cent in Turkey, 20.7 per cent in Thailand, 19.5 per cent in Bangladesh, 18.8 per cent in Brazil, 16.6 per cent in Pakistan, 12.4 per cent in Indonesia, 11.5 per cent in Mexico, 8.2 per cent in Egypt, 6.6 per cent in Argentina.
Government Commitment
In indian child labour has been an area of great concern. Its elimination in all forms has been a commitment of successive governments in the country. The Central and State governments have all along pursued a pro-active policy by way of constitutional, statutory and development measures to tackle the child labour problem. India’s judiciary upto the apex level has also pronounced against the practice of child labour. New Delhi has ratified six ILO Conventions exclusively related to child labour. India’s policy on child labour has evolved over the years in this backdrop.
India has all along felt that working children also who must be provided with opportunities to develop into ‘healthy well-rounded personalities’. Against this backdrop the M.S. Grurpadaswamy Committee set up by the Central Government to look into the entire gamut of child labour issue in 1979, recognised that a distinction has to be drawn between child labour and its exploitation. The Committee said, “labour becomes an absolute evil in the case of a child when he is required to work beyond his physical capacity, when hours of employment interfere with his education, recreation and rest, when the wages are not commensurate with the quantum of work done and when the occupation he is engaged in endangers his life and safety.” The Ministry of Labour considered these aspects and recognised the need to protect child labour from exploitation as well as from dangers to his/her health and safety due to working in hazardous conditions.
A National Policy on Child Labour was announced by the Government of India in 1987. It envisages strict and effective enforcement of child labour- related laws, convergence of services for the benefit of parents of child labour in order to improve their economic conditions and launching of projects in areas of high concentration of child labour. A year earlier, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 was enacted prohibiting employment of children below the age of 14 year in 13 hazardous occupations and 57 hazardous processes.
Causes
But mere framing of laws does not prevent child labour as it is a complex socio-economic problem and needs to be dealt with a holistic approach through sustained efforts over a period of time. According to the ILO, most case studies of child labour do indeed identify the poverty of the household and low level of parental education as a major cause of child labour.
By far the most important factor contributing to child labour is poverty. Children are driven to work because of hunger. Families living below the poverty level have no other option but to send their children to work to remain afloat. In the process children are made to work to feed themselves and their parents or to meet the family’s social commitments like liquidation of debt and marriage of daughter. Studies have also revealed that a child in a large family is sent to work to earn only that much wage required to finance his food and clothing needs, which his parents cannot afford. That means if the child doesn’t work, his very survival would be at stake.
Interventions
Removal of poverty and investment in early childhood care and development including education have been recognised by the government as major factors in eliminating of child labour. Poverty elevation schemes combined with multi-sectoral approach for integrated child development has been the thrust of Government programmes. These initiatives have led to significant achievements. It has been seen that states with large populations living below the poverty line have a higher incidence of child labour accompanied by a high dropout rate in schools. This is more so in case of girls. They represent 60 per cent of children out of school. They are victims of gross discrimination in some communities who see no merit in educating the girl child. Such children are forced to do domestic work. Prof. Chaudhary terms them ‘Nowhere Children’ as they are neither in school nor at work, as domestic work is not considered an economic activity.
The problem of child labour calls for a strong all-round endeavour. Given the magnitude of the problem spread across various states in the country in varying degree, sustained efforts are needed to tackle many factors contributing to the problem including attitudinal changes among parents. The involvement of the state governments and voluntary organisations is necessary.
*Information Officer
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