Definition of Child Labour

Child labour is conventionally defined to include all ‘economically active’ children

in the age group 5-14 years. A person is treated as economically active or gainfully
employed if she/he does work on a regular basis and receives remuneration for
it. The ILO defines ‘child labour’ as “work that deprives children of their
childhood and their dignity, which hampers their access to education and the
acquisition of skills, and which is performed under deplorable conditions harmful
to their health and their development.”
Child work, on the other hand, includes all paid and unpaid work for the household
or for the market, whether it is full-time or part-time. Participation in household
activities on a regular basis and for several hours in a day to relieve adults for wage
employment is also included in this definition. The ILO, however, argues that it is
not concerned with children helping in family farms or doing household chores.
Alec Fyfe said: “There is little doubt that many children welcome the opportunity
to work, seeing in it the rite de passage to adulthood. Work can be a gradual
initiation into adulthood and a positive element in the child’s development. Light
work, properly structures and phased, is not child labour. Work which does not
detract from the other essential activities of children, leisure, play and education, is
not child labour. Child labour is work which impairs the health and development of
children.
But in India the reality is that as per 1991 Census, 11.27 million children (in the
age group of 5-14 years) were working whereas in 2001, this increased to 12.67
million.
Many children who should be in schools are out of the school system. This shows
that they are engaged someplace else, which more than often is engagement in
form of labour.
Causes of Child Labour
Child labour is a socio-economic problem. Parents for the reason of poverty have
to send their children in order to supplement their income derived from child
labour, however meager, are essential to sustain the family. The major reason that
creates the circumstances for a child to work as a child labour includes the
following.
1. Socio-economic backwardness
 2. Poverty
3. Illiteracy
4. Unemployment
5. Over-population
6. Lack of education facilities
7. Ignorance of parents about the importance of education.
8. Ignorance of impact on children of labour.
9. Government apathy
10. Customs and traditional attitude
11. The provisions of the protective labour legislations are lopsided
12. The enforcing machinery, which are provided by the state governments, are
inadequate almost everywhere and fail to check up on child labour.
13. The children are mostly silent listeners or non-listeners of the policies and
programmes meant for them and hence, their problems are not properly
realized and the safeguards extended for the prevention of child labour are
not implemented effectively.
14. Economic Globalization is equally responsible for the growth of child
labour.
Salient Features of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act, 1986
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 was the culmination of
effort and ideas that emerged from the deliberations and recommendations of
various committees on child labour. Significant among them are the National
Commission on Labour (1966-69), Gurupadaswamy Committee on Child Labour
(1979), Sanat Mehta Committee (1984) and others.
Aims and Objects, Extent and Commencement
The legislature strongly desired prohibition of child labour and the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 is in itself, ex facie, a bold step towards
that goal. As its preamble indicates that it has twin objective: it intended to prohibit
the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the conditions
of work of children in certain other employments where children are allowed to
work.
There are a number of Acts that prohibit the employment of children below 14
years and 15 years in certain specified employments, for example, Section 67 of
the Factories Act, 1948, Section 45 of the Mines Act, 1952, etc. However, there
existed no procedure in any of the law for deciding in which employments or
processes the employment of children should be banned. Also there was no law to
regulate the working conditions of children in the employments where they were
not prohibited to work and consequently were exploited. Thus, the Act was passed
with the following aims and objects:
1. Ban the employment of children, that is, those who have not completed their
