Child Labour

Introduction:
Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives
them of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and
that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. In
villages, it is a common sight to see children of poor families working in fields
or elsewhere to contribute to the family income. Such children are deprived of
opportunities of education and are also prone to health risks.

In a sense, child labour is open exploitation as it deprives children of education

and pushes them into exploitative situations. The side-effects of working at a
young age are: risks of contracting occupational diseases like skin diseases,
diseases of the lungs, weak eyesight, TB etc.; vulnerability to sexual
exploitation at the workplace; deprived of education. They grow up unable to
avail development opportunities and end up as unskilled workers for the rest of
their lives.
It has been observed that in villages especially, representatives of various
industries lure children with promises of jobs and wealth and bring them to the
city where they are employed as bonded labour in factories. Many children are
also employed as household help where they are paid minimum wages and are
made to do maximum physical work.

Poverty is often cited as the main cause of child labour. It is widely believed
that families will not be able to cope if their children do not work. In practice,
however, the poverty argument does not hold water. Precisely the opposite is
true: child labour maintains poverty.

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Experience shows that deeprooted social norms, the violation of workers’ rights,
discrimination against certain groups, and a poorly-functioning education
system are the main reasons why children aren’t attending school.

Because children are easy to exploit and are cheap labourers, they are hired in
preference to adults. Child labour thus leads to lower wages and higher
unemployment among adults. Children who work and do not go to school will
end up in low paid jobs later, and so will their children – and so the vicious
cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

Millions of more youngsters in India have a similar storey to tell, which is both
terrible and true. The average age for a youngster to be regarded as suitable for
work is 15 years or older. Children under this age will not be permitted to
engage in any forced labour. In some nations, child labour deprives children of
the opportunity to have a normal upbringing, a suitable education, and physical
and mental well-being. It's outlawed, but it's still a long way from being fully
abolished.

Causes Of Child Labour:

Poverty and a lack of education are the two fundamental causes of the ever-
increasing social evil of child labour. Because parents consider their children to
be money-making machines, they carry newborns to earn extra money on the
street by begging. They then take beggars and eventually sell them to employers
as they grow. This disease has spread across India. Child labour is caused by a
variety of factors other than poverty and a lack of education. Some of the

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reasons may be widespread in some countries, while others are exclusive to
certain regions or countries. To begin with, it occurs in nations with a high rate
of unemployment rather than in those with a high rate of poverty. When a
family's earnings are insufficient, they put their children to work to ensure that
they have enough money to survive. Similarly, if the elders in the family are
unemployed, the children must fill their shoes. Furthermore, when people lack
access to education, they would eventually force their children to work. Because
they are illiterate, they are only concerned with the short term outcome, which
is why they force children to work to exist in the present. Then, as their parents
are illiterate and let their children work at a young age, their children's future
will be the same.
1.poverty
Poverty is certainly the greatest single force driving children into the
workplace. Income from a child's work is felt to be crucial for his/her own
survival.

Popular perceptions and local customs and traditions (even when they are well-
intended) also play an important part, such as:

 The view that work is good for the character-building and skill
development of children;
 The tradition that children are expected to follow in their parents'
footsteps in a particular trade, and to learn and practice that trade at a
very early age;
 Traditions that push poor families into indebting themselves heavily for
social occasions or religious events, then relying on their children's work
to pay off the debt. The phenomenon of bonded labour, recognized as one
of the worst forms of child labour, is still widespread largely because of
the vulnerability of poor families to such pressures;
 The widely held view that girl children are less in need of education than
boys, which leads to them being taken out of school at an early age and
placed in work at home, or sold into domestic employment or sex work.
 Child labour may be so deeply ingrained in local customs and habits that
neither the parents nor the children themselves realize that it is against the
interests of children and illegal;

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  Children from large families are more likely to be at work than those
from small families, simply because the parents' income is quite
insufficient to support a large family.
The availability and quality of schooling is among the most important factors:

 many communities do not possess adequate school facilities;

 even where schools exist the education provided is often not perceived by
children or their parents to be a viable alternative to work. For many
families, schooling is simply unaffordable. Even when it is "free" it
involves a perceived opportunity cost of the income foregone when a
child is at school rather than at work;
 the education provided is frequently of poor quality, and/or perceived by
the parents and the children themselves to be irrelevant to local needs and
conditions. It is hardly surprising therefore that they see no point in
attending school;
 traditional views prevail that girls are better prepared for adult life by
sending them to work than by investing in their education;
 as a result of the above factors, vast numbers of children enter early into
the unskilled labour market. They are frequently illiterate and remain so
throughout their lives, and they lack the basic educational grounding
which would enable them to acquire skills and to improve their prospects
for a decent adult working life.

