Problems concerning Children..

• Submitted by: Jeccy, Razu, Deepjyoti

 Who is a Child?
• The Census of India considers children to be any person below the
age of 14, as do most government programmes. Biologically
childhood is the stage between infancy and adulthood

• According to the UNCRC 'a child means every human being below
the age of eighteen years unless, under the law applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier'.

• This definition of child allows for individual countries to determine

according to the own discretion the age limits of a child in their own
laws. But in India various laws related to children define children in
different age limits.
 PROBLEMS CONCERNING CHILDRENS
• According to UNICEF violence against children can be
"physical and mental abuse and injury, neglect or negligent
treatment, exploitation and sexual abuse. Violence may
take place in homes, schools, orphanages, residential care
facilities, on the streets, in the workplace, in prisons and in
places of detention." Such violence can affect the normal
development of a child impairing their mental, physical and
social being. In extreme cases abuse of a child can result in
death.
• Child abuse has many forms: physical, emotional, sexual,
neglect, and exploitation. Any of these that are potentially
or actually harmful to a child's health, survival, dignity and
development are abuse. This definition is derived from
the W.H.O.
 Categorization of Abuse and Violence

– Physical abuse. Physical child abuse occurs when a child is purposely

physically injured or put at risk of harm by another person.
– Sexual abuse. Sexual child abuse is any sexual activity with a child,
such as fondling, oral-genital contact, intercourse, exploitation or
exposure to child pornography.
– Emotional abuse. Emotional child abuse means injuring a child's self-
esteem or emotional well-being. It includes verbal and emotional
assault — such as continually belittling or berating a child — as well as
isolating, ignoring or rejecting a child.
– Medical abuse. Medical child abuse occurs when someone gives false
information about illness in a child that requires medical attention,
putting the child at risk of injury and unnecessary medical care.
– Neglect. Child neglect is failure to provide adequate food, shelter,
affection, supervision, education, or dental or medical care.
PROBLEMS FACED BY CHILDREN
CONTD..
 CHILD LABOUR
• The term 'child labour', suggests ILO, 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 that is
mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and
harmful to children, or work whose schedule interferes
with their ability to attend regular school, or work that
affects in any manner.

• UNICEF defines child labour differently. A child, suggests

UNICEF, is involved in child labour activities if between 5
and 11 years of age, he or she did at least one hour of
economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work in
a week, and in case of children between 12 and 14 years
of age, he or she did at least 14 hours of economic activity
or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic
work per week.
 Laws against Child labour
• The Factories Act of 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of
children below the age of 14 years in any factory. The law also
placed rules on who, when and how long can pre-adults aged 15–18
years be employed in any factory.
• The Mines Act of 1952: The Act prohibits the employment of
children below 18 years of age in a mine.
• The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
of 1986: 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 a domestic help (except helping own family in non-
hazardous occupations). It is a cognizable criminal offence to
employ a Child for any work. Children between age of 14 and 18 are
defined as "Adolescent" and the law allows Adolescent to be
employed except in the listed hazardous occupation and processes
which include mining, inflammable substance and explosives
related work and any other hazardous process as per the Factories
Act, 1948.[
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children
Act of 2015: This law made it a crime, punishable with
a prison term, for anyone to keep a child in bondage
for the purpose of employment.
• Many NGOs like Bachpan Bachao
Andolan, ChildFund, CARE India, Talaash
Association, Child Rights and You, Global march
against child labour,Bundelkhand matra bhumi samaj
sevi sansthan project stop working with child labour
in india, RIDE India, Childline etc. have been working
to eradicate child labour in India.
 CHILD MARRIAGE
• Child marriage in India, according to the Indian law,
is a marriage where either the woman is below age
18 or the man is below age 21. Most child marriages
involve underage women, many of whom are in
poor socio-economic conditions. Child
marriages were prevalent in India in the
very recent past, mostly in the rural areas.

Law against Child Marriage

• Under the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act
(PCMA), 2006, the marriage between a man above
18 years of age with a woman below 18 years of
age, is punishable with imprisonment of two years,
a fine of up to Rs 1,00,000, or both.
 Behind-the-scenes..
• Although there is widespread awareness of the Prohibition of
Child Marriage Act 2006 (PCMA) and the illegality of child
marriage, individually people feel that the traditions and
norms are stronger than the law and the institutions and
rarely report cases. On top of this, there is limited capacity
among officials and lack of willingness to go against
community decisions, since officials are themselves part of
the community.
• Despite the fact that dowry has been prohibited for five
decades (Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961), it is still common for
parents of girls in India to give gifts to the groom and /or his
family either in cash or kind.
 Child Trafficking
• Child trafficking unlike many other issues is
found in both developed and developing
nations. Trafficked children are used for
prostitution, forced into marriage, illegally
adopted, used as cheap or unpaid labour,
used for sport and organ harvesting. Some
children are recruited into armed groups.
Trafficking exposes children to violence,
abuse, neglect and exploitation.

According to UNICEF a child victim of trafficking is "any

person under 18 who is recruited, transported,
transferred, harboured or received for the purpose of
exploitation, either within or outside a country".
Trafficking is one of the hardest crimes to track and
investigate hence data is hard to obtain.
The latest figures estimate that 1.2 million children are
trafficked worldwide every year. Child prostitution has
the highest supply of trafficked children.
 Contd..
• India has legal provisions to counter trafficking
as per the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act
1986.
• The Ministry of Women and Child
Development (MWCD) has taken a number
of Initiatives to combat trafficking of Women
and Children.
 Child Begging

• According to a conservative estimate, 3 lakh children across India are

forced to beg, using everything from addiction to drugs, to threats of
violence and actual beatings. They form the foot soldiers of what is a
now a multi-million rupee industry led by human trafficking cartels.

• The Indian National Human Rights Commission reports that 40,000

children are abducted in India every year, over 25% of whom remain
untraced. Yet, child begging is not addressed by the authorities the
way it should be. It is often assumed that these children belong to
families who push them into begging.
 Law against Begging:

Kidnapping or maiming a minor for begging is punishable under Section

363A of IPC. Under this act, a child is defined as a boy who has not
completed 16 years of age and a girl who has not completed 18 years of age.
According to this act beggars found guilty by a court of law were sentence to
a minimum of one year and a maximum of three years in Beggar's Home
(Certified institution).
How we can help street children
• Report to authorities
• Street children who look distressed, injured or show any signs of abuse
must be reported to the local Child Welfare Committee or police.
• Volunteer at a Centre for street children
• Leading child rights NGO Save the Children runs centers to provide street
children education and counseling.
• Support an NGO in fundraising initiative
• Support various NGO fundraising initiatives, social media, or in at malls,
kiosks, and public places.
TH