High time to banish scourge of child labour

The International Day against Child Labour is celebrated on June 12, every year. Yet, unfortunately child labour continues to exist unabated. The numerous Acts and laws passed against child labour have not succeeded in bringing down even an iota of the incidence of this evil practice in society.

Child labour is rampant because it is profitable and convenient for the greedy employer. He could get cheap labour with no big demands. The fear of organised labour problems does not exist with child labour. Poor parents of the victims are not against it as there is also a little income that adds to the family kitty. As a result, young children when employed are not only denied of their right to education, but their precious childhood itself is robbed. This, in the long run, is to leave ill effects on the rest of their lives and it is likely that most of them end up by coming in conflict with law. The scourge of child labour is surely a blot on the social life of the nation.

In towns and cities all over, there are a number of workshops, foundries, lathes and other establishments, where the practice of employing child labour unfortunately has been the order of the day. Almost every carpentry shop in the towns has young boys in the age group of 10-15 years.

As these young kids are supposed to be doing apprenticeship to pick up skills, and then to take it as a profession, they are generally not paid for their labour; if paid, only meagerly. The roadside welding shops employ mostly child labour and the children thus employed slog the entire day with the hazardous machines.

Many a time young boys are left with ghastly wounds that leave permanent scars on their face and body from the sparks the welding equipment emits. Rolling incense sticks, doing pico and zari work on the saris, rolling beedis, making fire-crackers with highly hazardous gun powder and innumerable such other jobs are got done by the tiny hands which ought to handle pen, pencil, slate and books. It is disheartening to see such unscrupulous industrial units exploiting the innocent and hapless children in their greed to make money.

Poverty, as a potential cause for child labour is no excuse as every child is entitled to the right of education till a certain age. It can therefore be surmised that those children who are not in schools are all child labourers. Making them work is only robbing of their rightful childhood. The awarding of Noble Peace Prize for 2014 to Kailash Sathyarthi, the Indian child rights activist is a clear indication as to how even the international bodies have recognised the need to protect children from the evils of child labour all over the world. 

A recent survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) points out that every fourth child in the age group of 5-15 is employed and thus is a child labourer. According to another ILO estimate, 20 per cent of our country’s GNP is provided by child labour. The number of child labourers in India varies from 50 lakh to five crore in different estimates.
Besides cashing on their labour, the children are also many a time victims of trafficking and other heinous forms of exploitation.

It is an irony that the government consistently has been turning away from this acknowledged social evil. There has been no marked improvement in the budgetary allocations for the child protection schemes in the country. Avaricious employers and poor parents of the victims generally are ignorant of the numerous laws against child labour. The ILO with its numerous projects all over the world is trying to impress the member nations to remove the bane of child labour. Several states have set up society networks for creating awareness against child labour.

Combatting a deep-rooted evil

It is also gratifying to note that the government of India has recently established a National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights. It is well known that the governmental efforts alone may not bring any desired results. Prevalence of child labour is such a common thing for ages and the practice rooted so strongly in society that a total change in the mindsets of the perpetrator as well as the victim is necessary before embarking on combatting the evil.

There is the imperative need to make the public to feel as partners in the task of removing the evil of child labour. All the existing non-governmental agencies should be induced to play a vital role in the task of eradicating child labour. Apart from taking necessary steps to sensitise the evil effects of child labour, it is also required to chalk out need based and region specific rehabilitation strategies.

Establishment of non-residential craft schools where job oriented skills like welding, plumbing, electrical wiring, carpentry, brick-laying, masonry and such other vocations are taught, will go a long way in finding an alternative to child labour. Bridge schools with incentives can also help to wean away children from their unlawful employment. The Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill has been waiting to be passed by Parliament for the past three years (from 2012).

A strong political will accompanied by active support of people alone will ensure the total elimination of child labour. There is need for the media, both print and the electronic, to become partners in such an effort to combat the issue of the eradication of child labour. There is immediate need to formulate a policy to check the practice besides envisaging a comprehensive follow up programme to rehabilitate the dispossessed children. Needless to say that the issue to ban child labour through parliamentary legislation brooks no delay.

(The writer is retired professor of History, University of Hyderabad)