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Child Labour Policy in India
There are specific clauses in the draft of Indian constitution dated 26th January 1950, about the child labor policy in India. These are conveyed through different articles in the Fundamental rights and the Directive Principles of the State Policy. They lay down four specific policy rules regarding child labor.
They are as following:- 1) ( Article 14) No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
2) Article 39-E) The state shall direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to there are and strength.
3) ( Article 39-f ) Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth shall be protected against moral and material abandonment.
4) (Article 45 ) The state shall endeavor to provide within a period of ten years from the commencement of the constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. It was also decided that both the Union government and the State government could legislate on matters concerning child labor. Various legislative initiatives were also taken in this regard at both the State and Union level.
The main legislative measures at the national level are The Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act -1986 and The Factories Act -1948. The first act was categorical in prohibiting the employment of children below fourteen years of age, and identified 57 processes and 13 occupations which were considered dangerous to the health and lives of children. The details of these occupations and processes are listed in the schedule to the said Act.
The factories act again prohibits the employment of children less than fourteen years of age. However an adolescent aged between 15 and 18 can be recruited for factory employment only after securing a fitness certificate from a medical doctor who is authorized. The Act proceeds to prescribe only four and and hour’s work period per day for children between 14 and 18 years. Children are also not allowed to work in night shifts.
Child Labour Laws
Child labor is a reality in spite of all the steps taken by the legal machinery to eliminate it. It prevails and persists as a world phenomenon in spite of child labor laws.
The causes of child labor in the contemporary world are the same as those in U.S. hundred years ago- namely poverty, lack of education and exposure, poor access to education, suppression of workers rights, partial prohibition of child labor and inadequate enforcement of child labor laws
The existing law and codes of conduct regarding child labor are blatantly violated by the beneficiaries and the victims of this terrible practice all over the developing world. There are ambiguities in the export and manufacturing sector, which means multiple layers of outsourcing and production- making the monitoring of labor performers not only difficult but impossible. Extensive subcontracting also makes it impossible to identify the use of child labor whether intentional or unintentional.
Even when laws or codes of conduct exist, they are often violated.
The Indian constitution categorically states that child labor is a wrong practice, and standards should be set by law to eliminate it. The child labor act of 1986 implemented by the government of India makes child labor illegal in many regions and sets the minimum age of employment at fourteen years.
There are many loop holes in this law in terms of affectivity. First is that it does not make child labor completely illegal and does not meet the guidelines set by ILO concerning the minimum age for employment, which is fifteen years. Moreover the policies which are set to reduce incidences of child labor are difficult to implement and enforce. The government and other agencies responsible for the enforcement of these laws are not doing their job. Without proper enforcement all policies and laws concerning child labor prove useless.
Moreover certain sectors like agriculture and domestic work are not included in the exemption of child labor. In some countries very strict child labor laws exist but the offices and departments responsible for implementing them are under funded and under staffed. The judicial machinery and courts are also found to be faltering and falting where proper enforcement of such laws is concerned. Many state governments are feisty in allocating resources to enforce child labor laws.
There are also many loop holes while setting laws and rules for child labor which allows exploitation. For example in Nepal, the minimum age for a person to go for work is 14 years, but plantation of brick clines is exempted from this.
Kenya prohibits children under 16 from going to work in industries but excludes agriculture. Bangladesh also specifies a minimum age to go to work, but excludes agriculture and domestic work.
Indeed laws become unpractical and redundant in the face of necessity. Poor children and their family members depend so much on little ones to provide the basic necessities of life in the impoverished areas that it becomes impossible for them to adhere to any laws and regulations regarding child labor. We must also remember, that about one fifth of the world’s six billion humans live in absolute poverty.
SUPREME COURT DIRECTIONS ON CHILD LABOR
The Supreme Court of India, in its judgement dated 10th December, 1996 in Writ Petition (Civil) Number 465/1986, has given certain directions regarding the manner in which children working in the hazardous occupations are to be withdrawn from work and rehabilitated, and the manner in which the working conditions of children working in non-hazardous occupations are to be regulated and improved. The judgement of the Supreme Court envisages:
(a) Simultaneous action in all districts of the country;
(b) Survey for identification of working children (to be completed by June 10, 1997)
(c) Withdrawal of children working in hazardous industries and ensuring their education in appropriate institutions;
(d) Contribution of Rs.20,000 per child to be paid by the offending employers of children to a welfare fund to be established for this purpose;
(e) Employment to one adult member of the family of the child so withdrawn from work, and if that is not possible a contribution of Rs.5000 to the welfare fund to be made by the State Government;
(f) Financial assistance to the families of the children so withdrawn to be paid out of the interest earnings on the corpus of Rs.20,,000/25,000.00 deposited in the welfare fund as long as the child is actually sent to the schools;
(g) Regulating hours of work for children working in non-hazardous occupations so that their working hours do not exceed six hours per day and education for at least two hours is ensured. The entire expenditure on education is to be borne by the concerned employer;
(h) Planning and preparedness on the part of Central and State Governments in terms of strengthening of the existing administrative/regulatory/enforcement frame-work (covering cost of additional manpower, training, mobility, computerization etc.) implying additional requirement of funds.
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