BLOG- CHILD LABOR

Labor law (also known as labor law or employment law) mediates the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer, and union. Individual labour law concerns employees’ rights at work and through the contract for work. Employment standards are social norms (in some cases also technical standards) for the minimum socially acceptable conditions under which employees or contractors are allowed to work. Government agencies (such as the former US Employment Standards Administration) enforce labour law (legislative, regulatory, or judicial).

Child labour laws are statutes regulating the work of minors. They are designed to prevent children from work that interferes with the children’s ability to attend regular school or that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. Child labor helped fuel the Industrial Revolution by being able to access smaller work areas and cheaper labor. Prussia was the first country to enact laws restricting children from working in factories. After Prussia enacted its first laws, other countries followed such as France, England, and the United States. The International Labour Organization, ILO, works to set global minimum standards of labor.

“Out of school children comprise the workers and non workers. In our view they together signify a measure of deprivation among children and can be considered as a potential labour pool always being at the risk of entering the labour force”

                                                                                                                            – NCEUS, 2007

Child labour

It has been an international concern because it damages, spoils and destroys the future of children. The problem of child labor is a serious matter not only in India but also in other developing countries. It is a great social problem. Children are the hope and future of a nation. Yet, there are millions deprived children in our country who have never known a normal, carefree childhood.

The law in Indian soil says that any child below the age of 14 cannot be employed either in a factory or office or restaurant. In fact, India’s international business has been severely affected in many cases because child labors, violating human rights, have been used in some stage or the other in manufacturing, packaging a transport of those items. And, in a large number of cases of export of ready-made garments, prawn, and several other items from India has been rejected on grounds of child labor being used.

In developing countries, with high poverty and poor schooling opportunities, child labour is still prevalent. In 2010, sub-saharan Africa had the highest incidence rates of child labour; with several African nations witnessing over 50 percent of children aged 5–14 working. Worldwide agriculture is the largest employer of child labour. A vast majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban economy; children are predominantly employed by their parents, rather than factories. Poverty and lack of schools are considered as the primary cause of child labour.

Globally the incidence of child labour decreased from 25% to 10% between 1960 and 2003, according to the World Bank. Nevertheless, the total number of child labourers remains high, with UNICEF and ILO acknowledging an estimated 168 million children aged 5–17 worldwide, were involved in child labour in 2013.

Child Labor India

Child Labor is the practices of having children engage in economic activity, on a part- or full-time basis. The practice deprives children of their childhood and is harmful to their physical and mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and the growth of the informal economy are considered to be the key causes of child labour in India.

The 1998 national census of India estimated the total number of child labourers, aged 4 to 15, to be at 12.6 million, out of a total child population of 253 million in the 5 to 14 age group. However, in 2009–10 a nationwide survey found the prevalence of child labour had reduced to 4.98 million children (or less than 2% of the children in the 5 to 14 age group). The 2011 national census of India found the total number of child labourers, aged 5–14, to be at 4.35 million, and the total child population to be 259.64 million in that age group. The child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.

Indian law specifically defines 64 industries as hazardous and it is a criminal offence to employ children in such hazardous industries. In 2001, an estimated 1% of all child workers, or about 120,000 children in India were in a hazardous job. Notably, the Constitution of India prohibits child labour in hazardous industries (but not in non-hazardous industries) as a Fundamental Right under Article 24. UNICEF estimates that India with its larger population has the highest number of labourers in the world under 14 years of age, while sub-Saharan African countries have the highest percentage of children who are deployed as child labourers. The International Labour Organisation estimates that agriculture, at 60 percent, is the largest employer of child labour in the world, while the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates 70% of child labour is deployed in agriculture and related activities. Outside of agriculture, child labour is observed in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy.

Definition

India has a federal form of government, and labour being a subject in the Concurrent List, both the central and state governments can and have legislated on child labour. The major national legislative developments include the following:

The Factories Act of 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children under the age of 14 years in any factory. The law also placed rules on who, when and how long can pre-adults aged 15–18 years be employed in any factory.

The Mines Act of 1952: The Act prohibits the employment of children below 18 years of age in a mine.

The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations identified in a list by the law. The list was expanded in 2006, and again in 2008. In 2016, the Act was amended (not in force as of 30 July 2016) to prohibit employment of child below 14 years in all occupation (except for helping in non-hazardous family business and of child artists in the entertainment industry and sports). Further, adolescents between 14–18 years will not be allowed to work in hazardous industries and processes.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2015^: This law made it a crime, punishable with a prison term, for anyone to keep a child in bondage for the purpose of employment.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009: The law mandates free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. This legislation also mandated that 25 percent of seats in every private school must be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups and physically challenged children.(It is not applied through)

Causes of child labour

International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single cause behind child labour. For impoverished households, income from a child’s work is usually crucial for his or her own survival or for that of the household. Income from working children, even if small, may be between 25 and 40% of the household income. Other scholars such as Harsch on African child labour, and Edmonds and Pavcnik on global child labour have reached the same conclusion.

Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable schools and quality education, according to ILO, is another major factor driving children to harmful labour. Children work because they have nothing better to do. Many communities, particularly rural areas where between 60–70% of child labour is prevalent, do not possess adequate school facilities. Even when schools are sometimes available, they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of education is so poor that parents wonder if going to school is really worth it.

In European history when child labour was common, as well as in contemporary child labour of modern world, certain cultural beliefs have rationalised child labour and thereby encouraged it. Some view that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children. In many cultures, particular where the informal economy and small household businesses thrive, the cultural tradition is that children follow in their parents’ footsteps; child labour then is a means to learn and practice that trade from a very early age. Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls are simply not expected to need formal schooling, and these girls pushed into child labour such as providing domestic services.

Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that encourage child labour. They focus their study on five Asian nations including India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They suggest that child labour is a serious problem in all five, but it is not a new problem. Macroeconomic causes encouraged widespread child labour across the world, over most of human history. They suggest that the causes for child labour include both the demand and the supply side. While poverty and unavailability of good schools explain the child labour supply side, they suggest that the growth of low-paying informal economy rather than higher paying formal economy is amongst the causes of the demand side. Other scholars too suggest that inflexible labour market, sise of informal economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of modern manufacturing technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting demand and acceptability of child labour.

Bonded child labor in India

Bonded child labour is a system of forced, or partly forced, labour under which the child, or usually child’s parent enter into an agreement, oral or written, with a creditor. The child performs work as in-kind repayment of credit. In this 2005 ILO report, debt-bondage in India emerged during the colonial period, as a means of obtaining reliable cheap labour, with loan and land-lease relationships implemented during that era of Indian history. These were regionally called Hali, or Halwaha, or Jeura systems; and was named by the colonial administration as the indentured labour system. These systems included bonded child labour. Over time, claims the ILO report, this traditional forms of long-duration relationships have declined.

In 1977, India passed legislation that prohibits solicitation or use of bonded labour by anyone, of anyone including children. Evidence of continuing bonded child labour continues. A report by the Special Rapporteur to India’s National Human Rights Commission reported the discovery of 53 child labourers in 1996 in the state of Tamil Nadu during a surprise inspection. Each child or the parent had taken an advance of Rs. 10,0000 to 25,0000. The children were made to work for 12 to 14 hours a day and received only Rs. 2 to 3 per day as wages. According to an ILO report, the extent of bonded child labour is difficult to determine, but estimates from various social activist groups range up to 350,000 in 2001.

Despite its legislation, prosecutors in India seldom use the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act of 1976 to prosecute those responsible. According to one report, the prosecutors have no direction from the central government that if a child is found to be underpaid, the case should be prosecuted not only under the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, the case should include charges under the Bonded Labour Act of India. The few enforcement actions have had some unintended effects. While there has been a decrease in children working in factories because of enforcement and community vigilance committees, the report claims poverty still compels children and poor families to work. The factory lends money to whoever needs it, puts a loom in the person’s home, and then the family with children works out of their homes, bring the finished product to pay interest and get some wages. The bonded child and family labour operations were moving out of small urban factories into rural homes.

Consequences of child labour

The presence of a large number of child labourers is regarded as a serious issue in terms of economic welfare. Children who work fail to get necessary education. They do not get the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. In terms of the physical condition of children, children are not ready for long monotonous work because they become exhausted more quickly than adults. This reduces their physical conditions and makes the children more vulnerable to disease.

Children in hazardous working conditions are even in worse condition. Children who work, instead of going to school, will remain illiterate which limits their ability to contribute to their own well being as well as to community they live in. Child labour has long term adverse effects for India.

To keep an economy prospering, a vital criterion is to have an educated workforce equipped with relevant skills for the needs of the industries. The young labourers today, will be part of India’s human capital tomorrow. Child labour undoubtedly results in a trade-off with human capital accumulation.

Child labour in India are employed with the majority (70%) in agriculture some in low-skilled labour-intensive sectors such as sari weaving or as domestic helpers, which require neither formal education nor training, but some in heavy industry such as coal mining.

According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), there are tremendous economic benefits for developing nations by sending children to school instead of work. Without education, children do not gain the necessary skills such as English literacy and technical aptitude that will increase their productivity to enable them to secure higher-skilled jobs in future with higher wages that will lift them out of poverty.

Solutions to Child Labor

The solutions to the problem of Child Labor are:

Conclusion

If the boy or girl takes up a small job as a domestic help or restaurant boy against a nominal salary of Rs. 750-1800 per month, he does not get enough time time for primary and secondary education and is most likely to remain completely illiterate, unskilled, perhaps with a weak health and will have to remain unemployed or be engaged in an unskilled labor when he is grown up. Hence in his own benefit and interest no child should be engaged in labor both from legal point of view as well as the child’s future interest.