Project On Child Labour – Business Studies Class 12

CHILD LABOUR

INTRODUCTION

Work that deprives them of their childhood, interfaces with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially, or morally dangerous and harmful comes under child labor. Legislatures across the world prohibit child labor as a predominant feature in Indian Society. The 2011 National census of India found the total number of child laborers, aged 5-14 to be 435 million, and the total child population to be 259.64 million in that age group. The 2011 national Census of India found the total number of child laborers aged 5-14 to be 4.35 million, and the total child population to be 259.64 million in that age group. As per the child labor prohibition and regulation Act,1986, amended in 2016 a ‘child’ is defined as any person below the age of 14 and the CLPR Act prohibits employment of a child in any employment including as domestic help. It is a cognizable criminal offense to employ a child for any work

DEFINITION

the term ‘child labor suggests ILd is best defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.it refers to work whose schedule interferes with their ability to attend regular school or work that affects in any manner their ability to focus during the war. India’s Census 2001office defines child labor as the participation of a childless that is 17 years of age in any economically productive activity with or without compensation, wages, or profit. Such participation could be physical or mental or both. This work includes part-time help or unpaid work on the frame, family enterprise, or in any other economic activity such as cultivation and milk production for sale or domestic consumption.

HISTORY

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

During the ‘Industrial Revolution’, children, as young as four, were employed in production factories with dangerous and often fatal working conditions. The use of children as laborers is now considered by wealthy countries a human rights violation, and is outlawed with some poorer countries may allow or tolerate child labor

HOUSEHOLD ENTERPRISES

The Homebasedmanufacturing across the United States and Europe employed children in tedious work poverty and misery were common factors responsible for the situation.

21st CENTURY

Child Labour is still common in many parts of the world. Estimates for child labor vary of ranges from250 from 304 million if children aged 5-227 involved in any economic activity are counted and light occasional work is excluded ILOestimated three were 153 million child laborers aged 5-14 worldwide in 2008

BONDED CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

Bonded Child Labour is a system of forced, labor under which the child or child’s parents agree, oral or written, with a creditor. The child performs work as in-kind repayment of credit. In in1977, India passed legislation that prohibits solicitation or use of bonded labor by anyone or anyone including children. Evidence of continuing bonded child labor continues. According to a TLO report, the extent of bonded child labor is difficult to determine, but estimates from various social activist groups range up to 3,50,000 in 2001.

AREAS WHERE CHILD LABOUR IS EXERCISED

• Diamond Industry
• Fireworks manufacture
• Silk manufacture
• Carpet weaving
• Domestic labor
• Mining

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR

Child labor is caused by seven factors. Some of them include

• POVERTY
  Children who come from poor families may be forced to work to support their siblings and parents or supplement the household income when expenses are more than the parent’s earnings. It is a huge problem, especially in developing countries where parents are unable to generate income due to the lack of employment opportunities or education children can be found employed in mines or hawking in the streets to earn money.
• LOW ASPIRATION
  Low aspiration by parents and children is a major cause of child labor because in such a situation, being employed in a local factory or selling groceries in the streets is the normal way of life.to these types of children and parents, success only belongs to a certain region or group of people. They do not aspire to become professionals in society or great entrepreneurs. It is a mindset that forms the very foundation of child labor.
• HUGE DEMAND FOR UNSKILLED LABOUR
  Children are mostly unskilled and provide a cheap source of labor, making them an attractive option for many greedy employers. Child labor increases the margin of profits for such entrepreneurs whose only objective is profit maximization even if it comes at the expense of ethics and good business practices. these types of employers can also force children to work under unfavorable conditions through manipulations
• ILLITERACY
  A society with many educated people understands the importance of going to school and pursuing dreams. Children have the ability and time to become whatever they aspire to be. illiteracy, on the other hand, makes it difficult for many people to understand the importance of education. Illiterate people view education as a preserve of the privilege in the society
• EARLY MARRIAGES
  Marrying at an early age is a major contributing factor to overpopulation. young parents can have a lot of children because they remain fertile for a long time. Having many children with little or no resources to support them leads to child labor. older children are forced to work to help their parents support the family
• HIGH COST OF EDUCATION
  Quality education is expensive . For too many parents who live in abject poverty, priority is given to providing food for the family because education is too expensive to afford especially when there are many children to pay school fees for. Instead of letting children stay at home because there is a lack of many to send them to school, parents opt to have them work as unskilled laborers to help support the family.
• OVERPOPULATION
  There are limited resources and more mouths to feed. Children are employed in various forms of work. As the population is increasing, people are finding it difficult to search for jobs. So, the people on or below the poverty line find it difficult to have suitable jo that is why they encourage their children to work.
• URBANISATION
  MNCs and export industries in the developing world employ child workers, particularly in garment industries because it helps in reducing the cost of products which leads to more demand.
• ORPHANS
  Children born out of wedlock, children with no parents, and relatives often do not find anyone to support them. Thus they are forced to work for survival.
• WILLINGNESS TO EXPLOIT CHILDREN
  Even if a family is very poor, the incidence of child labor will be very low unless people are willing to exploit these children. Employees often justify the use of children by claiming that a child’s small hands are vital for the production of certain products such as hand-knotted carpets and deligated glass-war, although evidence for this is limited.
• UNEMPLOYMENT OF HOLDERS
  Elders often find it difficult to get jobs. These industrialists and factory owners find it perfect to employ children. this is so because they can pay less and extract more work. They will not create any union problems also because they are not able to form unions at an early age.

CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR

Child labor has several negative impacts. Some of them include

• LOSS OF QUALITY CHILDHOOD
  Human beings need to enjoy every stage of their development. A child should play with friends and make memories for a lifetime. Youths should explore life and form strong foundations that could define their adult lives. Child labor, therefore, leads to the loss of quality childhood as children will be deprived of the opportunity to enjoy the amazing experiences that come with being young.
• HEALTH ISSUES
  Child labor can also lead to health complications due to under-nourishment and poor working conditions. It is highly unlikely that people who employ children also have the moral capacity to ensure that they have good working conditions, working in places such as mines and badly conditioned factories may result in lifetime health issues for children employed working in these places.
• MENTAL TRAUMA
  Issues such as bullying, sexual exploitation, and unfavorable working hours may result in mental trauma in these children. They will find it hard to forget the because societal misfit because of bad childhood experiences. Child Labour may also result in a lack of emotional growth and thus insensitivity.
• ILLITERACY
  Children that are employed do not have the time to go to school. They spend a lot of time in their workstations as the days and years go by. the lack of education and illiteracy makes them individuals with limited opportunities as far as employment is concerned.
• GROWTH EFFICIENCY
  It is prevalent among working children who end to be shorter and weaker than other children these deficiencies also impact their adult life.
• HIV/AIDS AND OTHER SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES
  These diseases are widespread, among the one million children forced into prostitution every year, pregnancy, drug addiction, and mental illness are also common among prostitutes.
• EXHAUSTION AND MALNUTRITION
  It is a result of underdeveloped children performing heavy manual labour, working long hours in unbearable conditions, and not earning enough to feed themselves adequately.

SOLUTIONS TO CHILD LABOUR PROBLEMS

How can child labor be reduced or Completely Eradicated?

Every child born has the right to have dreams and pursue those dreams. even though the realization of some of these aspirations may be limited by several challenges, it is still possible to overcome them and achieve the highest levels of success. There is a need to involve various stakeholders to realize this objective. These are some of how the problem of child labor can be addressed.

• FREE EDUCATION
  It is the key to eliminating child labor. Parents that do not have money for school fees can use this as an opportunity to provide their children with an education.it has already proved to be a success in many places around the globe and with more effort, the cases of child labor will be greatly reduced.
• MORAL POLISHING
  Child labor should not be entertained at all .it is legally and morally wrong. Children should not be allowed to provide labor at the expense of getting an education and enjoying their childhood. Factory owners, shopkeepers, and industries among others should not employ children. Society should be educated on the negative impacts of child labor so that it becomes an issue that is frowned upon whenever it occurs. this type of morale polishing would act as a deterrent to people who intend to employ children and use them as a source of cheap labor.
• CREATE DEMAND FOR SKILLED AND TRAINED WORKERS
  Due to this, child labour cases will reduce since almost all child laborers fall under the unskilled worker category.it will lead to adult employment as the demand for skilled labor rises establishing skill-based learning centers, vocational training centers, and technical training institutes improves literacy and contributes to the availability of skilled and trained workers in the job market.
• AWARENESS
  Parents should be made aware that sending their children to work has legal ramifications and the law would take its cause if they are found to be aiding and abetting this vice.it is the ignorance among many parents and members of society that makes them participate in child labour practices. Conducting a campaign to create awareness about its harmful effects would eliminate the practice.
• EMPOWERMENT OF THE POOR PEOPLE
  Empowering poor people through knowledge and income-generating projects would go a long way in reducing cases of child labor education for parents is also a must to ensure that the rights of children are not used as a source of labour.