fourteenth year of age, in specified occupations and processes
2. Lay down a procedure to decide modifications to the Schedule of banned
occupations and processes
3. Regulate the conditions of work of children in employments where they are
not prohibited from working
4. Lay down enhanced penalties for employment of children in violation of the
provisions of the Act, and other Acts which forbid the employment of
children
5. To obtain uniformity in the definition of ‘child’ in all the related laws
6. To empower the Central Government to constitute Child Labour Technical
Advisory Committee to advise the Central Government for the purpose of
addition of occupation and processes to the Schedule appended to the Act.
The Act makes it clear that the rights of the child are inalienable and indivisible.
Further any person who engages into the child labour practice shall be criminally
liable under the Act of 1986 as well as his civil liability to pay compensation arises
out of violation of the fundamental rights.
The Act received the President’s assent on December 23, 1986. Section 1 (2) of the
Act provides that it extends to the whole of India. It has been provided under
Section 1(3) that the provisions of this Act, other than Part III, shall come into
force at once and Part III shall come into force on such dates as the Central
Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint, and different
dates may be appointed for different states and different class of establishments.
 Pradesh
Definition Clause (Section 2)
The Act also provides the definitions of the various concepts in Section 2. They
are:
1. Appropriate Government means, in relation to an establishment under the
control of the Central Government or a railway administration or a major
port or a mine or oilfield, the Central Government, and in all other cases, the
State Government
2. Child means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age
3. Day means a period of twenty-four hours beginning at midnight
4. Establishment includes a shop, commercial establishment, workshop, farm,
residential hotel, restaurant, eating house, theatre, or other place of public
amusement or entertainment
5. Family in relation to an occupier, the individual, wife or husband, as the case
may be, of such individual, and their children, brother or sister of such
individual
6. Occupier in relation to an establishment or a workshop, means the person
who has the ultimate control over the affairs of the establishment or the
workshop
7. Port authority means any authority administering a port
8. Prescribed means prescribed under the rules made under Section 18
9. Week means a period of seven days beginning at midnight on Saturday night
or such other night as may be approved in writing for a particular area by the
Inspector
10. Workshop means any premises (including the precincts thereof) wherein any
industrial process is carried on, but does not include any premises to which
the provisions of Section 67 of the Factories Act, 1948, for the time being
apply
Prohibition of children in certain occupations and processes (Section
3)
Section 3 of the Act provides for certain employments in which there is a
prohibition on employment of children. It states that, “No child shall be employed
or permitted to work in any of the occupations set forth in Part A of the Schedule
or in any workshop wherein any of the processes set forth in Part B of the Schedule
is carried on.”
1. Occupation set forth in Part A (18 entries) (transport, construction,
Railways, Ports, Crackers and firework industries, slaughter houses,
automobile workshops & garages explosives, handloom, mines, plastic units.
Diving was added in 2008 Amendment and circus and caring for elephants
in the 2010 Amendment.
2. Processes set forth in part B (65 entries) Bidi making, Carpet weaving, mica
cutting, lead factory, oil expelling, Brick kilns, manufacturing of glass, zari,
electroplating etc. In 2008 Amendment a further eight processes were added
to the list, example, processes involving exposure to excessive heat (like
working near furnaces) and cold, food processing and beverage industry, etc.
3. Exemption clause: The Second Para of Sec. 3 provides exemption of
occupation & workshop engaging the child if on two grounds namely:-
a) To workshop where in any of the processes set forth in Part B is
carried out by the occupier with the aid of his family.
b) To any school established by or receiving assistance or recognition
from the government
Appointment of the Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee
(Section 5)

