A holistic approach and urgent measures are needed
The UN general assembly in 2015 adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), one of which was to eliminate all forms of Child labour by 2025. India as a country has accepted this goal. On June 12, the World Day Against Child Labour, there should be introspection, on the one hand, and strategic planning, on the other, so that children receive their inalienable rights—a happy childhood, education and justice. The present situation of child labour in India is distressing. According to the 2011 census of India, the total number of child labourers in the country is 1.01 crore (10 million). A research report by the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation has estimated that by 2021, the year when a new census was due, the total child labour population in India would be 81.2 lakh. This figure is expected to decline further to 74.3 lakh by 2025, the report says. The top three states which will together have half of the total child labourers by 2025 in the country will be Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra, it said. The pandemic has compounded the existing situation of child labour, thus making it difficult to achieve the global goal of ending child labour. According to an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report, the Covid-19 crisis threatens to reverse the progress made globally in eliminating child labour. There would be a rise in child labour—for the first time in the last two decades—because of millions of children are being pushed into it. The children in developing economies and populous countries are more vulnerable, the report said. During the pandemic years, the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA)—a sister organisation of KSCF founded by Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi in 1980 to liberate and rehabilitate vulnerable and exploited children and prosecute those responsible for the atrocities—has rescued more than 10,000 child labourers across 16 States. According to the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB) 2020, the cases registered under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were 464, 772 and 476, respectively. The top five states recording the maximum number of offences were Telangana (147 cases), Karnataka (54 cases), West Bengal (41 cases), Assam (40 cases) and Andhra Pradesh (37 cases). To formulate a decisive plan for eliminating child labour, urgent measures are required. A holistic approach is needed—from legislative measures to a viable rehabilitation strategy, from poverty alleviation and socio-economic development to awareness generation and education. Alongside, the rescue of child labourers has to become a priority for the law enforcement agencies. Powerful targeted intervention models, such as Bal Mitra Gram (BMG)—a flagship KSCF programme to prevent multiple forms of child exploitation and address such issues of education, Water, Sanitation, Hygiene and Livelihood (WASH)—need to be replicated and adopted in villages across the country. Also, the measures initiated by the government require effective implementation. In 2016, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 2016, was amended, thereby making the offence of employing children cognisable and providing stricter punishment for such offences. It also framed the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Central Rules along with the model state action plan enumerating action points to be taken by State Governments.The union government also implemented the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) scheme for the rehabilitation of child labour, which has been subsumed under Samagara Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Eliminating child labour by 2025 remains a colossal task. June 12 can be a reminder to start action in a mission mode immediately.
(The author is country head, Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (US). The views expressed are personal.)