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Ritesh Bangera, Sarvesh Belhekar, Adarsh Pawshe, Darshana Chavare, Pranit Ambokar, Karan Agrawal

Child Labour
Abstract: “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. This practice is considered exploitative by many international
organizations. Legislation across the world prohibits child labour.[4][5] These laws do not consider all work
by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training,
certain categories of work such as those by Amish children some forms of child work common
among indigenous American children, and others. Child labour has existed to varying extents, through
most of history. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many children aged 5–14 from poorer families
still worked in Europe, the United States and various colonies of European powers. These children mainly
worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories and mining and in services such
as news boys. Some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of household income, availability
of schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour fell. In the world’s poorest
countries, around 1 in 4 children are engaged in child labour, the highest number of whom (29 percent)
live in sub-Saharan Africa.[12] In 2017, four African nations (Mali, Benin, Chad and Guinea-Bissau)
witnessed over 50 percent of children aged 5–14 working.

not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million

children work, many full-time. Children between
I. INTRODUCTION 1
age of 14 and 18 are defined as "Adolescent" and
the law allows Adolescent to be employed except
Child labour is the practice of having children en-
in the listed hazardous occupation and processes
gages in economic activity, on a part- or full-time
which include mining, inflammable substance and
basis. The practice deprives children of their child-
explosives related work and any other hazardous
hood, and is harmful to their physical and mental
process as per the Factories Act, 1948. In 2001, an
development. Poverty, lack of good schools and
estimated 1% of all child workers, or about
the growth of the informal economy are considered
120,000 children in India were in a hazardous
to be the key causes of child labour in India. Some
job. Notably, the Constitution of India prohibits
other causes of Child Labour in India are cheap
child labour in hazardous industries (but not in
wages and accessibility to factories that can pro-
non-hazardous industries) as a Fundamental Right
duce the maximum amount of goods for the lowest
under Article 24. UNICEF estimates that India
possible price. Corruption in the government of In-
with its larger population has the highest number
dia also plays a major role in child labour because
of labourers in the world less than 14 years of age,
laws that should be enforced to prevent child la-
while sub-Saharan African countries have the
bour are not because of the corrupt government.
highest percentage of children who are deployed
as child labourers. The International Labour Or-
ganisation estimates that agriculture, at 60 percent,
II. ISSUES ENCOUNTERED is the largest employer of child labour in the
The 2011 national census of India found the total world, while the United Nation's Food and Agri-
number of child labourers, aged 5–14, to be at 10.1 culture Organisation estimates 70% of child labour
million the total child population to be 259.64 mil- is deployed in agriculture and related activi-
lion in that age group. The child labour problem is
ties. Outside of agriculture, child labour is ob- IV. CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR
served in almost all informal sectors of the Indian
economy. 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
III. CAUSES education. They do not get the opportunity to de-
velop physically, intellectually, emotionally and
According to a 2008 study by ILO, among the psychologically. In terms of the physical condition
most important factors driving children to harmful of children, children are not ready for long monot-
labour is the lack of availability and quality of onous work because they become exhausted more
schooling. Many communities, particularly rural quickly than adults. This reduces their physical
areas do not possess adequate school facilities. conditions and makes the children more vulnerable
Even when schools are sometimes available, they to disease.
are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or
Children in hazardous working conditions are even
the quality of education is so poor that parents
in worse condition. Children who work, instead of
wonder if going to school is really worthwhile. In
going to school, will remain illiterate which limit
government-run primary schools, even when chil-
their ability to contribute to their own well being
dren show up, government-paid teachers do not
as well as to community they live in. Child labour
show up 25% of the time. The 2008 ILO study sug-
has long term adverse effects for India.
gests that illiteracy resulting from a child going to
work, rather than a quality primary and secondary To keep an economy prospering, a vital criterion is
school, limits the child's ability to get a basic edu- to have an educated workforce equipped with rel-
cational grounding which would in normal situa- evant skills for the needs of the industries. The
tions enable them to acquire skills and to improve young labourers today will be part of India’s hu-
their prospects for a decent adult working life. An man capital tomorrow. Child labour undoubtedly
albeit older report published by UNICEF outlines results in a trade-off with human capital accumu-
the issues summarized by the ILO report. The lation.
UNICEF report claimed that while 90% of child Child labour in India are employed with the major-
labour in India is in its rural areas, the availability ity (70%) in agriculture some in low-skilled la-
and quality of schools is decrepit; in rural areas of bour-intensive sectors such as sari weaving or as
India, claims the old UNICEF report, about 50% domestic helpers, which require neither formal ed-
of government funded primary schools that exist ucation nor training, but some in heavy industry
do not have a building, 40% lack a blackboard, few such as coal mining.
have books, and 97% of funds for these publicly
funded school have been budgeted by the govern-
ment as salaries for the teacher and administrators
A 2012 Wall Street Journal article, reports while V. SOLUTIONS TO AVOID CHILD LABOUR:-
the enrolment in India's school has dramatically in- 1) Increased family incomes.
creased in recent years to over 96% of all children
in the 6–14-year age group, the infrastructure in 2) Education - That helps children learn skills that
schools, aimed in part to reduce child labour, re- will help them earn a living .Children need to
mains poor – over 81,000 schools do not have a learn how to read and write. They need social and
blackboard and about 42,000 government schools professional skills that only school and a nurtur-
operate without a building with makeshift arrange- ing environment can provide. Some countries
ments during monsoons and inclement weather. . [
have compulsory schooling and some provide
free public schooling. However, in many coun-
tries, particularly for those where structural ad-
justment lending has led to the privatization of
schools-the cost of teaching, books, and uniforms
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makes it impossible for children to get an educa- VI. SURVEY

