A Project Report about Child Labour in India

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BUSINESSSTUDIES
PROJECT
Topic:Child Labour in India
Sudmittedto: Sudmittedby:

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CONTENTS
1-INTRODUCTION
2-MEANING OF CHILD LABOUR
3-SITUATION ANALYSIS OF CHILD LABOUR
4- PROBLEM OF CHILD LABOUR
5-CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
6-CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD LABOUR
7-GOVERNMENT MEASURES FOR TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF
CHILD LABOUR
8-NATIONAL POLICY ON CHILD LABOUR
9- SUGGETION FOR ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOUR
10-CONCLUSION

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CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA
INTRODUCTION
The problem child labour has got deep social and
Economical implication .Although ,child isthe father of the man but
we do little for our children ,for whom ostensibly all the great
modern shrines are put. Industries we have millions of sad faces
mainly because child labour isprevalent.Child labours refers to the
employmentof children at regular or sustained labour. These child
works present a sad picture of our modern industrialism.
Children arethe greatest assets of nation and they should
be brought up with almost care and he or she should grow in
environment conductive to leaving with affectionate and
understanding to his/her needs.
But the situation in India is something different. What
we see at present is nothing much compatible with what is
aforesaid. The problem of child labour has attracted attention of
many of us since the problemof child labour has been acute in India.

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MEANING OF CHILDREN LABOUR
Child labour means a person below 14years who is working for
wage. According , to the labour investigation committee, “one black
spot of labour condition in India in this illegal employment of
children in certain industries.”
The national sample survey defined child worker as
person below the age of 14, who is wage earner.

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SITUATION ANALYSIS OF CHILD LABOUR
Magnitude of Child Labour
According to an ILO survey in 1995, after Africa (with 26.3%) Asia
has the highestpercentage (13%) of child labours in the age group of
10-14years in the world. Nearly 25% of the children are child
labouresin India .The number of employed children below 14years
of age in various economic activities according to the statement of
union labour ministry in 1995 was 17 million(9.5 million malesand
7.5 million females) in the country is worker. One estimate puts the
number of working children in our country at 44million-5.2% of the
total population .
The child labour in India was10753985 in 1971 ,
13640870 in 1981 ,11285349 in 1991,12666377 in 2001.
In Delhi alone it is estimated that the more affluent citizens employ
about25,000 children asdomestics. Their life is usually one of more
monotonous routine. They often work right throughout the month
and throughout the year. The census figure reveals that greater
Bombay has the largest number of working children among the
metropolitan cities. This is because Mumbai is highly industrialized
and offers large number of job opportunities to children in the
tertiary sectors.

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PROBLEMS OF CHILD LABOUR
Child labour is more a rural phenomena than an
urban phenomena. Due to acute poverty poor families residing in
rural areassend their children to urban areasfor bread and butte. In
urban areas to survive a competition, manufactures have lowered
the real wagesfor adultworkers in order to employ. Child workers
on low wages. The problem is very much vast in its dimension.
Children are forced to work in the most hazardous, unhygine
conditions , where they are vulnerable to many several health
problems.In small tradeindustries , trades and crafts. Using little or
no machinery and power but employing a large number of workers.
In these factories, child workers are extensively employed
Children workin industries in which child labour
is prevented are wood and cork, furniture and fixtures, printing and
publishing and alied activities , lather products , rubber products,
transportequipmentand personal services like laundries dying and
cleaning . countless children are employed as domestic servants ,
workers in hotels, wayside shops and establishments, hawkers and
news papers, sellers, ice cream and sweet venders ,shop polishing ,
helpers in services stations and repair shops . They are often hired

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along with their parents in construction works and take part in
loading, un loading and breaking stones.
Among the working children many are the main
or major wage earners in the family who always remain workers
about feeding their dependents . The migrant children labours
whose parents live in some far including nights, when the factories
are fully functional are paid not more than Rs. 500 per month. They
hand over all their to their guardian whodo not give them a rupee a
day for tea during the night shifts. There are times when bodies
ache, minds far, hearts cry but one order of the employer.
A visit to several factories in Delhi, Tamilnadu,
Andhrapradesh, Maharastrra reveals that a large number of child
workershave sunken chest and thin borne frames, which give them
a fragil look. They looks like rock dolls, unwashed and scarggly ,
they wear coarse and tailored cloths. Must of these children come
from extremely poor households. They are either school dropouts or
have not seen any school at all. The earn a very meager wage and
work in most unsafe conditions.

