Child labour

What is Child Labour?

Labour means work, especially hard physical work. It also means workers, especially manual workers, considered collectively. And childhood is the stage between birth and puberty. Usually the term child labour conjures up a particular image of very young kids, rolled in dirt, carrying heavy loads. In reality, children do a variety of work in widely divergent conditions. Child work widely varies from the work that is beneficial, promoting or enhancing a child’s development without interfering with schooling, recreation and rest to the work that is simply destructive or exploitative. "Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful."

 

The term “child labour” generally refers to any economic activity performed by a person under the age of 15, defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations. On the beneficial side of the continuum, there is “light work” after school or legitimate apprenticeship opportunities, such as helping out in the family business or on the family farm. At the destructive end is employment that is

• Preventing effective school attendance;

• Hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child.

Age limits differ from activity to activity and from country to country. The legal minimum age for all work in Egypt, for example, is 12; in the Philippines, 14, in Hong Kong, 15. Peru adopts a variety of 3 standards: the minimum age is 14 in agriculture; 15 in industry; 16 in deep-sea fishing; and 18 for work in ports and seafaring. Many countries make a distinction between light and hazardous work, with the minimum age for the former generally being 12, for the latter usually varying between 16 and 18. ILO conventions adopt this approach, allowing light work at age 12 or 13, but hazardous work not before 18. The ILO establishes a general minimum age of 15 years, provided 15 is not less than the age of completion of compulsory schooling. This is the most widely used yardstick when establishing how many children are currently working around the world.

How is it a Social Issue?

Introduction:

There are broadly 4 kinds of child labour.

1.   Light work:- not likely to be harmful to their health or development, and not such as to prejudice their attendance at school, or their capacity to benefit from the instruction received - It usually deprives them of fun, a major requirement for a healthy childhood and a very few times may affect the mental development
Eg: helping out with family business for most of the time after the school.

2.   Regular work:- attending work regularly instead of school - These children are education deprived. Their mental growth is likely to be affected
Eg: Sewing as a regular job

3.   Hazardous work:- work in dangerous or unhealthy conditions that could result in a child being killed or injured (often permanently) and/or made ill (often permanently) as a consequence of poor safety and health standards and working arrangements - there is a definitive physical and/or mental damages and possible trauma besides being education deprived
Eg: working in Fireworks or cement factories

4.   Unconditional worst forms of Child labour:- Indulging in illegal (especially for children) activities - possible trauma and physical damages
Eg:
a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, and serfdom, and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict
b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances
c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties
d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children like terrorism.

 

Moral Aspect :

Moral aspect of the issue addresses the injustice being done to the children (unfulfilled childhood), their physical and/or mental suffering (children are supposed to be more physically & mentally delicate), abuse, children rights and human rights.

Cultural Aspect :

Addresses the lack of cultural education and cultural information provided to the children and what the children are being taught about the world and its brutal child-labour culture.

Macroeconomic Aspect :

In any nation, today's children are tomorrow's citizens. When those future citizens lack education, physical and/or mental growth and social and moral values, the nation's economic future can't be so bright.

What are the Causes for child labour?

While various causes are being attributed to the raise of the child labour around the world, the major and most commonly prevailing causes as

• Poverty: The inability of the members of the family to feed the family and run the household requires the child to work to earn money to feed him/herself and the family and contribute to the household. Since the child doesn't get educated and uneducated workforce continues to produce low quality goods at low levels of productivity in their adulthood, poverty becomes a vicious cycle. A new generation needs to break the vicious cycle and allow children the chance to go to school instead of working so that they can be more productive in future years. They will then be able to contribute to the efficient production of higher quality goods and to the expansion of markets both domestically and internationally.

• Abandonment: Orphan hood of children 99% leads to child labour for the obvious survival reasons until unless the children are taken care of by the child welfare organizations.

• Irresponsible Parenting (in poor families): It is also a kind of abandonment when the parents don't care about their children at all. They are pretty much orphans, possibly with a place to live. Mostly prevalent in families where the parents are alcoholics. In this case the kid has to earn and feed on his/her own meals

• Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable schools and quality education: 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.

• Cultural Misinterpretations: In the cultures where child-labour was predominant, it is often misinterpreted that that work is good for the character-building and skill development of children. In some cultures, the parents wish their children to join them in their family businesses. Also it is misinterpreted that since children have delicate hands, they are extremely suitable for a few industries such as the carpet-making industry.

What can be done about it?

The world has now become so accustomed to the child labour in various fields that there is a constant demand for them. It is mainly because they are paid less.Therefore there is a huge demand for them despite all the disputes. This demand is being satisfied by the constant supply of unfortunate children for all kinds of reasons. What can be done about it is

  

• choose a particular region infested with child labour
• identify the specific reason leading to child labour in that region
• educate the people 
• offer the best possible solutions with incentives to overcome the problems
• cut the supply and there by reduce the demand for the child-labour in the region
• repeat it for all the regions

  

A few such solutions can be:

- abolition of school fee (in government schools)

- free school meals

- access to schools through efficient means of transport

- improved quality of schooling

- a change in social norms and attitudes ( increased social stigma)

- reduced social bias towards the genders of the children ( sometimes gender bias leads to increase in female child labour population where as in the remaining cases, it results in males being recruited in hazardous works while the females get household work)

- stop substituting own children for hiring outsiders for family businesses &

- Combining work and schooling (a healthy mix can be calculated)

What are the measures currently being taken?

