India may be chest-thumping about its growth, but the following figures on working children, despite a slide in the numbers, may not be a pleasant data.
Four per cent of children under 14 years of age are still sweating it out in workplaces across the country, according to the Census 2011 figures released on Tuesday.
In all, 1.01 crore of the 25.96 crore children in the 5-14 age group earn for their families, the census reveals. It is a decrease from 1.26 crore (5% of children in the 5-14 age group) recorded in the 2001 Census.
The census figure shows that 25.33 lakh children are in the age group of 5-9 years and the rest 75.95 lakh in the 10-14 age bracket. The figure includes both main workers and marginal workers.
With Hindus having the highest population, the community has the largest chunk of such children, but after Jains, the community has the least percentage of children in this age group who are working. Christians have the highest proportion of children who are working, the census shows.
There has also been a drastic reduction in the number of working Hindu children – from 1.02 crore in 2001 to 78.72 lakh 10 years later. The proportion in 2011 was 3.03%.
The Muslims, who are considered to have a large portion of poor people among them, also had an impressive show by recording a decreasing trend in working children. While there were 18.16 lakh such children in 2001, the numbers came down to 16.27 lakh in 2011. In 2011, the community had 3.79% of its children in the 5-14 age group working.
Christians, however, recorded a marginal rise in the number of such children from 2.52 lakh to 2.57 lakh.