Child labour

Child Labour

The Govement of India’s point of view:

The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation.  Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.

Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it. The Committee examined the problem in detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. It observed that as long as poverty continued, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child labour and hence, any attempt to abolish it through legal recourse would not be a practical proposition. The Committee felt that in the circumstances, the only alternative left was to ban child labour in hazardous areas and to regulate and ameliorate the conditions of work in other areas. It recommended that a multiple policy approach was required in dealing with the problems of working children.

 

Based on the recommendations of Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others.  The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act.

 

In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987. The Policy seeks to adopt a gradual & sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance.

                The Indian Embassy’s perspective:

There are more children under the age of fourteen in India than the entire population of the United States. The great challenge of India, as a developing country, is to provide nutrition, education and health care to these children.

 

Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6% of the total labor force in India. Of these children, nine out of every ten work in their own rural family settings. Nearly 85% are engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9% work in manufacturing, services and repairs. Only about 0.8% works in factories.

 

While child labor is a complex problem that is basically rooted in poverty, there is unwavering commitment by the Government and the people of India to combat it. Success can be achieved only through social engineering on a major scale combined with national economic growth. International policies and actions, therefore, must support and not hamper India's efforts to get rid of child labor.

 

India has all along followed a proactive policy with respect to the problem of child labor, and has stood for constitutional, statutory and developmental measures to combat child labor. Six ILO conventions relating to child labor have been ratified,, three of these as early as the first quarter of this century.

 

The first Act in India relating to child labor was the Enactment of Children (Pledging of Labor) Act of February 1933. Since then there have been nine different Indian legislations relating to child labor. The strategy of progressive elimination of child labor underscores India's legislative intent, and takes cognizance of the fact that child labor is not an isolated phenomenon that can be tackled without simultaneously taking into account the socio-economic milieu that is at the root of the problem.

 

The Government of India is determined to eradicate child labor in the country. The world's largest child labor elimination program is being implemented at the grass roots level in India, with primary education targeted for nearly 250 million. In this a large number of non-governmental and voluntary organizations are involved. Special investigation cells have been set up in States to enforce existing laws banning employment of children in hazardous industries. The allocation of the Government of India for the elimination of child labor was $10 million in 1995-96 and $16 million in 1996-97. The allocation for the current year is $21 million.

 

The International Program on Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) has the world's largest international initiative on child labor in India. The total outlay under this program between 1992 and 1996 has been $4.15 million.

My perspective:

                 I think that the main cause of child labour is because of the country and their family. I think that the family is most important as many people live in poverty and have little or no money, they can barely keep themselves full so where is money for education? Many people did not go to school so they dont have a degree. Without a degree, not many people would like to hire them. For example, if there was much competition for a job, the company would definately choose someone with a degree or has some kind of expertise. They would not want to take time and teach a person that has no degree as they do not want to waste time. People with no degree would have a very hard time finding a job.  I think that the few jobs this people could do is opening a shop, fishing, cleaning services or farming. This jobs dont earn much and they might still have a hard time filling their stomach. Furthermore, some parents dont work. They depend on their children for money like Village By The Sea. Normally our parents give us money but it may be the opposite for them. Some parents have bad habits like drinking or smoking, and they will spend alot of money, even if it is no necessary.

                I think that the country plays a part too, if the country has many jobs, education could be free, then child labour would be decreasing.

                Also, i think that the number of people would affect child labour. Many parents give birth to alot of children and have not enough money to pay for their education. Many poeple fight for the same job, lets say there is 1 place for a job, in a country with lesser population, manybe only 4 people are fighting for the job. But with a country of huge  population like India, there may be 10 people fighting for the job.  1 gets the job, the other 9 have to think of another way to get a job.

                Linking this to Village By The Sea:

               Hari and Lila had to work because their parents could not would as their father is a drunkard and their mother is sick. Hari and Lila stopped school because they did not have money and could not even keep their own stomach’s full. Their father however was going around lending money to drink. Stopping education made them not have a degree so in the future they would have a little trouble finding good jobs. As the story has said, the factory is going to hire people, but they will probably hire someone with a degree. The only job Lila could do was help clean the house and cook for people. Their parents have also gave birth to 4 children, alot in these days. I think that if they only had 2 children, they would not have so much burden on them and they will be less poor.