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CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR
Chronic poverty has been identified as the most
important factor for the prevalence and perpetuation of child
labour in India. Poor parents believe that children can provide
them the best economic assets. Further, children can raise no voice
when they are employed in factories and therefore they can be best
exploited.
The other reason for the ever increasing child labour is said to be,
the accelerated pace of mechanization of agriculture which pushes
the surplusfarm labour to the cities in search of livelihood. A survey
conducted by the commission of child labour in Calcutta revealed
that socio economic conditions of the families compelled children to
come in search of employmentin urban sectors. Thus,child labour is
the result of poverty and unemployment.The problem of child
labour is complex one.
There are many causes of child labour. These causes are discussed
as under:
1. ECONOMIC CAUSE-
In a country like India, 40% of the population is living in the
condition of extreme Poverty. Children work out of necessity
and withouttheir earning,the standard of living of their family
would decline .Low incomes of the family ,economic insecurity
,chronicdiseases, ancestral ineptnessare the inevitable factors.
The children either supplementtheir parents’ income. With the
collapse of the rural economy and the disintegration of joint
family system, large scale industrialization and the consequent

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erosion of agriculture economy compel the rural families and
the children to find monetary resource to maintain the family.
Unregulated industries take advantage of the situation and
employ large number of children at very low wage.
2-INTERST FOR CHEAP LABOUR-
Another important of child labour is that they are
deliberately created to get cheap labour. The owners of the
industries want to get more profit by engaging children as
labourers. Because the owners give wage to child labours.
Child labour is beneficial to industries.
3-EMPLOYERS JUSTIFICATION-
Employers of child labour give certain justifications for
employing children to support their guilt feelings. They say
that the works keeps children away from starvation.
They are also prevented from committing crime which they
would have indulged in if they had no jobs. It is also a fact that
poor parents are not able to give education to their children.
Hence , they do not send their children to schools. The children
who do not go to school move here and there with bad
companies. In order to keep them away from bad and anti-
social activities the parents engage their children in certain
work.
4-FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT MACHINERY-
Another cause of child labour is the failure of
governmentmachinery.There is a nexus between the personal

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of labour department and the owners. Government has not
been able to provide alternative to child labour who do not
have any family income or support.
5-FAMILY CONDITION-
Family condition is also responsible for child labour.
Faulty socialization, violence in family and lack of care etc. are the
causes of child labour
.

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CONSEQUENCE OF CHILD LABOUR-
Child labour is the result of poverty and
unemployment. This spoils the adulthood life of the children and
their potentialities are not harnessed in the night manner. C. B.
MEMORIAhas discussed the followingconsequence of child labour.
Child labour is directly related to child’s health
and exerts a negative effect upon it. It tends to interfere with the
moral family life and to encourage the break down of the social
control that is largely dependent upon it to preserve the existing
social order. It seriously interferes with education and thus
precludes the most productive participation, in the privileges and
obligation of citizenship.
It is the economic backwardness, which pushes
the child to the world of social and familiar problems which result in
child begging, juvenile delinquency, vagrancy, truancy etc..
The various problems that arise because of employment of
children as follows:
1-The emotional ties between children and their parents are
disturbed.