CHILD LABOUR LAWS IN INDIA

The constitution of India in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of state policy prohibits child labor below the age of 14 years in any factory or mine or engagement in any other hazardous employment. the constitution also envisioned that India shall be 1960, provide infrastructure and resources for free and compulsory education to all children of the age 6-14 years. India has a federal form of government so child labor is a matter on which both the central government and state governments can legislate. The major national legislative developments include the following

• THE FACTORIES ACT OF 1948
  The act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory. The act also provided rules on who, when, and how long pre-adults aged 15-18 years can be employed in any factory.
• THE MINES ACT OF 1952
  It prohibits the employment of children below 18 years of age in a mine
• THE CHILD LABOURACT OF 1986
  This law prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations as identified by the law. This list was expanded in 2006 and again in 2008
• THE JUVENILE JUSTICE OF CHILDREN ACT OF 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 a bondage
• THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN TO FREE AND COMPULSORY EDUCATION ACT OF 2009
  This law mandates free and compulsory education for all children aged 6-14 years. This legislation also mandated that 25% of seats in every private school must be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups and physically challenged children.

INITIATIVES AGAINST CHILD LABOUR

India has all along followed a proactive policy on the matter of tackling the problem of child labor India has always stood for constitutional and statutory development measures required for eliminating child labor. the Indian constitution has consciously incorporated provisions to secure compulsory universal elementary education as well as labor protection for child labor commissions in Inda have gone into problems of child labor. The constitution of Inda also provides certain rights to children and prohibits child labour.

• In 1979, the Indian government formed the Gurupadswamy Committee to find out about child labour and the means to tackle it
• The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act was enacted based on the recommendations of the committee in 1986.
• A national policy on child labour was formulated in 1987 to focus on the reliability of children working in hazardous occupations
• The ministry of labour and Employment had implemented around 100 industry-specific national Child Labour Projects to rehabilitate child workers since 1988.
• The child labour prohibition and Regulation Act is a piece of legislation that prohibits the engagement of children in certain employment and regulates the conditions of work for children.
• the national policy in child labour seeks to adopt a sequential approach with a focus on the rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes in the first instance.
• The ministry of labour and employment functions to provide and supervise a range of policies concerning child labour in India.
• NGOs such as Care India, Child Rights, and You, Global march against child labour have been implemented to combat child labour through education and accessibility to resources.

NON GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS

Many NGOs like Bachpan Andolan, CARE INDIA, Child Rights and You, Global March against child labour, RideIndia, etc. have been working to eradicate child labour in India. Pratham is India’s largest Non-government not organization with the mission ‘Energy Child in school and learning well. Starting in 1994 Pratham has aimed to reduce child labour and offer school to children irrespective of their gender, religion, and social background. It has introduced low-cost education models that are sustainable and reproducible. In 2005, Pratham was involved in coordinating a child labour rescue operation with India’s Ministry of labour and police, when around 500 children were rescued from zari’s sweatshops in New Delhi. The problem of child labor in India is so huge that it depends on support and contribution from every part of society to completely eradicate this problem. In recent times, govt have taken some concrete steps for improving the situation of child laborers. Providing free education, encouraging parents to send their kids to schools with awareness campaigns and allocation of funds towards child health and development, etc. are some of the steps taken by the state. among the UN organizations, UNICEF has remained instrumental in initiating several steps against child labor.UNICEF has been well supported by civil society organizations and NGOs are working t improve the situation in this field. these, NGOs focus on different problems concerning child labour let’s have a look at some of the top NGOs dealing with the menace of child labour.

• World Vision India, New Delhi
• Action Aid India, New Delhi
• Concerned about working Against Child labour, New Delhi
• Child Rights and You (CRY), Mumbai
• CREDA (Centre for Rural Education and Development Action), Uttar Pradesh
• CARE India, New Delhi

We cannot undermine the huge role played by NGOs in handling child labor issues. Specific NGO’sfocus on certain areas of improvement for instance, if Action Aid Inda Concentrates on child Education and on-street and working children then CRY target underprivileged children who don’t have basic resources to sustain themselves.NGOs are resources to sustain themselves.NGOs are carrying out child development activities all over India. Some children educational NGOs engage themselves in offering free education to poor kids they teach children living in slums. Quite a few NGO”’sfocus on girls’ education.it has been witnessed that girls are made to work whereas the boy child is allowed to study but that needs to be charged. So community organizations seek to improve the quality of life of socially disadvantaged girls with the sheep of health, education, and social mobilization, NGOs are helping street children in different parts of the country.