mains2007

We know that poverty is one of the major causes of child labour around the globe, and that child labour perpetuates poverty. Poverty is one of the most obvious grounds for discrimination, affecting people’s access to equal treatment including services such as health and education, and leading to a vicious circle of discrimination, poverty and social exclusion. The children of poor and/or uneducated parents are more likely to be sent to work. Discrimination suffered by parents leads to lower wages, unequal pay for equal work and lack of access to employment opportunities and rights, causing family poverty, in turn making children more vulnerable to exploitation.

Work done by children which keeps them in poverty and out of education will result in discrimination. Lack of education or skills training denies necessary human capabilities for productive life, excluding children from the benefits of economic growth and from fulfilling their human potential. Education is often the key to accessing other rights, so a denial of education has serious implications for enjoyment of all other rights.

Those who experience discrimination on the basis of race and ethnicity include: indigenous peoples, tribal groups, refugees and asylum seekers, the internally displaced and migrants. For example, “children belonging to marginalised ethnic groups…are often targeted for trafficking.” Formal education is taught in Foreign Languages, not in local indigenous languages, indigenous children were discouraged from attending and staying in school where lessons were inaccessible to them. Efforts have now been made to teach in local languages in areas where this is appropriate. Due to the educational system, children were forced to work and thus child labour increasing day by day.

Amongst the other industries identified by the Court for priority action was the handmade carpet industry in Mirzapur-Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh. The major points of the verdict are as follows:

• An alternative source of income shall have to be provided to the family of child labour.
• Employers of child labour shall have to pay a compensation of Rs. 20,000 as per the provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, for every child employed. This would be deposited in the Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund.
• The State shall have to provide employment to an adult in the family in lieu of the child working in a factory or mine or any other hazardous work.
• In the absence of an alternative employment, the parents/guardian have to be paid the income earned on the Corpus Fund, the suggested amount being fixed at Rs. 25,000 for each child. The payment will cease if the child is not being sent for education. In the case of non-hazardous employment, the employer will bear the cost of education.
• The State’s contribution/grant is fixed at Rs. 5,000 for each child employed in a factory or mine or any other hazardous employment. The sum shall be deposited in the afore said Fund.

Initiatives towards Elimination of Child Labour – Action Plan and Present Strategy

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 Action Plan outlined in the Policy for tackling this problem is as follows: 

•  Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other labour laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments, and that the working conditions of children working in non-hazardous areas are regulated in accordance with the provisions of the Child Labour Act. It also entails further identification of additional occupations and processes, which are detrimental to the health and safety of the children.
   

• Focusing of General Developmental Programmes for Benefiting Child Labour -         As poverty is the root cause of child labour, the action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their families also under various poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes of the Government.
   

• Project Based Plan of Action envisages starting of projects in areas of high concentration of child labour. Pursuant to this, in 1988, the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labour endemicity in the country. The Scheme envisages running of special schools for child labour withdrawn from work. In the special schools, these children are provided formal/non-formal education along with vocational training, a stipend of Rs.100 per month, supplementary nutrition and regular health check ups so as to prepare them to join regular mainstream schools. Under the Scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special schools for child labour. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district.  

Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative measures. State Governments, which are the appropriate implementing authorities, have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of violations. Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help solve it, Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families.  

The coverage of the NCLP Scheme has increased from 12 districts in 1988 to 100 districts in the 9^th Plan to 250 districts during the 10^th Plan.

Strategy for the elimination of child labour under the 10^th Plan

        An evaluation of the Scheme was carried out by independent agencies in coordination with V. V. Giri National Labour Institute in 2001. Based on the recommendations of the evaluation and experience of implementing the scheme since 1988, the strategy for implementing the scheme during the 10^th Plan was devised. It aimed at greater convergence with the other developmental schemes and bringing qualitative changes in the Scheme. Some of the salient points of the 10^th Plan Strategy are as follows:

• Focused and reinforced action to eliminate child labour in the hazardous occupations by the end of the Plan period.

• Expansion of National Child Labour Projects to additional 150 districts.

• Linking the child labour elimination efforts with the Scheme of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan of Ministry of Human Resource Development to ensure that children in the age group of 5-8 years get directly admitted to regular schools and that the older working children are mainstreamed to the formal education system through special schools functioning under the NCLP Scheme.

• Convergence with other Schemes of the Departments of Education, Rural Development, Health and Women and Child Development for the ultimate attainment of the objective in a time bound manner.  

The Government and the Ministry of Labour & Employment in particular, are rather serious in their efforts to fight and succeed in this direction. The number of districts covered under the NCLP Scheme has been increased from 100 to 250, as mentioned above in this note. In addition, 21 districts have been covered under INDUS, a similar Scheme for rehabilitation of child labour in cooperation with US Department of Labour. Implementation of this Project was recently reviewed during the visit of Mr. Steven Law, Deputy Secretary of State, from the USA. For the Districts not covered under these two Schemes, Government is also providing funds directly to the NGOs under the Ministry’s Grants-in-aid Scheme for running Special Schools for rehabilitation of child labour, thereby providing for a greater role and cooperation of the civil society in combating this menace. 

Elimination of child labour is the single largest programme in this Ministry’s activities. Apart from a major increase in the number of districts covered under the scheme, the priority of the Government in this direction is evident in the quantum jump in budgetary allocation during the 10^th Plan. Government has allocated Rs. 602 crores for the Scheme during the 10^th Plan, as against an expenditure of Rs. 178 crores in the 9^th Plan. The resources set aside for combating this evil in the Ministry is around 50 per cent of its total annual budget.  

The implementation of NCLP and INDUS Schemes is being closely monitored through periodical reports, frequent visits and meetings with the District and State Government officials. The Government’s commitment to achieve tangible results in this direction in a time bound manner is also evident from the fact that in the recent Regional Level Conferences of District Collectors held in Hyderabad, Pune, Mussoorie and Kolkata district-wise review of the Scheme was conducted at the level of Secretary. These Conferences provided an excellent opportunity to have one-to-one interaction with the Collectors, who play a pivotal role in the implementation of these Schemes in the District. Besides, these Conferences also helped in a big way in early operationalisation of Scheme in the newly selected 150 districts.

                The Government is committed to eliminate child labour in all its forms and is moving in this direction in a targeted manner. The multipronged strategy being followed by the Government to achieve this objective also found its echo during the recent discussions held in the Parliament on the Private Member’s Bill tabled by Shri Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi. It was unanimously recognized therein that the problem of child labour, being inextricably linked with poverty and illiteracy, cannot be solved by legislation alone, and that a holistic, multipronged and concerted effort to tackle this problem will bring in the desired results