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2-As a result of such international distortion, the children slip off
from the family bondage and step into the world of disorganization.
The emotional affectionate relation between parents and child turns
into commercial interaction. The parents who live below poverty
line are compelled to sell the labour of their children, which results
in exploitation of child, through demand of maximum turnover at
minimum wages, thereby causing economic loss to society. Child
workers are necessarily handicapped by limitation of physical
strength and experiences so that they are not so productive as the
adults. Totally “The child labour is economically unsound,
psychologically disastrous and physically as well as morally
dangerous and harmful.”
3-The hazardous working conditions adversely affect the health of
child workers. Data reveals that a large number of child workers
have sunken chests and thin bone frames which give them a fragile
look. They look like rag dolls, limp, unwashed and scraggly. They
wear coarse and badly tailored clothes. Many of them have scabies
on hands, arms and legs. The heads of a few are tonsured probably
because the skin on their skull has developed severe infections.
A large number of the child workers are virtually
confined in small rooms under inhuman conditions and in the most
unhygienic surroundings. Most of these children come from
extremely poor households. They earn a very meager wage and
work in mostunsafe conditions.The hazardousconditions take their
tool. Children suffer from lung diseases, tuberculosis, eye diseases,
asthma, bronchitis and backaches. Some are injured in fire
accidents. Many become unemployable even at the age of 20.If
injured or incapacited, they are discarded mercilessly by their
employers.

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Work in childhood isa social good and national gain,
but the circumstances under which child labour is prevalent, is a
social evil and national waste.The social problem arising out of child
labour implies the fact that: the child labour is directly related to
child health and exerts a negative effect upon it. It tends to interfere
with the normal family life and to encourage the breakdown of the
social control that is largely dependent upon it to preserve the
existing social order. It seriously interferes with education and thus
preludes the most productive participation in the privileges and
obligations ofcitizenships.

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GOVRENMENT MEASURES FOR
TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF CHILD
LABOUR
In India, attempts were made from time to time to
provide legal protection to child labour. The following acts were
passed in India before independence to provide protection child
workers.
-The Factory Act, 1881
-The Indian Merchant Shipping of Labour Act, 1923
-The Children Pledging Of Labour Act, 1933
-The Employment of Children Act, 1338
-The Act Passed after independence are discussed as under:
-The Indian Factories Act of 1948.
-The plantation labour act of 1951.

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-The mines act of 1952.
The child labour (prohibition and regulation)act, 1986.
THE INDIAN FACTORIES ACT OF 1948-
This act has limited hours of work for children,
prohibited night work and provided for weekly holiday.
‘No person who has not completed his 14 year may be
require or allowed to work in any factories.
THE PLANTATION LABOUR ACT OF 1951-
This act appliesto all tea, coffee and rubber plantation,
child under the age of 12 shall not work in any plantation, no child
shall be employed except between the hours 6 am and 7pm, except
with permission of the state government. Employer must possess a
certificate of fitness of the workers given by surgeon.
THE MINES ACT OF 1952-
Under this act number of child under 15 years of age
may be employed in any mine, number of child may be allowed to be
presentundergroundor in any excavation.where mining operations
are carried on. No of adolescent may work below ground in any time
unless he is certified to be medically fit to work as an adult by a
certifying surgeon.
THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) ACT
1986-
This acts provides for ban on the employment of children
and regulate the condition of work .It says down penalties for
employment of children in violation of the provision of this act.

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“No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any
of the occupation or in any workshop”. This includes a shop,
commercial establishments,workshops,farm, residential, hotel and
restaurants, eating houses, theatre or other place of public
amusement or entertainment.
On 23rd July 1998 included the following occupation
viz, handing of toxic substances , inflammable or explosives , carpet
weaving, cloth printing, dying and weaving including preparatory
and incident at process, plastic units, fiber glass and molding,
processingauto mobile workshop, sericulture units, manufacture of
lime stone, breaking, crushing, cotton ginning, pressing, pottery and
ceramic industry, production of hosiery goods, manufacture of
cement ceramic industry, manufacture of cement pipes and other
related work, gem cutting and polishing, process of agriculture
where tractors, threshing and harvesting machines are used, glass
manufactures,bricks, roof tile, polishing,mould cutting, welding and
manufacturing of brass goods, paper making, manufacture of dyes
and dye staff , pesticides and insecticides, toxic substances, metal
cleaning, manufacturing process having high noise level, involving
thermal radiation, oil expelling and refinery, fabrication workshop,
tire making repairing , these work the children are more sufferer.

