Combating Child Labour: Issues and Challenges

Children are the future of a country. A well educated, healthy and confident child is desirable for living a dignified life which is his right under Article 21 of the constitution i.e. Right to life. Also, a confident child can be an asset for the family, society, nation and the World. So, the success of a society can be very well judged by the treatment which it gives to its children. It means that the society is far sighted. It can prioritize and anticipate the future problems and be ready to solve them. Every child grows in a social context. Through socialization he gets to understand and assimilate the values of the society. It is the social conditions of the family and the society which forces a child into the labour market. As the problem lies at the level of society the solution can also be found out at that level only. Technically, child labour can be defined as children below the age of 15 years permanently leading adult life, working long hours for low wages under conditions damaging to their health and their physical and mental development, separated from their families and deprived of education that can open more avenues for them.1 Not all work done by children should be classified as child labour. Activities such as helping their parents around the home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays contribute to childrens development and to the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life. Here, our focus is on the employment of children in the labour market outside the supervision of their parents. So, the question arises why should a child be engaged in labour activity? Shouldnt children be playing, learning and enjoying their life rather than being a part of employment? What are their parents doing if children are working? Dont they know the importance of a childhood? Did they also work in their childhood? The answer to all these questions is POVERTY.

State Child Labour rehabilitation cum welfare society,action plan, http://www.tnchildlabour.tn.gov.in/action.htm

Poverty is both the cause and consequence of child labour. Many families in India dont earn enough. It is difficult for them to manage two meals a day. We can estimate the amount of such kind of families by the fact that 77% of Indias population lives below Rs 20/day. Therefore, its natural that if parents are unable to provide food then the child has to go out and earn his food. But, why do the parents dont earn enough? Do they like sitting idle at home and not doing any work? No, its not true. No parent will send his child to work and sit idle at home. They dont earn because there are less employment opportunities for them. Mostly these parents are the unskilled labourers who work in informal sector. As the informal sector is marked by surplus labour the wages are very low and unregulated. Therefore, the parents are forced to work more for fewer wages leading to perpetuate poverty. To some extent Indias high population is also responsible for high unemployment and poverty. As the resources are limited, the jobs to exploit these resources are also limited. But, Indias population is increasing rapidly. With demand remaining constant and supply of labour is high; the wages are bound to fall. So, high rate of growth of population is detrimental to childs growth and forces him into child labour. But, the children are not designed to work. They dont understand the nature of work. They dont understand the technicalities of work. They cant take the pressure of work. Unfortunately, the best thing with the children is they can learn fast. By nature they are in learning phase of their life as they encounter the World. They can be trained easily. They are docile, have nimble fingers, and dont form trade unions. They can be forced to do work which adults refuse to do simply because their notion of good and bad has not developed yet. So, their inherent advantage of learning things fast gets converted into a disadvantage. Gradually, the child labour becomes the gateway to child abuse as it becomes a part of informal sector employment. In informal sector, there is no regulation. They work for long hours. They get low wages and get exploited. They are made to do hazardous works in some industries such as mining, querying, glass works, gem cutting, etc. They also face greater risks than adults because they lack work experience and their body, mind and personalities are still growing. Sometimes, they also commit crime because of hunger and poverty.

The worse form of child abuse is bonded labour. Some parents who are in extreme poverty sell their child for small loans. They hope that once they get work and with the earning of child they will repay the loan and get their child back. But, the salary of these children is so low that they cant repay the loans even working for whole lifetime. Thus, get stuck in a cycle and have to send their children also to the bonded labour. The case of Iqbal Messih is worth mentioning here who himself was a bonded labour and died for the cause of bonded labourers. ILO in a study conducted in 2004 found out, 218 million boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 14 are working in developing countries i.e. 1 out of every 4 children in the world. Of these, 126 million are estimated to be working in hazardous conditions. About 2/3rd of child labour is engaged in agriculture where they are seen as helping the family and their labour is not recognized. It implies that the child labour is the characteristic of developing countries than the developed countries. Because as the society becomes industrialized, its per capita income increases, the standard of life increases & the children enjoy more dignified & meaningful life.

Most of the child labour, in India, comes/can be seen from deprived sections of society such as SC, ST and Muslims. It is because these communities lag behind in terms of socio-economic indicators. SC and ST encounter structural inequalities such as caste system build up in our society. In spite of a strong constitution there doesnt exist equality of opportunity for them. Thus, the result is they are not well educated and have negligible presence in the formal sector employment. And as we have seen the informal sector is inherently exploitative leading to poverty and child labour.

