Poverty is one of the reasons for child labour in India, but factors like lack of education, large family size are the main causes, writes Bishnu Mohan Dash
India continues to host the largest number of child labourers in the world. According to the 2011 Census, India has 43.5 lakh labourers in the age group of five to 14, which accounts for 3.9 per cent of the total workforce in the country. The report says that out of the total population of child labourers, 3.9 per cent belong to the Scheduled Caste community and 6.7 per cent to the Scheduled Tribe community.
About four-fifth of the child labourer population resides in rural areas and one-fifth in urban locations. In India, around 33 per cent of the child labourers are working as agricultural labourers and 26 per cent as cultivators, but a majority works in other categories. Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of child labourers (21,76,706) followed by Bihar (10,88,509), Rajasthan (8,48,386), Maharashtra (7,27,932) and Madhya Pradesh (7,00,239). The lowest figure is in lakshadweep (81).
The distribution of child labourers on the basis of their residence reveals that Himachal Pradesh is the State where highest (97.9 per cent) number of rural child labourers are found, followed by Meghalaya (93.6 per cent), Jharkhand (92.6 per cent), Chhattisgarh (92.2 per cent) and Assam (92.1 per cent). Similarly, the highest numbers of urban child labourers are found in the National Capital Territory of Delhi (97.6 per cent) followed by Chandigarh (96.4 per cent), lakshadweep (84 per cent), Daman and Diu (81.2 per cent), and Goa (66.3 per cent).
A large number of child labourers in India is engaged in other work category (35.8 per cent) followed by agricultural labour (32.9 per cent), cultivator (26 per cent) and household industry sector (5.2 per cent). The highest percentage of child labourers who are engaged as cultivators is in Himachal Pradesh (87 per cent); while the highest number of children engaged as agricultural labourers is found in Odisha (49.7 per cent).
The highest percentage of children engaged in household industries lives in West Bengal (11.9 per cent). However, a majority of the children are engaged in non-agricultural activities. lakshadweep is the only Union Territory where all (100 per cent) children work in other activity, followed by Chandigarh (95.3 per cent), Daman and Diu ( 94.6 per cent), Delhi (91.2 per cent) and Kerala (76.1 per cent), whereas the lowest is observed in Himachal Pradesh (7.9 per cent), followed by Chhattisgarh (14.9 per cent), Nagaland (16.7 per cent), Jharkhand (18.5 per cent) and Mizoram (18.9 per cent).
The National Sample Survey in its 68th round of data on employment and unemployment, has brought out some important facts about child labour in India. The result shows marginal differences in sex ratio among child labourers. Girl child labourers in India are just 0.6 per cent less than male child labourers. It also reveals that the number of child labourers working in rural areas are more than twice than the urban areas.
The study also finds that about half of the population of child labourers is illiterate. large family size of households plays an important role to breed child labour. The findings show that high percentage of child labourers are found in families where the family size is bigger. Poverty is found as one of the major factors that plays a vital role among the child labour. The results of multiple logistic regressions reiterate that the females are 42 per cent less likely to be child labour than male. In urban areas, children are 22 per cent less likely to become child labour than in rural areas. Scheduled castes people are 1.24 times more likely to become child labourers followed by other backward castes (1.19 per cent) to become child labour.
Education is one of the most important factors to determine child labour; we can see the declining pattern with the increasing level of education. As compared to those who never attended school, drop-out have 54 per cent less likely to be a child labour. Further, it reduces 99 per cent risk of being child labour among those who are currently attending school. As family size increases, the risk of child labour also goes up. The highest risk (1.3 times more risk) of child labour is in families that have more than nine members.
(The writer is ICSSR post-doctoral fellow, Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Delhi University)