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NATIONAL POLICY ON CHILD LABOUR-
The government believes that it is not easy to
completely wipe out child labour. It therefore only tries to improve
their working conditions reduce working hours, ensure minimum
wages and provide facilities for health and education. It could be
said that the national policy has been main ingredients viz,
1-Legal action focusingon general welfare.
2-Developpmentprograms for the child workers and their families.
3-A projectbased action plan.
Initially ten projectswere proposed to cover the areas wherechild
labour is prevalent.
The union governmentset up a National Authority in 1993 to
eliminate child labour in hazardousindustriesby theturn of the
country.Rs.850 corerswere provided in thisplan for benefiting
into two million children.The plansaim at rehabitingthe child
workers, givingthem education in 15,000 schoolsin differentparts
of the country.
The Governmentis also implementingthe international program for
elimination of child labour.The program was launched in January
1993. 33 action programsunder thishave been approved and more
proposalsare under consideration.oneprojectwith an interpreted
approach aims rehabiting 5,000children every year from the
carpet trade. Ofcorse, the Indian Governmentis spendingannually
Rs. 10 corers on ten National level pilotprojectsin priority
industriestowear away child labour and rehabilitate them.

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For Successful implementation of the project, the action plan has
suggested the following strategies: Mass enrolment of children into
the schools, identifications of child labour.
The 96 projectscover 2 lakh children in 13 states, but
center is willing to extend this to other states Karnataka is among
the 13 states, which have larger population of child labour in the
country.
The government is preparing an action plan for
removing all children from hazardous occupation by 2005 and to
providemore fundsfor projects where they can be employed more
healthy and economically. The number of such projects is beings
increased from 96 to 100.
There are at present over 35,000 schools in the country
where over two lakh children have been rehabilited.

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SUGGESTION FOR ELIMINATION OF
CHILD LABOUR:-
The problem of child labour is a complex one. There
variousfactors which are through to be responsiblefor child labour
which needs holistic approach for its elimination. Following
measures may be taken for elimination of theproblem.
1-STRICT ENFORCEMENT OF LEGISLATION-
Various acts have been passed for amelioration, of the problems of
child labour. But these acts have not been effective due to lack of
proper implementation. Hence, existing labour legislation must be
strictly enforced so that much of the evils will disappear.
2. ELIMINATION OF POVERTY:-
The root cause of child labour is poverty. The child labour can
not be eliminated without the eradication of poverty of parents of
child labour. Child labour due to economically necessities. If this is
removed the problem will be solved.
The problem of elimination of child labours should be
doubly attacked, on the one hand, the income of the poor sections of

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the peoples should be increased and on the other prohibition of
child labour should be strictly followed.
3-PROVISION FOR EDUCATION OF CHILDREN-
Free and job oriented education should be given to
children up to the age of 15. The child workers should also
given education along with their work. The National
communism on labour has observed, while the economic
difficultiesare real, a way has to be found to give the child the
necessary education in his more receptive years. We fell this
can be ensured by fixing employment hours of children.

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CONCLUSION-
Child labour is an international evil. It requires cumulative efforts to
wipeit out. Toiling long hours for apittance, these little breadwinners
accept exploitingas a way of life. The governmenton this fronthas also
taken a few steps.
The (ILO) launched the international program for elimination of
child labours in 1991 and Indiawas the first join the samein 1992.
But still the problem presents dueto poor implementation of the
plansand programs. The need of the hours is to expand the machinery
for enforcing the various lowsof child labour. There is a plethora of
lows but nothing can eradicate. Child labour unlessthere is
awareness amongparentsand children, which will go a long way in
saving, the futureof millions children in India. Lastly instead of
blaming the supply side, we mostfocuson the demand side.