1. The Central Government may by notification in the Official Gazette,

constitute an advisory committee called the Child Labour Technical
Advisory Committee to advise the Central Government for the purpose of
addition of occupations and processes to the Schedule.
2. The Committee shall consist of a Chairman and such other members not
exceeding 10, as may be appointed by the Central Government
 3. The Committee shall meet as often as it may consider necessary and shall
have power to regulate its own procedure
4. This committee also has the power to constitute a sub-committee.
In addition, a Central Advisory Board on Child Labour has also been constituted to
review the implementation of the existing legislations and suggest measures for
welfare of working children. Current Composition of the Board may be seen by
clicking here.
Also, in order to monitor the functioning of the National Child Labour Projects
(NCLPs), a Central Monitoring Committee has been formed. The Committee sees
the overall supervision, monitoring and evaluation of the National Child Labour
Projects. It is set up under the Chairmanship of Secretary, Ministry of Labour &
Employment with representative of State Governments and concerned
Ministries/Departments.
Regulation of conditions of work (Sections 7, 8, 13)
To regulate the conditions of work there are three grounds of consideration
namely.
1. Hours and Period of Work (Section 7)

a. Section 7 provides for six grounds for regulating the hours and period
of work of the children employed:
2. No child is permitted to work in any establishment in excess of such number
of hours as may be prescribed for such establishment or class of
establishments
3. The period of work on each day shall be so fixed that in one stretch no
period shall exceed three hours and that no child shall work for more than
three hours before he has had an interval for rest for atleast one hour.
4. The period of work of a child shall be so arranged that inclusive of his
interval of rest, it shall not be spread over for more than six hours, including
the time spent in waiting for work
5. No child shall be made to work between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.
6. No child shall be permitted to work overtime
7. No child is to work on any day on which he has already been working in
another establishment, that is, dual engagement in two establishments is not
allowed[24]
 8. Weekly Holidays (Section 8)

a. Section 8 makes it mandatory to allow one whole day in a week as

holiday to a child. Such declared holiday shall be specified in a notice
permanently exhibited on a conspicuous place in the establishment.
No occupier is allowed to alter this holiday more than once in three
months.

9. Health and Safety (Section 13)

Section 13 empowers the appropriate Government to make rules for the

health and safety of the children employed through notification. These
matters shall relate to the heads provided under clause (2) of Section 13
under 24 different heads, such as, cleanliness in the place of work and its
freedom from nuisance, disposal of wastes and effluents, ventilation and
temperature, lighting, drinking water, latrines and urinals, spittoons, fencing
of machinery, employment of children on dangerous machines, excessive
weights, protection of eyes, explosive or inflammable gases, etc.

Duties of Occupier (Sections 9, 10, 11, 12)

Part III of the Act imposes certain duties upon the occupier of the establishment.
These are:
1. Notice to Inspector (Section 9)
a. Every occupier shall send a written notice to the inspector with
respect to the employment of children in his establishment. This
notice shall contain the following particulars:

2. The name and situation of the establishment

3. The name of the person in actual management of the establishment
4. The address to which communications relating to the establishment should
be sent

5. The nature of the occupation or process carried on in the establishment

a. Inspector is the person appointed under Section 17 of the Act by
appropriate government. It shall be the duty of the Inspector to verify
 that the occupier has complied with all the provisions of the Act. The
Inspector is a public servant under Section 21 of IPC.

6. Verification of Age of Child (Section 10)

a. In case of any dispute with respect to the age of the child, the dispute
shall be referred to Medical Practitioner by the Inspector (in the
absence of certificate of age).

7. Maintenance of register (Section 11)

a. The occupier shall maintain the register in respect of children
employed. The register shall be open for inspection at all times during
working hours. The register must show;

8. The name of date of birth of every child employed.

9. Working hours and period of work and intervals of rest.
10.Nature of work of any such child.
11.Other particular as may be prescribed.

Display of notice (Section 12)

Every railway administration port authority and every occupier shall display a
notice containing abstract of Section 3 and Section 14 (penalties) at some
conspicuous and accessible place. The notice shall be displayed in both English
and local language.

Penalties under the Act (Section 14 and 15)

The Act provides for penalties in Section 14 and 15. Section 14 gives the penalties
for contravention with the provisions of this Act whereas, Section 15 gives the
penalties for the contraventions given in other Acts.

1. If any person contravenes the provisions of Section 3, he shall be punished

with imprisonment for a term not less than three months and may extend to
one year or with fine not less than ten thousand rupees but may extend to
twenty thousand rupees or with both.
2. In cases of subsequent contravention of Section 3, the offender shall be
punished with a term which shall not be less than six months, but may
extend to two years.
3. Whoever, fails to comply with or contravenes with Section 9, 11, 12 or any
other provision of the Act, shall be punishable with Simple Imprisonment
which may extend to one month or with fine which may extend to ten
thousand rupees or with both.
4. Whoever, is found guilty and convicted of contravention of would be
punished as per the provisions of Section 14 (1) and 14 (2).