Child labour is an age-long and global problem. Child labour and its related socioeconomic problems are increasing day by day. Today, throughout the world, around 215 million children work as labourers. They do not go to school and have little or no time to play.
Child labourers are forced to work in agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels, bars, restaurants, fast food establishments and domestic service.
The International labour Organisation (IlO) is a United Nations agency dealing with labour issues. The effective abolition of child labour is one of the fundamental principles on which the IlO was founded in 1919. The IlO launched the World Day against Child labour on June 12 to focus attention on the global extent of child labour and the action and efforts needed to eliminate it. On this day, the IlO invites everyone to celebrate the World Day against Child labour.
In 2010, the international community adopted a roadmap for achieving elimination of the worst forms of child labour by 2016, which stressed that child labour is an impediment to children’s rights and a barrier to development of any nation.
The theme for this year's World Day against Child labour is “No to child labour in domestic work.”
large numbers of children are already involved as domestic workers before they reach the legal minimum age for admission to employment. They are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer and perform tasks such as cleaning, ironing, cooking, minding children and gardening. These children can be particularly vulnerable to exploitation and their work is often hidden from the public eyes.
The IlO estimates that 15.5 million children worldwide are engaged in paid or unpaid domestic work in the home of a third party or employer. The vast majority of all child domestic workers are girls (72%). As many as 52 per cent of the child domestic workers are found in hazardous domestic works, and 47 per cent of all child domestic workers are below the age of 14 years, with 3.5 million aged 5 to 11 years and 3.8 million between 12 and 14 years. Some children are working in domestic work as a result of forced labour and trafficking. Although the specific number of children in forced labour and trafficking situations in domestic work is unknown, it is estimated that 5.5 million of them are victims of forced labour and human trafficking around the world.
Child domestic labourers are often ignored by policymakers and excluded from the coverage of legislation. legislations of a number of countries exclude domestic work in private households. Because of the hidden nature of much domestic work and because labour laws are commonly not applied in the sector, there are particular vulnerabilities. Their lives are controlled by their employers and they are also subjected to verbal and physical abuses. This is a socioeconomic problem. Parents for the reason of poverty send their children to supplement their family incomes derived from child labour. There are also other reasons like illiteracy, ignorance of parents about the importance of education, ignorance of impact on children of labour and lack of concern about government policy.
Even though this is a global phenomenon, it is very unfortunate that India has the largest number of child labourers. In India, more than 12.7 million children are engaged in child labour. And 20 per cent to 40 per cent of these child labourers are in domestic work. There are as many as 15 lakh child labourers in the 30 districts of Odisha. Children of Odisha work in different occupations such as agriculture and allied works, collection and processing of minor forest produces, domestic work/help, hotels/motels/road side dhabas, etc.
Although child labour in India is legally forbidden since 1986, the kids are still involved in different works as child labourers. There are a lot of provisions added in the Constitution of India for child welfare to overcome child labour and to avoid the situations that come as a consequence of the child labour.
The Constitution of India, through various Articles enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy as: No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment (Article 24); The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age 6 to 14 years(Article 21A); The State shall direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age and strength (Article 39E).
The Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act came to force in 1986. As per the law, any person who employs any child in contravention of the provision of Section 3 of the Act is liable for a jail term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend to two years or with fine which shall not be less than `20,000 but which may extend to `50,000, or with both.
In order to stop child labour, the Government of Odisha has passed some rules. One of the important rules is the Odisha Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 1994.
Besides, the Government of India adopted various programmes for eradication of child labour. The Ministry of labour and Employment has implemented the national policy through the establishment of National Child labour Projects (NClPs) for rehabilitation of child workers since 1988. Initially, these projects were industry-specific and aimed at rehabilitating children working in traditional child labour-endemic industries. A renewed commitment to fulfil the Constitutional mandate resulted in enlarging the ambit of the NClPs in 1994 to rehabilitate children working in hazardous occupations.
Children’s development and an overall eradication of child labour problem depend on active public-private partnership, proper Government policies and programmes for eliminating poverty and unemployment and free basic facilities and education to poor people in the society.
The Government of India is stepping up its fight against child labour. Under new laws, all labour involving children under 14 years old is illegal. Children under 18 years are also protected from any type of hazardous work.
In August 2012, the Jharkhand Government has approved a State Action Plan. This policy framework envisages a child labour-free State by 2016 and details the vision of the State and its plan towards achieving the elimination of child labour and ensuring the right to education to every child. Similar policy frameworks in other States can eradicate child labour in our country.
Children are the biggest asset of a society. The welfare of the society is closely related to the welfare of the child. To eliminate child labour, it is imperative to improve the socio-economic status of their families. Unless the socio-economic status of the poor families is improved, their children will be bound to work as labourers. There is an urgent need for studying the role and perspective of the society towards child worker as the culture of a society plays the vital and important role in establishing the norms and laws.
There are many solutions to the child labour problem. Income of the families should be increased and education for all children irrespective of their economic and social background should be ensured; that helps children to learn skills and earn a livelihood.
At the international level, different organisations are also working to eradicate child labour, but still there are lots of efforts needed to create an environment free from child labour.
let us all take some steps in this direction so that all children get free education and live a healthy life with their families. This would be beneficial to the individual family as well as the whole society.
(Dr Mayarani Praharaj works at the Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)