CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

Few days back in my college in H.R session my teacher alloted the final presentation to each of the group with different topics, our group got the Child labour as a topic, while working on the same I find out that this practice is presented widely in our country, so here I wish to share some of the key points about this bad practice. 

Child labour refers to the employment of underage children at regular and sustained labour. As per the data given on one website say's- In India, the government itself in its most recent account estimates that 12.6 million children under the age of 14 are at work in various occupations including hazardous occupations. NGO estimates put the number of children employed in domestic work and roadside eateries alone at two million. Centre of Concern for Child Labour, a Delhi based NGO estimated that there are nearly 70 million school-age going children in India who are out of schools. So the total number of working children in India is much higher than the government estimates.

Child labor in India is a human right issue for the whole world. It is a serious and extensive problem, with many children under the age of fourteen working in carpet making factories, diamond polishing units, various toxic mines, glass blowing units and making fireworks with bare little hands. Some times children are abandoned by their parents or sold to factory owners. Factory owners use all means to lure the parents into giving their children on pretext of providing education and good life.

Causes of Child Labour
Some of the causes of Child Labour are-:

Poverty is one of the main reasons behind this phenomenon. The unrelenting poverty forces the parents to push their young children in all forms of hazardous occupations.In some cases, the study found that a child's income accounted for between 34 and 37 percent of the total household income.

The industrial revolution has also had a negative effect by giving rise to circumstances which encourages child labor.This is so because children can be recruited for less pay, more work can be extracted from them and there is no union problem with them.

Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need for Wholesome proper physical, cognitive and emotional development of their child. They are themselves uneducated and unexposed, so they don't realize the importance of education for their children.

Efforts against child labour
The International Labour Organization's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), founded in December 1991. India was the first country to join it in 1992, when it signed a Memorandum of Understanding with ILO. This agreement laid down the principles, areas and modalities of cooperation for the progressive elimination of child labour.

Right of children to Free and Compulsory Education Act has come into force from, April 1, 2010. Which Provides free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years under which private schools shall be required to enroll children from weaker sections and disadvantaged communities in their incoming class to the extent of 25% of their enrolment, by simple random selection.The Prime Minister Shri Manmohan Singh has emphasized that it is important for the country that if we nurture our children and young people with the right education, India's future as a strong and prosperous country is secure.


Article 24 of the Indian constitution clearly states that "No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation law) Act of 1986 designates a child as a person who has not completed their 14th year of age. It claims to regulate the hours and the conditions of child workers and to prohibit child workers in certain enumerated hazardous industries.

Conclusion
In the last I want to say that If child labour is to be eradicated, the governments and agencies and those responsible for enforcement need to start doing their jobs. We have to decide whether we are going to take up the problem head-on and fight it any way we can or leave it to the adults who might not be there when things go out of hand.