To end child labour, tackle root causes

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to ban the employment of children below 14 in any form of industry, and it shall be an offence to employ children under that definition not only in any industry but also in homes and farms if their work serves a commercial interest.

The decision is to be given effect by amending the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986. An amendment bill is likely to be placed before Parliament in the near future. But going by the record so far, it is not clear how the proposed legislation will meet its objective.
There has been no shortage of good intentions in efforts to abolish child labour in the country. Article 24 of the Constitution prohibits it. But it is evident even to a casual observer how widely prevalent child labour is in India, making the country the biggest centre for child labour in the world. Estimates may vary, but the 2001 census placed 12.59 million children in the country in the category of child workers.Laws have been passed but their effect has been nothing if not feeble. Our lawmakers, administrators, social sector activists and others have to carefully analyse, keeping the practical plane in view, the causes of the extensive degree to which the extraction of labour from children is prevalent across the country. It is these causes that need to be addressed with a sense of purpose. Child labour activists are perhaps right in suggesting that any child below 14 who is out of school should be deemed to be a child labourer, or at least “hidden” child labour, a term that should include vagrants or children pushed into begging or toward a life of crime. Most child labourers come from the categories of dalits, the minorities, backward classes, and an overwhelming number are girls, and are often subject to physical — and even sexual — exploitation.
Our children should be in school under the Right to Education Act 2009, and learn to be good citizens and good workers for an advanced economy of the future, and not be deprived of their childhood doing hazardous or backbreaking work in factories, mines or in the informal sector (often at less than half the going rate). According to the International Labour Organisation, if the health, personal development or schooling of a child or adolescent is not negatively affected through a certain kind of work, children in such activities should not be deemed to be labourers. This is a relevant caveat. But it is clear that this is not the category sought to be addressed when discussing the problem of child labour in India. Solving it is closely linked to our development path.