Child Labour News

Twenty three years after child labour was banned in India, the country continues to be home to the largest number of child labourers in the world – 17 million.

CRY Demands

• Send every child to school, not to work. Make free, quality schooling available to all.

• Implement the current Act that bans all forms of child labour

• Ensure each family has all the basic rights – regular livelihood, food, and healthcare – so that the pressures of poverty do not force children into labour

• All children upto the age of 18 to be banned from labour.

Ambiguities in the current Act must be removed.

On occasion of the Anti-Child Labour day, CRY (Child Rights and You) urges the government to renew its commitment to children by putting the weight of its political will behind the ministries and departments responsible to send children to school, not to work.

“The Act to ban child labour today covers only 15% of the total child labour population in the country. Sectors like commercial agriculture, unregulated factories and immediacies like chronic poverty, that employ close to 80% of the child labour, is not covered by the Act,” said CRY’s regional Director, Regina Thomas.

“Every Census throws up larger numbers of children labouring across the country. In fact, we see the increase in real poverty as closely linked to increase in the number of child labour. How will child labour decrease in a country where it often the only choice for the increasing number of near-destitute families?” asks Dipankar Majumdar, Director, Development Support and Youth, CRY.

Tackling the root cause:

For those who are forced to send their children to work, ensure:

• Employment  with a minimum wage

• Remunerative prices for primary products

• Credit is easily accessible

• Social welfare schemes are implemented

On the positive side, the State is, has taken some concrete, commendable steps, the most recent being the ban on child labour in the domestic sector. But rather than limiting action to what is visible, the State must address is the root cause, which is poverty.  Souses : CRY

NEW DELHI: The global financial crisis could push an increasing number of children in several countries including India into child labour,
according to a new report issued by ILO.

The report entitled ‘Give girls a chance: tackling child labour, a key to future’, notes that while the recent estimates indicate the number of children involved in child labour has been falling, the financial crisis threatens to erode this progress.

The report said “the danger of girls being forced into child labour is linked to evidence that in many countries families give preference to boys when making a decision on educating children.”

According to the organisation, more than 100 million girls are involved in child labour across the globe.It states that because of the increase in poverty as a result of the crisis, poor families with a number of children may have to make choices as to which children stay in school.

Without naming any particular country, the report further said that in cultures in which higher value is placed on education of the male child, girls risk being taken out of school, and are then likely to enter the workforce at an early age.  Sources : Ecnomics Times

Mumbai, 11 June 2009: On 12th June 2009 – World Anti Child Labour Day, CRY is launching a year-long campaign to ‘Send children to school, not work’. CRY will send out a placard “Children should go to school, not work” to supporters on online portals. The invite is to get as many people as possible to pose with the placard in as creative a manner as possible and get a photograph taken and send these photos to CRY.

“Through a series of such campaigns and on-ground activities the volunteers are looking to make citizens aware of the many schemes available to children and their families that help enroll children in school. CRY volunteers have involved about 3000 people in Mumbai in the past year in the campaign”, said Puja Marwaha, Director-West, CRY. Read the rest of this entry →

11 June : Tomorrow is the World Day Against Child Labour.  The Ministry of Labour and Employment is undertaking a campaign to generate awareness against the child labour in the country.  Elimination of Child Labour is an area of great concern and considering the magnitude and nature of problem, the Government has adopted Sequential approach to withdraw and rehabilitate working children beginning with those working in hazardous occupation / process.
·         As per the 2001 Census, there are 1.26 crore working children in the country in the age group of 5-14 years. This occupation includes children working in the hazardous and non-hazardous.  The total working children in the age group of 5-14 years is only 5% of total population of children. Read the rest of this entry →