Child Labour facts: 

• In the least developed countries, 30 percent of all children are engaged in child labour.
• 217.7 million Children of 5-7 age groups are engaged in child labour around the world.
• One in six children 5 to 14 years old — about 16 percent of all children in this age group — is involved in child labor in developing countries.
• Among working children, 5-14 age group, 69% are employed in agriculture sector, 9% in the industrial sector and the remaining, 0.9% in mining, 6.5% in personal services like domestic help and the remaining in other activities like hotels and retail trade.
• Around 20% of child labourers suffer from severe illness or injuries during work which leads to a permanent disability to work.
• Around 4 in 5 children, work without pay.
• Around 70 per cent of child workers are unpaid family workers, especially in rural areas.
• Asia, being the most densely populated region of the world, has the largest number of child workers i.e. 61 per cent followed by 32 per cent in Africa and remaining 7 per cent in Latin America.
• 225 out of 300 working children, work in hazardous conditions.
• Worldwide, 126 million children work in hazardous conditions, often enduring beatings, humiliation and sexual violence by their employers.
• An estimated 1.2 million children — both boys and girls — are trafficked each year into exploitative work in agriculture, mining, factories, armed conflict or commercial sex work.
• The highest proportion of child laborers is in sub-Saharan Africa, where 26 percent of children (49 million) are involved in work.

Child Labour in India :

The Census Data on Child Labour seemed to removed from the ilo official statistics webpage.

• India has 440 million children.
• Official figures indicate that there are over 12 million child workers in India, but many NGOs reckon the real figure is up to 60 million. The number of girls involved is not much lower than the boys.
• The largest numbers work in places like textile factories, dhabas (roadside restaurants) and hotels, or as domestic workers. Much of the work, such as in firecracker or matchstick factories, can be hazardous; even if not, conditions are often appalling and simply rob kids of their childhood.
• About 27 million children are born each year in India. But nearly 2 million of them do not live to the age of five. Much of this is due to malnourishment. India has over 200 million people in hunger, and over 40% of the children who do live till 5 are malnourished. This indicates major poverty.
• The majority of children are enrolled in school, but up to half don't attend regularly as they go to work. Many are pressured to work and earn money for their families.
• After five years of classes, fewer than 60% can read a short story or do simple arithmetic.

Laws against child labour :

Child Labour laws in India:

The Constitution of India (26 January 1950), through various articles enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, lays down that:

• No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment (Article 24);
• The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to 14 years. (Article 21 (A));
• The State shall direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age and strength (Article 39-e);
• Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth shall be protected against moral and material abandonment (Article 39-f);
• The State shall endeavor to provide within a period of 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years (Article 45).

Child labour is a matter on which both the Union Government and state governments can legislate. A number of legislative initiatives have been undertaken at both levels. The major national legislative developments include the following:

• The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 16 occupations and 65 processes that are hazardous to the children's lives and health. These occupations and processes are listed in the Schedule to the Act.
• The Factories Act, 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years. An adolescent aged between 15 and 18 years can be employed in a factory only if he obtains a certificate of fitness from an authorized medical doctor. The Act also prescribes four and a half hours of work per day for children aged between 14 and 18 years and prohibits their working during night hours.
• The Mines Act, 1952: The Act prohibits the employment of children below 18 years of age in a mine. Further, it states that apprentices above 16 may be allowed to work under proper supervision in a mine.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000: This law made it a crime, punishable with a prison term, for anyone to procure or employ a child in any hazardous employment or in bondage.
• The Minimum Wages Act, 1948: Prescribes minimum wages for all employees i n all establishments or to those working at home in certain sectors specified in the schedule of the Act.
• The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009: Provides for free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. This legislation also envisages that 25 per cent of seats in every private school should be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups including differently abled children.

Movements against Child Labour :

There is a worldwide concern and discontent over Child Labour. Movement at local, national and global level emerged to fight it. A few among those movements are

• Bachpan Bachao Andolan: Save the Childhood Movement
• Global March Against Child Labour
• The Child Labor Education Project of U.S
• World Day Against Child Labour on 12 June 

Most of the movements and organizations have set their goals to 'a normal childhood for all children by 2016'. Different movements have different policies but their single aim is to eradicate child labour and to help children all over the world have a normal childhood like they are supposed to, like any other children. Lets wish them luck and hope for the best while we do our part of educating people and acting against child labour in our day to day lives.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://www.cry.org/

http://www.compassion.com/

http://www.d-sector.org/

http://www,ilo.org/

http://www.un.org/

http://www.childlineindia.org.in/