Prespectives and Challenges of Child Labour

Introduction and History

• Child labour is one of the oldest problems in our society and still an ongoing issue. During the time, child labor evolved from working in agriculture or small handicraft workshops to being forced into work in factories in the urban setting as a result of the industrial revolution.
• Children were very profitable assets since their pay was very low, were less likely to strike, and were easy to be manipulated.
• Socio-economic disparities and lack of access to education are among others contributing to the child labor. Religious and cultural beliefs can be misguiding and concealing in delineating the limits of child labor.
• Child labor prevents physical, intellectual, and emotional development of children. To date, there is no international agreement to fully enforced child labor. This public health issue demands a multidisciplinary approach from the education of children and their families to development of comprehensive child labor laws and regulations.
• With the increase of education, economy, and the emergence of labor laws, child labor decreased. However, child labor is still a widespread problem in many parts of the world in developed and developing countries. With the development of agriculture, children were again forced to be employed mostly by the families rather than factories. The main cause of child labor is the lack of schools and poverty.
• Child labour is an old problem well rooted in human history. Children were exploited to various extents during different periods of time. The problem was common in poor and developing countries.
• In the 1800’s, child labour was part of economic life and industrial growth. Children less than 14 years old worked in agriculture, factories, mining, and as street vendors.
• Children from poor families were expected to participate to the family income, and sometimes they worked in dangerous conditions in 12-hour shifts. In the 1900’s, in England, more than a quarter of poor families lost their children to diseases and death, endangering their extra financial support.
• Boys worked in glass factories in high heat in three shifts because the furnaces were kept fired all the time to increase productivity, while girls were forced into prostitution. In 1910, it was estimated that more than two million children in the United States were working.  Children are future citizens of the Nation and their adequate development is utmost priority of the country.
• Unfortunately, child labour engulfs children across the world. The world is home to 1.2 billion individuals aged 10-19 years.
• However, despite its menace in various forms, the data shows variation in prevalence of child labour across the globe and the statistical figures about child labour are very alarming.
• There are an estimated 186 million child labourers worldwide. The 2001 national census of India estimated total number of child labour aged 5–14 to be at 12.6 million. Small-scale and community-based studies have found estimated prevalence of 12.6 million children engaged in hazardous occupations. Many children are “hidden workers” working in homes or in the underground economy.

• Although the Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 to 14 and prohibits employment of children younger than 14 in 18 hazardous occupations, child labour is still prevalent in the informal sectors of the Indian economy.
• Child labour violates human rights, and is in contravention of the International Labour Organization (Article 32, Convention Rights of the Child).
• About one-third of children of the developing world are failing to complete even 4 years of education. Indian population has more than 17.5 million working children in different industries, and incidentally maximum are in agricultural sector, leather industry, mining and match-making industries, etc.
• The term “child labor” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical-mental development.
• It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, obliging them to leave school prematurely or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.
• The statistical figures about child workers in the world have variation because of the differences in defining categories of age group and engagement of children in formal and informal sector.

LAW AND CHILD LABOUR

The policy curbing child labor exists but lack of enforcement of labour restrictions perpetuates child labour. This is manifested in variation in minimum age restriction in different types of employment. The International Labour Office reports that children work the longest hours and are the worst paid of all labourers. In India, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and Rules state that no child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the occupations set forth in Part A of the Schedule or in any workshop wherein any of the processes set forth in Part B of the Schedule is carried on. For this purpose, “child” means a person who has not completed his 14^th year of age. The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of the Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act.

FORMS OF CHILD LABOUR

Children are employed in both formal and informal sectors. Among the occupations wherein children are engaged in work are construction work, domestic work and small-scale industries. Incidentally, agriculture is not only the oldest but also the most common child occupation worldwide. Some of the industries that depend on child labor are bangle-making, beedi-making, power looms and manufacturing processes. These industries use toxic metals and substances such as lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos. Child labor is very harmful and wholehearted efforts to eliminate this should be done.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR

• The negative impact on the physiological and psychological levels of children includes specific concerns of child labour and its consequences on mental health. It is worth noting that one-third of children of the developing world are failing to complete even 4 years of education. The analysis of factors leading to engagement of children in hazardous factors elucidated socioeconomic factors as one of the important determinants. Poverty is considered as one of the contributory factors in child labour.
• Mental well being is less frequently researched in child labour. A retrospective study in randomly examined 200 children working in the handicraft sector and found a high prevalence of respiratory, digestive and skin conditions, as well as mental health presentations such as migraines, insomnia, irritability, enuresis and asthenia.
• In a cross-sectional survey, urban Lebanese children aged 10–17, working full-time in small industrial shops, were compared with non-working matched school children.
• Majority of them had poor physical health, predominantly marked with skin lesions or ear complaints and social care needs.
• Similarly, authors aimed to find out consequences in children in Lebanon exposed to solvents, and found significantly higher rates of lightheadedness, fatigue, impaired memory and depression compared with a non-exposed group.
• A cross-sectional study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, used diagnostic interviews to assess prevalence of mental disorders in 528 child laborers and street workers, child domestics and private enterprise workers aged between 5 and 15 years.
• The prevalence of mental disorders was noted to be as high as 20.1% compared with 12.5% in the general population. Further study to establish the association between labor-related variables and mental health problems was carried out among 780 children engaged in labor (aged 9–18 years) in the Gaza Strip.
• Mental health problems of children in labor were likely to be associated with socioeconomic determinants as well as factors related to their underage employment.
• The physical and social consequences are deliberated by researchers; however, mental health area has not been explored so much. Studies are lacking even in Indian scenario regarding impact of child labor on mental health.