In spite of so many disadvantages associated with child labour some people argue that the child labour is a better option than child prostitution or chronic undernourishment. But, this logic is flawed. If we go deeper into the problem, we must ask that why there is child prostitution and chronic undernourishment? Isnt it the responsibility of state to protect its children? Shouldnt the government be providing nutritious food to its children as they are the citizens of the nation? To address this responsibility the government has come out with Food Security Bill. In this bill the government plans to cover 67% of the total population. Therefore, the logic is that the family

will get subsidized food so the parents income will be used in making the life easier and comfortable. Finally, the children will be sent to school and not to work. Thus, the adverse effect of child labour on education will be minimized.

The idea looks utopian but it is marred by many practical problems. First problem is with our PDS system. As there are many leakages the beneficiaries dont get their rightful share. Instead the grains go to the market which is then sold at the market price. This in turn generates black money which is used to pay the child labour and perpetuates the informal sector and poverty. Thus, it defeats the whole purpose of Food Security Bill.

Another problem is the irrelevance of school education for the poor families. Till class X there is no scope for employment. The education is not employment centric. The poor parents think of these 10 years as just a waste of time. They feel that even after 10 years of school education the child is not earning for the family. So, the children tend to drop out. Then they enter into the child labour which provides the family with some disposable income improving their quality of life. Some may say that these parents are very short sighted and should wait for some more time. Let the child clear his senior secondary school and then he will be earning for the family.

To some extent it is true but the blame has to be shared by our education system also. There is some truth in irrelevance of education. We must try and introduce vocational education, lets say after class VIII. So, that even if the child wants to drop out after class X he will be having some skills which will generate some income for him. We must make our education more employment centric and less elitist. But, to start with we must at least educate our children. As the education have its inherent advantages. It broadens the world view. Make the children understand the problems around us. Sensitize them to their surroundings. Make them understand about their rights and duties. It offers them the only hope of escaping from the cycle of harsh working conditions and poverty. Thus, education improves the quality of life and makes them responsible citizens of the country.

The right to education is a step in the same direction. By providing free education to the children below 14 years of age the parents are encouraged to send their ward to the schools. Now, the education is not a burden as the tuition fee has been waived off. Though some concerns remain about other expenses such as school uniform and stationary expenses but these are smaller issues and can be taken care of gradually. To make the child labour law in sync with the RTE, the government has amended the Child Labour act. The amendment bans all the child labour below 14 years of age. Earlier it was allowed in certain occupations such as domestic labour and regulated in hazardous industries. Till 14 years of age. Now it is regulated in hazardous industries but only for the age group 14-18 years. Below 14 it is all banned. With this the children are expected to go to school and not to labour market. Because it is illegal for them to work in labour market till 14 years of age. But again the picture is not so simple at the ground level. The implementation of child labour act is not so proper. The following statistics will make the point more clear. Out of total 13, 60,117 inspections done till now only 4,774 employers have been convicted. Also, in the name of penalty only Rs 200-400 have been recovered. Sometimes the recovery is as low as Rs 25. 2 Thus, this act doesnt act as deterrent to the employers. Also, with the child labour banning till the age of 14, there will be around 56 million children who will be rescued and there seems to be no arrangement made to rehabilitate them. So, the problem is clear to us and also we have taken many steps to solve the problem. But still much more needs to be done. Challenge is not just to end the child labour but to move children from work to education that to quality education .Various stakeholders should come out and work together to address the issue. Leaving everything on the government and blaming it for the failure is not going to help the children. Civil society must pledge that they will not accept the materials produced by the child labour. People must work in partnership with the government officials to identify the child labour working in their neighbourhood. Once the child labour is identified the action must be taken. Also, the civil society must make sure that the case reaches its logical conclusion and the guilty must be punished.
2

Kailash Satyarthi,Yojana Magazine,20, (November 2012)

Here, media can be used to demand transparency. The employer using child labour must be exposed. The case must be highlighted so that people take interest in that and also the officials must be wary about having any collusion with the employer. Media can also be used to sensitize and creating awareness about the issue. Also, it is the responsibility of big corporations that they dont use child labour for manufacturing purposes. Human values and lives cant be sacrificed for economic benefits. Thus a global consensus and resolve must develop to fight the child labour. The corporations must come forward and mark their products as child labor free. The Government can provide incentives through tax concessions to companies discouraging child labour. They can also designate the rehabilitation of child labour as their CSR activity. Many NGOs are working day and night to rescue child labour from their workplace. These NGOs must partner with the government. They can give their services and skills developed over the years and government can provide them with necessary infrastructure to fight child labour. But to get into such an arrangement we need a strong political will. The politicians must also understand the gravity of the problem and should assist all the agencies to fight child labour. Its time to think about the future of our children. Let them enjoy their childhood with fun and enjoyment. Let us create the conditions leading to their all round development. If the children remain weak or underdeveloped our future will be in dark. Faster we understand this better it will be for us. Media, NGOs, civil society and government must not leave any stone unturned to end this menace of child labour and give the children a meaningful and dignified life full of enjoyment.