Child Labour

Child Labour

Child labour in India is the practice where children engage in economic activity, on part-time 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 growth of informal economy are considered as the important causes of child labour in India. The 2001 national census of India estimated the total number of child labour, aged 5-14, to be at 12.6 million.

Conventionally, a child labour is defined as a child in the range of 5 to 14 years, who is doing labour, either paid or unpaid. The term ‘child labour’ is generally used to refer to any work by children that interferes with their full physical development curtailing the opportunities for education and the needed recreation. Despite a number of efforts made for the eradication of child labour, the situation remains still grave.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and regulates the working conditions in the jobs that it permitted, and put greater emphasis on health and safety standards.

National Child Labour Policy:

The National Child Labour Projects (NCLPs) were launched for the first time in 1988 in areas of high concentration of child labour. The NCLPs are area-specific; time bound projects where priority is given to the withdrawal and rehabilitation of children engaged in hazardous employment. The main objective of the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) is to eliminate the prevalence of child labour in this country.

The components of the running of the NCLP are:

i. Enforcement of the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, the Factories Act, 1948, the Mines Act, 1952 and such other acts within the project area.

ii. Coverage of families of child labour under the income/employment generating programmes under the over aegis of anti-poverty programmes.

iii. Formal and non-formal education for child labour in hazardous employments. Also, a stepped up programme of Adult education (Including non-formal education) of the parents of the working parents.

iv. Setting up of special schools for child workers together with provision of vocational education/training in such special schools, supplementary nutrition, and stipend to the children taken out from the prohibited employments and healthcare for all the children attending at such special schools.

v. Creating awareness among the different target groups in the society through governmental and non-governmental organisations to raise their consciousness on the issue of child labour.

vi. Survey of child labour in the project areas and evaluate the progress of the project periodically.