UNICEF, in one of its annual reports, has evocatively observed, “The day will come when nations will be judged not only by their military or economic strength, nor by the splendour of their capital cities and public buildings but by the well-being of their people; by the provision that is made for those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged and by the protection that is afforded to the growing minds and bodies of their children.”

India fully subscribe to this universal aspiration. Our Constitution makers had known that India of their vision would not be a reality if the country’s children are not nurtured and educated. Article 24 dealing with prohibition of employment of children in factories and Article 45 relating to provision of free and compulsory education for children bear testimony to this realization. The other provisions relate to prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour (Article 23) and certain principles of policy to be followed by the State Stipulates that children be secured against exploitation.

PROBLEM

Child labour in India is more a rural than urban phenomenon. Approximately, 90 per cent of the working children in the rural areas are employed in agriculture and allied activities. The unorganized and informal sectors, both in urban and rural areas, account for almost the entire child labour force. The distribution of child labour in various States appears to indicate certain correlations. States having a larger population living below poverty line have a high incidence of child labour. Similarly, high incidence of child labour is accompanied by high dropout rates in schools. The incidence of child labour is partly linked to the level of socio-economic development of an area and partly to the attitude and approach of parents of the child labours as a result of socio-economic compulsions. According to the 1991 census, the number of working children in the country was 11.28 million.

In order to assess the ground situation, the Labour Ministry appointed a 16-member committee under the chairmanship of Shri M. S. Gurupadaswamy. In its report the committee has observed, “Extreme poverty, lack of opportunity for gainful employment and inter-mittancy of income and low standards of living are the main reasons for the wide prevalence of child labour. Though it is possible to identify the child labour in the organized sector, which form a minuscule of the total child labour, the problem relates mainly to the unorganized sector where utmost attention needs to be paid. The problem is universal but in our case it is more crucial.”

One frequency come across dismal reports on the lives of working children, especially in highly exploitative and hazardous occupations such as match factories, lock and brassware industry, diamond cutting jobs, gem polishing works, carpet weaving beedi making job.

The Ministry of Labour has considered these problems of child labour. It recognizes the need to protect child labour from being forced to work in hazardous conditions that endanger their physical and mental development. It addressed the need to ensure the health and safety of children at the work place recognizing that they must be protected from excessively long working hours. All working children should be provided with sufficient weekly periods and holidays.

Apart from Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, there are legal provisions for working children in other laws such as the Factories Act, 1948, the Mines Act, 1952, the Motor Transport Worker’s Act, 1961, the Beedi  and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966, the Plantation Labour Act, 1951 and the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The Child Labour Act prohibits employment of children (under 14yrs) in 13 occupations and 57 processes contained in Part A & B of the schedule to the Act . It also lays down penalties for the employment of children in violation of the provisions of this Act and regulates the employment of children with respect to working hours, number of holidays, health and safety in work place.

INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENT

India has accepted the Convention on the Rights of the Child concluded by the UN General Assembly on November 20,1989. The International Labour Organisation has been playing an important role in the process of gradual elimination of child labour and to protect the child from industrial exploitation. It has focused on five main issues – prohibiting child labour at work, attacking the basic cause of child labour, helping children to adapt to future work, and protecting the children of working parents.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES

The Government has been alive to the need for release of these children from hazardous work and for their rehabilitation- physical, emotional and economic-through education. With this end in view, the National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in August 1987. The National Child Labour Projects were conceptualized and launched around the same time. Later on this was reinforced and strengthened for the total liberation of all children in the age group of 5 to 14 employed in hazardous work and for their physical and emotional rehabilitation through a composite package under the National Child Labour Projects which are to be administered by the District Child Labour Project Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1960. Under the scheme 12 National Child Labour Projects (NCLP) were started in Andhra Pradesh (Jaggampet and Markapur), Bihar (Zarwah), Madhya Pradesh (Mandsaur), Maharashtra (Thane), Orissa (Sambalpur), Rajasthan (Jaipur), Tamil Nadu (Sivakasi) and Uttar Pradesh (Varanasi-Mirzapur-Bhadoi, Moradabad, Aligarh and Ferozabad). A major activity under the NCLP is the establishment of special schools to provide both non-formal and formal education, vocational training, supplementary nutrition, stipend and health care to children withdrawn from employment.

As a follow-up, a series of steps have been taken by the Government. A high-powered body, a National Authority for Elimination of Child Labour (NAECL) was constituted under the chairmanship of the Union Labour Minister. The function of NAECL include laying down policies and programmes for elimination of child labour particularly in hazardous industries, to monitor the progress of implementation of programmes, projects and schemes for elimination of child labour and to coordinate implementation of child labour related projects of various Central Ministries to ensure convergence of services for the benefit of the families of child labour.

Secretaries to the Government of India in the Ministries of Labour, Information and Broadcasting, Welfare, Rural Development and Textiles and in the Departments of Expenditure, Education, Health and Family Welfare and Women and Development are members of the NAECL. 

The Government intends to implement the policies and programmes for elimination of child labour in a more focused, integrated and convergent manner. The Government would be first making attempts to eliminate child labour from hazardous occupations and progressively move towards elimination of child labour in all other areas in the coming years. For the Tenth Plan Period, the Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 667.50 crore for child labour schemes.

ACTION

Increasing the incomes of parents by converging various development schemes is a pragmatic step. Efforts are afoot to establish proper coordination in the implementation of different programmes being run by various government departments. Presently, in more than 4,000 schools over 2 lakh children are being rehabilated under 100 projects.

A number of innovative schemes have been initiated across the country for the uplift of children. Under the grants-in-schemes, voluntary agencies are being financially assisted to the extent of 75 per cent of the project cost for taking up welfare projects for working children.

The Government is determined to eliminate all forms of child labour by 2020. Indeed, poverty eradication combined with educational reforms to provide free or affordable access to quality education with an interesting, innovative and job-oriented curriculum for all can effectively eliminate child labour once and for all.

The author is, Union Labour Minister.