Child Labour is a perennial problem in India. It is deemed as the legacy of the old feudal system. The architects of the Indian Constitution were fully aware of this menace and incorporated Articles 15(3), 23,24, 39(e), (i) and 45 which mandate non-employment of children and their induction into schools. Another mandate is provision of a free and compulsory elementary education for all children upto the age of 14 within a period of 10 years of adoption of the Republican Constitution in 1950. These were augmented with the Prohibitive Laws namely Bonded Labour System Abolition Act 1976 and Child Labour Regulation Act, 1986. It is a tragic irony that despite a plethora of constitutional mandate, prohibitive laws and international conventions, this abominable system has been thriving uninhibitingly. Now it has reached the whopping figure of 65 million, a great blot on India, the world’s largest democracy..
The child labourers are either in debt bondage or pledged for advances contracted by parents. Some of them are victims of illusory promises made by procurers about bright prospects after undergoing training in certain trades. The major areas of their employment are agriculture, carpet industry, brassware industry, glass and bangles industry, leather industry, gems cutting and polishing, matches and fire works, stone quarries, brick kilns, handlooms etc.
It is commonly contended that the child labour as a harsh reality is borne out of social, economic and historical reasons. It is believed that four factors namely poverty, unemployment, population and illiteracy are the main reasons for this malady and removal of these is a pre-requisite for wiping out the child labour system. But we argue the other way. Our experience and the various studies conducted by researchers corroborate the fact that child labour is equally, if not solely responsible for causing and perpetuating unemployment, poverty, population growth and illiteracy.
Another area which has caused confusion is the stratification of child labour. The laws cover only children working in intolerable conditions and not other child labour, and as such, any attempts by NGOs to end child labour in any form as mandated in the constitution and prohibitive laws have proved futile because of many loopholes in the relevant laws. Bandhua Mukti Morcha (BMM) bellieves that children working for 10 to 16 hours a day too come under the category of hazardous in the real sense, as long working hours adversely affect their health, mental, physical and moral development, thereby reducing their span of life. Thus potential assets wither away before blossoming. In the long run, these factors outweigh the short gains acquired by employment of children. In the present set up, the major human resource is being depleted surreptitiously.
BMM has been pressing the Government to abolish the distinction between hazardous and non-hazardous child labour. Any form of child labour at the cost of a child’s education and health should be made illegal and necessary amendments to Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 be made.
Still another dismal feature is the absence of political will to abolish child labour in any form. Realising this deficiency, BMM had convened a meeting with leaders of the leading political parties in India in February 1996 and impressed upon them to include this issue in their manifestoes. Some political parties did mention this issue in their manifestoes. Following this, the then United Front Government in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) clearly committed itself for total elimination of all forms of child labour and to make education upto 14 years of age, free and compulsory (1996).
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by BJP in its National Agenda for governance prescribes accessibility to primary education (5th standard) for all childern. The present trend is to employ children in the place of adults because of the well known advantages of employing the former; namely, children can work for longer hours, say 10 to 14 hours a day without any grumble, they cannot form unions and they work for a pittance or no wages, being in debt bondage.
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