tion.

3) Social Services - That helps children and fami-

lies survive crises such as diseases or loss of
home and shelter.

4) Family Control or Fertility - So that families

are not burdened by children.

5) Eliminate poverty - Boycotting is not the solu-

tion because it forces children, who otherwise
have no specific training, to quit their jobs and re-
turn to the streets or to more dangerous activities.

6) Enforce labour laws - Most countries have

laws against child labour; however, some govern-
ments support child labour (regardless of existing
laws) as a way of gaining a competitive market
advantage. Preventing children from working is
not necessarily the best solution; children may
end up in worse situations and their families may
become even poorer.

7) Abolish child trafficking - Everywhere in the

world, there are adults who earn a living by buy-
ing and selling children. The governments of all
countries must take harsh measures against child
trafficking.

8) Promote fair trade Fair trade practices guaran-

tee a fair price to small-scale producers. In 44 de-
veloping countries, fair trade helps keep 550 co-
operatives in business. These co-operatives con-
sequently provide goods to 5 million people and
often reinvest profits in the community, where the
money is used to build schools, medical clinics,
wells, etc.

9) Replace child workers by adult workers

- There are 800 million unemployed adults in the
world; and yet, the number of working children is
estimated to be at over 300 million.
 VII. CONTENT
In India, millions of children are forced into child
labor due to poverty, high illiteracy rates due to
lack of education, unemployment, overpopulation,
etc.
As reported by Save the Children, children
between the ages of 14–17 years engage in
hazardous work and account for 62.8% of India’s
child labour workforce in which more boys than
girls (38.7 million vs. 8.8 million) are forced into
doing more hazardous work. Child labour used to
be most ubiquitous in rural India in which 80% of
working children found work. Recently, however,
child labour has relocated from rural areas to
urbanized areas where the big cities are located.
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Larger cities provide more opportunity for work Although some may disagree, child labour is
compared to smaller, rural areas. As reported by without doubt a prevalent issue, so we must all
UNICEF, there has been a 54% increase in child help in a way we can in order to this issue once and
labour in urbanized areas for children between the for all.
ages of 5-14. In addition, according to a Campaign
Against Child Labour study, India has IX. REFERENCES
approximately 1,26,66,377 child labourers total. 1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour
Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India, has 2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_India
19,27,997 child labourers. Delhi, the capital of 3) https://www.coursehero.com/file
India, has over 1 million child labourers. Other
leading states with similar figures include Bihar,
Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and
Uttar Pradesh.
According to 2005 Government of India NSSO
(National Sample Survey Org.), child labour
incidence rates in India is highest among Muslim
Indians, about 40% higher than Hindu Indians.
Child labour was found to be present in other
minority religions of India but at significantly
lower rates. Across caste classification, the lowest
caste Dalit children had child labour incidence
rates of 2.8%, statistically similar to the
nationwide average of 2.74%. Tribal populations,
however, had higher child labour rates at
3.8%.[88] India has the highest number of children
stunted because of malnutrition (48.2 million)
equivalent to Colombia's population, according to
Save the Children's 'Stolen Childhoods' report.31
million of children are part of India's workforce,
the highest in the world.

VIII. CONCLUSION
Many children have lost their childhood
because of it. Many children have got hurt
because of it. Many children have become
criminals because of it. Even though some
people believe it should not be banned,
more and more people started to protest
against it. With the development of human right,
child labour should be banned in modern society.
Child labour is an issue in our modern day world
that not only harshly ravages the lives of millions
of innocent children, but also affects all of us
through its effect on the economy, family and trade
along with its connections to poor education &
poverty. Letting this horrific & inhumane practice
to go on for so long has brought on an expected
problem that we must solve together in order to
protect our children and safeguard our future.