INTERVENTION AND CHILD LABOUR

• Education is a very important part of development. Children who are drawn to child labor are basically driven because of economic deprivation, lack of schooling and engagement of family for daily needs.
• Studies have found low enrollment with increased rates of child employment.
• Schools are the platform for early intervention against child labor, as it restricts their participation in menial jobs. Hurdles in this approach are economic reasons. Unless economic change is brought about, the children will not be able to attend the school.
• Child labor can be controlled by economic development increasing awareness and making education affordable across all levels, and enforcement of anti child labor laws.
• The Government of India has taken certain initiatives to control child labor. The National Child Labor Project (NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labor endemicity in the country. Under the scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special schools for child labor. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district. Under the scheme, these children are provided formal/informal education along with vocational training, and a stipend of Rs. 100 per month. Health check-up is also done for them.
• Child labour is morally and ethically unacceptable. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was the first international body that signed in 1989 the Convention on the Rights of the Children.
• It is for the first time in history when children are seen as humans with rights rather than economic assets of their parents.
• Child labour was defined as labor that harms the health of the children and deprives them of education rights. This law does not exclude children that work for their families.

CULTURAL BELIEFS AND CHILD LABOUR

Cultural beliefs have an important role in encouraging child labor. In developing countries, people believe that work has a constructive effect on character building and increases skill development in children. There is a tradition in these families, where children follow the parents’ footsteps and learn the job from an early age. Some cultural beliefs may contribute to the misguided concept that a girl’s education is not as important as a boy’s education, and therefore, girls are pushed into child labor as providers of domestic services. In India, not putting a child to work means the family would not make enough income to sustain their living. Socio-cultural aspects such as the cast system, discrimination, and cultural biases against girls contribute to child labor.

RELIGION AND CHILD LABOUR

It is generally accepted that parents have the fundamental right to educate and raise their children. Parents almost always try to act in the child’s best interest at the best of their knowledge and beliefs. In doing so, they are reasonably motivated by their intellectual growth, social development, and at times by spiritual salvation. Oftentimes, parents seek guidance in religion to shape the upbringing of their children and to enhance their progress. Hard work is among others, an important religious value to instill from a young age.

ARGUMENTS FAVORING CHILD LABOUR

Despite all these international and national measures against child labor, there are arguments in favor of child labor. Some argue that poor families would be even poorer without the supplemental financial contribution of children. Lack of money will deprive them of the basic needs of food and shelter which will decrease their survival rate. In addition, an increase in poverty would make children even more susceptible to exploitation.

The supporters of these ideas argue that the benefit of creating a safe workplace and allowing children to work is helpful in certain situations. They also emphasize that child work is not child labor as long as it does not interfere with schooling and children have safe workplace conditions with a limited number of hours per day.

CONCLUSION

Poverty is one of the important factors for this problem. Hence, enforcement alone cannot help solve it. The Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families. Many NGOs like CARE India, Child Rights and Global March against Child Labour, etc., have been working to eradicate child labor in India. The child labor can be stopped when knowledge is translated into legislation and action, moving good intention and ideas into protecting the health of the children. The endurance of young children is higher and they cannot protest against discrimination. It is in this context that we have to take a relook at the landmark passing of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009, which marks a historic moment for the children of India. For the first time in India’s history, children will be guaranteed their right to quality elementary education by the state with the help of families and communities. The world cannot reach its goal to have every child complete primary school by 2015 without India. Although there have been significant improvements in the proportion of children from socially disadvantaged groups in school, gaps still remain. Girls are still less likely to enroll in school than boys; in 2005, for upper primary school (Grades 6–8) girls’ enrollment was still 8.8 points lower than boys, for Scheduled Tribes (ST) the gender gap was 12.6 points and it was 16 points for Scheduled Castes (SC). RTE provides a ripe platform to reach the unreached, with specific provisions for disadvantaged groups such as child labourers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those who have a disadvantage owing to social, cultural economical, geographical, linguistic, gender or such other factors. Bringing 8 million out-of-school children into classes at the age-appropriate level with the support to stay in school and succeed poses a major challenge. Successful implementation of the Act would certainly go a long way in eradicating child labour in India.