A child labour: deprivation of dignity

PS Bali

Child labour as defined by International Labour Organisation (ILO) is putting children of under-14 years of age in various type of work that deprives them of their childhood and their dignity and hampering their access to education and acquisition of skills.

Child labour in simple is putting children in hard physical employment, which neither suits his age, nor his potential to carry out work effectively. Moreover, deprives children from basic education. As child labour is crime and a sheer violation of fundamental rights of the children, but is practiced every where.

The magnitude of child labor is as such that it is widely prevalent in some form or the other, all over the world and in India it is on rampant. The term is used for domestic work, factory work, agriculture, mining, having own work or business’ like selling food and doing odd jobs, though helping parent’s in home made jobs is not among child labour practice.

It is more in rural areas than in urban, due to poverty and illiteracy in rural areas. Industrialists and factory owners hire small children and put them in hazardous jobs, which are totally unfit for their health and strength.

In India, the main cause behind the spread of child labour is poverty, vested interests and illiterate parents.

In India, half of the population is Below Poverty Line (BPL), which induces parents to send their child to work and not to school, in order to have some support in the family income.

Moreover, low level of parental education is also cause of spread of child labour, they cannot distinguish between good and bad for their children, for them basic of life is to earn money. And third and most heinous is that of vested interests, where some industrialists for the sake of cheap labour hire children. They put children in unhealthy jobs with minimum wage as compared to the adult for same work.

Although, different rules have been made in different countries to fight this crime, even constitution of India has a framework within which ample provisions exist for the protection, development and welfare of children. There are a wide range of laws that guarantee children their rights.

Article 24 includes prohibition of employment of children in factories, means that no child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.

Article 39 (f) states that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.

Article 45 provides for free and compulsory education for children from six years of age upto 14. Even though, Article 21-A was also incorporated among fundamental rights to ensure elementary education of every children.

As it is a universal problem, as a citizen it is duty of all to eradicate child labour from its roots.

NGOs can play a major role in eliminating child labour from the societies, they are empowered to aware masses about the ill effects of the child labour, as government does not have the infrastructure to reach every section of the society and particularly the in remote areas. Thus, NGOs can act as a bridge between hard-to-reach areas and the government.

However, the role of media in elimination of child labour is one of the most important components of the process of total human development. The media should expose defaulting firms or business houses that secretly employ children and violate laws relating to child labour.

At last but not the least, the government can provide certain monetary incentives to the families that live Below Poverty Line (BPL) to avoid child labour so that their children can be sent to school.

Although, besides government various agencies including NGOs are working to bridle this menace but due to lethargy in the implementation of proper planning at the root level, all goes vain. The need of the hour is to expand the machinery for enforcing the various laws on child labour. There is a plethora of laws but nothing can eradicate child labour unless there is awareness among parents and children, which will go a long way in saving the future of millions of working children in India.