Karnataka, acting at the behest of the importers of agricultural commodities from the US and the European Union, could be stirring up a hornet’s nest by proposing a complete ban on the employment of children below 14 years of age in “any hazardous agricultural activities.” As part of the plan to enforce the ban, the agriculture department plans to ask the farmers to give a signed declaration on not employing any child labour, either of their own or on wages, before availing any subsidy from the government. The abolition of employment of child labour in any sector is an ideal worth pursuing and in this direction, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act bans the employment of children below 14 years in 13 specified occupations and 57 processes which are considered unsafe .

Child labour is no doubt an abominable practice which needs to be eliminated, but it is a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty, social backwardness and illiteracy. Perhaps every parent wishes to see children going to school when they are supposed to be in school and picking up a good education, instead of working in the field. We have also adopted a welcome principle of ‘Right to Education’ under Article 21A of the Constitution which stipulates that “the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 in such manner as the state by law may determine.” But the harsh reality is that India has more than 20 million working children, and as the Gurupadaswamy committee which studied the problem noted, “...as long as poverty exists, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child labour.”

Even today India is predominantly an agrarian economy, where almost 85 per cent of child labour is employed. Agricultural activities are not considered “hazardous” except perhaps in dealing with pesticides. If children are being employed in agriculture it is more out of necessity than choice. That being the case, the state agriculture department’s proposal to deny farmers “all levels of subsidies” if they employ child labour, is not a practical idea.  As the government has itself noted, the idea originated from the desire to boost agri-produce exports to the US and the European Union which shun products that use children in the production process. It’s time we thought up solutions based on Indian realities and to meet Indian requirements rather than go by extraneous considerations.