Introduction 1

Child Labour

Focused Areas
Focused Areas

..\061012-child-labor[1].jpg
Who are
•• Who are child
child labourers
labourers and
and
how many?
how many?
Causes of
•• Causes of child
child labour.
labour.
What is
•• What is the
the solution?
solution?
Conclusion
•• Conclusion

12/08/2021 By : RANDHIR KUMAR CHAUDARY1

 Child Labour 2

ILO :: child
ILO child labour
labour is
is done
done byby any
any working
working child
child who
who isis under
under the
the age
age by
by specified
specified
Law. The
Law. The word,
word, “work”
“work” means
means full
full time
time commercial
commercial workwork to
to sustain
sustain self
self or
or add
add
To the
To the family
family income.
income. Child
Child labour
labour is is aa hazard
hazard toto child’s
child’s mental,
mental, physical,
physical, social,
social,
Educational, emotional
Educational, emotional andand spiritual
spiritual development.
development. Broadly
Broadly any
any child
child who
who isis
Employed in
Employed in activities
activities to
to feed
feed self
self and
and family
family is
is being
being subjected
subjected toto
“chid labour”.
“chid labour”.

India:Law
India:Law

Child Labour
Child Labour (Prohibition
(Prohibition and
and Regulation)
Regulation) Act
Act 1986,
1986,

seeks to
seeks to prohibit
prohibit employment
employment of of children
children below
below 16
16 years
years in
in hazardous
hazardous
occupations and
occupations and processes
processes and
and regulates
regulates the
the working
working conditions
conditions in
in other
other
employments. Recently,
employments. Recently, Government
Government has has also
also decided
decided to
to include
include children
children
working as
working as domestic
domestic servants
servants and
and those
those working
working inin dhabas/roadside
dhabas/roadside eateries
eateries
/hotels12/08/2021
/hotels etc. in
etc. in the
the category
category of
of hazardous
hazardous occupations.
occupations. 2
 What is child labour?

We want to stop work that:

• Is mentally, physically, socially or morally

dangerous and harmful to children; and

• Interferes with their schooling

• In its most extreme forms, it involves children being

enslaved together with, or separated from their
families, exposed to serious dangers and illnesses at
work, or dire forms of exploitation such as
prostitution, or used in crimes – all of this often at a
very early age.
Child labour 3

Child labour in figures (global estimates 2002) = knowledge

National surveys (50)

( 1998-2002)

Rapid assessments&
Baseline studies (100)
(2000-2003)

246 million child labourers

Worldwide
( age 5-17)

146 million children

Aged 6-11
Majority boys
Majority boys
Out of school

Majority girls
Majority girls 283 million children
Aged 12-17 out of school
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NOs.
industry (India) %share 4
1 Pan, Bidi & Cigarettes 18
2 Construction 15

3 Domestic workers* 12

4 Spinning/ weaving 11

5 Brick-kilns, tiles 9.5

6 Dhabas/ Restaurants/ Hotels/ Motels* 7.7

7 Auto-workshop, vehicle repairs 7

8 Gem-cutting, Jewellery 6.2

9 Carpet-making 5.8

10 Ceramic 4.1

11 Agarbati, Dhoop & Detergent making 2.7

12 Others 2
12/08/2021 5
 Bangladesh
On the outskirts of Dhaka, children heat and mix rubber in a
barrel at a balloon factory. Thousands of kids in Bangladesh
are forced to work to help earn money for their struggling
families.
 Pakistan
A young girl carries a load of wool down a street in a poor
section of Peshawar. Pakistan has laws that limit child labor,
but the laws are often ignored. An estimated 11 million
children work in Pakistan's factories.
 5

The global experiences………..

Britain : Roberts Peel's factories act 1802

Incidence of child labour remained very high

U.S experience: child labor control act 1837

Faster decline in child labour between 1880-1910.

What do other studies say………….?

Moehling 1999: law had very little effect on the incidence of
child labour in Britain

Should the govt intervene ……………?

There is need for formal empirical analysis of the effect of the law on child
labour , the broad evidence suggests that the effect may not be what people take
it to be at face value . Indeed it can be shown that when it comes to the use of a
fine for12/08/2021
employing children the effect can be the opposite of what we may expect
8 .
 6

Causes of Child Labour

Some common causes of child

labour are poverty, 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. 

12/08/2021 9
IPEC 7

Should the firms employing child be fined?

A house hold sends its children to work in

order to escape poverty and starvation , now
There is a new law whereby firms are fined
whenever they are caught using child
clearly this will cause the wage for child labour
to drop this is because children are now less
input for firms. But this in turn will mean
children will have to work even harder to be
able to earn the target income (subsistence-
level) Empirically , consider a lobour market
in which each household consists one adult and
several children in a labour market , adults and
children are perfect substitutes. The adult
always supplies labour perfectly inelastically ,
where as children work only to the extent of
12/08/2021 10
subsistence.
 8

Consider the
Consider the case
case when
when govt
govt tries
tries to
to raise
raise the
the fine
fine ..
This will
This will mean
mean that
that employing
employing children
children will
will be
be more
more
expensive for
expensive for the
the firms , because with each child
there is
there is risk
risk of
of being
being caught
caught andand having
having toto pay
pay the
the
larger fine to the
larger the govt.
govt. so
so as
as the
the penalty
penalty rises the
market will
market will make
make sure
sure that
that child
child wage
wage will drop.
And once
And once the
the child
child wage
wage drops
drops each
each household
household will
will
be forced to send more children to to work
work toto meet
meet the
the
subsistence consumption target, so herein lies the the
Pathology ,an
essence of Pathology ,an increased
increased fine
fine for
for employing
children could raise the child labour

12/08/2021 11
Concluding remarks:
Which agency to control ?
• National government
• International bodies
Or
• Ordinary consumers
But again
• Inadequate access
• Northern protectionism.
Direct or indirect approach .
Close analysis required .

Sources : ILO and Planning Commission Of India

12/08/2021 12
 THANK YOU

12/08/2021 13