Impact of poverty causes child labour

Families themselves are a major factor. Large numbers of children are unpaid
workers in family enterprises (farms, informal sector workshops, etc.), which

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depend on family labour in order to survive. Many national laws and
regulations, as well as international standards like Convention No. 138, allow
exceptions in such cases. However, even in family enterprises, children can be
exposed to serious risks to their health and safety.

2. Access to compulsory, free education is limited:

In 2006, approximately 75 million children were not in school, limiting future
opportunities for the children and their communities. A 2009 report by the
United Nations estimated that achieving universal education for the world's
children would cost $10-30 billion -- about 0.7% - 2.0% of the annual cost of
global military spending.
3. Existing laws or codes of conduct are often violated:
Even when laws or codes of conduct exist, they are often violated. For example,
the manufacture and export of products often involves multiple layers of
production and outsourcing, which can make it difficult to monitor who is
performing labor at each step of the process. Extensive subcontracting can
intentionally or unintentionally hide the use of child labor.
4. Laws and enforcement are often inadequate:
Child labor laws around the world are often not enforced or include exemptions
that allow for child labor to persist in certain sectors, such as agriculture or
domestic work. Even in countries where strong child labor laws exist, labor
departments and labor inspection offices are often under-funded and under-
staffed, or courts may fail to enforce the laws. Similarly, many state
governments allocate few resources to enforcing child labor laws.

What law says about child labour?

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According to Article 23 of the Indian Constitution any type of forced labour is
prohibited. Article 24 states that a child under 14 years cannot be employed to
perform any hazardous work. Similarly, Article 39 states that “the health and
strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not
abused”. In the same manner, Child Labour Act (Prohibition and Regulation)
1986 prohibits children under the age of 14 years to be working in hazardous
industries and processes. Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment
Act 2016 prohibits the employment of Children below 14 years in all
employment and with the provisions for prohibition on employment of
adolescents (14-18 Years) in the scheduled hazardous occupations and
processes.

Worst condition faced by Child Labour

After Africa, India has the world's second-highest rate of child labour. Slavery
or bonded child labour is one of the most harmful forms of employment for
children. Despite the Indian parliament enacting the bonded labour system in
1976, this arrangement continues to exist. It is estimated that roughly 10 million
bonded children labour as domestic servants in India, with nearly 55 million
bonded child labours engaged across other countries. The children are sold to
moneylenders so that the borrowed funds can be repaid. Street children are
another sort of child labour in which youngsters work on the streets as beggars,
flower sellers, and so on rather than attending school. They are sometimes
forced to go hungry for days on end for people to feel sorry for them and donate
to charity. Child labour, combined with child abuse, has today become one of
the world's most serious problems.

Child labour has a serious impact on the health and well-being of children:
From the most recent, there are 73 million children involved in hazardous work,
that directly endangers their health and safety. Hazardous work can cause death,
serious illness or injury, permanent disability or psychological damage, as a
direct consequence of poor safety and health standards, exploitation or abuse.

Children can work in dangerous conditions in all sectors, including agriculture,

mining, construction, manufacturing, the service industry, retail and domestic
service. However, agriculture is where the highest incidence of child labourers
are found (71%) and it is a sector particularly prone to dangerous conditions,
especially for children. For example, hazardous work in cotton production is

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among the worst forms of child labour, as children are exposed to harmful
pesticides (, which was universally ratified in 2020). See the example below of
how the EU is helping protect children from these dangers under the clear
cotton project, implemented by the ILO and FAO.

The ILO estimates that some 22,000 children are killed at work every year.
However, due to the fact that much of child labour is hidden, it is difficult to
obtain accurate data on how children are being affected. For instance, the
numbers of those injured or made ill because of their work are not known.

This is even more reason to stamp out the practice of child labour altogether.
Children are some of the most vulnerable members of society and those
involved in child labour face significantly increased vulnerability, given their
situation. Children working in difficult and hazardous conditions, suffer higher
levels of illness and injury. They are more at risk than adults to workplace
hazards because of their age and level of development. As a consequence of
hazardous work, a number of serious diseases appear only in adulthood and are
often more devastating and are more likely to cause permanent harm.

Children involved in hazardous work may work at night, over long hours, be
exposed to physical, psychological, or sexual abuse, and have to work in
dangerous situations, such as underground, underwater, at dangerous heights,
heat, cold or in isolated and confined spaces. Some children have to operate
unsafe machinery, equipment, and tools, or be required to lift heavy loads and
be exposed to hazardous substances, agents, or processes, or to temperatures,
noise levels, or vibrations that can cause serious damage to their health.

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There is also a gender dimension to hazardous work or worst forms of child
labour. For instance, girls are more likely to perform heavy domestic work and
be subject to sexual abuse and exploitation, while boys are more likely to be
involved in dangerous work in agriculture, operating heavy machinery, or
spraying pesticides or handling dangerous chemicals.

The long term impact on health:

Children involved in child labour are more likely to experience worse health
outcomes also later in life. The impact of hazardous work can cause profound
and long-lasting health problems, that may only become evident in adulthood.
This makes them difficult to measure or even prove. Cancer, infertility and
chronic backpain are just some of the possible long-term negative health
outcomes. The consequences are worsened by poverty and the lack of efficient
health and social security schemes.

There is also the potential impact of child labour on individuals mental health.
However, like other aspects of health and child labour, the magnitude of the
issue is hard to measure and is therefore less known.

First and foremost, child labour should be stamped out, especially in its worst
forms. The international community, including the European Union, has
committed to the eradication of child labour.

The Sustainable Development Goals sets the target of ending child labour in all
its forms by 2025 (SDG target 8.7). However, this is increasingly looking less
likely. This is why we need renewed commitments and efforts by all, especially
by governments where there is high prevalence of child labour, the private
sector involved in supply chains that involve child labour, civil society and
other stakeholders. The solutions are known, it is the commitment and resources
that need reinvigorating.

In terms of health, there needs to be trained and sufficiently resourced health

and safety or child protection officers to respond to the health and safety
impacts on child labour. While the elimination of child labour is the ultimate
goal, in the interim, when child labour is still prevalent, we must do our utmost
to prevent injury, harm or even the death of children involved in child labour.

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When children are freed from the burden of child labour, they are able to fully
realise their right to healthy development.

Conclusion:

It is time to consign child labour to the history books and to allow all children to
realise their rights. Child labour is a fact of life for children and it is an issue that
effect of all us in many country. It is the duty of everyone to contribute to the stop
child labour – governments, trade unions, businesses, international organisations,
communities, employers, teachers, parents, children and you. The ‘school is the
best place to work’ campaign believe that child labour of any type of work which
is harmful to a child’s development including affecting full-time quality
education. The main key to eliminate child labour is political mobilation and
practical action.

There are many laws and regulatory departments for child labour, yet it is
ineffective in controlling ongoing child labour. This is possible only when there
is a cooperation of all the sections of the society and the law enforcement
agencies and by removing or minimizing the causes of child labour. The main
thrust should be on controlling the population of the country, education of the
children and providing sufficient funds for its removal from the gross domestic
product of India.

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Child labour is a global problem that requires a global solution.  In India, Africa
and Latin America, local authorities, teachers, employers, parents and children
in child labour free zones work together to get children out of work and into
school. They are all convinced that no child should be working: every child
should be in school. These child labour free zones are successful and are
continuing to spread to other areas and countries.
After all, what kind of citizens do we expect them to grow into after such kinds
of abuse? We need to think about it. Children are the future of our society, our
country. We cannot hope for true growth and prosperity until and unless our
young generation is safe and healthy in every way.

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