Child
Labor
"Children are meant to learn, not earn"
The Issue
As of now India has about 58.5 million children involved in forced labor. slowly the child labor has been declining by 5%. Unfortunately the given laws to protect children from child labor in india are not effective enough. The main cause of child labor in India is due to widespread poverty, and the main effects of child labor on children is that they are not receiving quality education and experience health deterioration.
History of Child Labor
In India, children used to help and accompany their parents in agricultural and other household activities in ancient times. Thus we see that child labor is not quite a new thing to the world. But during 1780 and 1840s, there was a massive increase in child exploitation. During the industrial revolution, it was very common to find children working in factories. The most controversial and worst forms of child labour and exploitation included military use of children, child trafficking, organised begging and child prostitution etc.
What has been done?
Indian Government
1. Employment of children below 14 years prohibited. However, an exception has been made:
a) Where the child helps his family or family business.
b) Where the child works as an artist in an audio-visual entertainment industry (actor, sports, etc.) provided that such work does not affect the school education of the child.
However, these exceptions allow for exploitation of loopholes, thus the law has not proved very effective.
United Nations/Non-government Organizations (NGOs)
The Child Labor Coalition (CLC), an NGO, has been advocating for better enforcement of child labor laws and regulations as well as urging the Congress of the United States to quickly ratify and enforce all International Labor Organization (ILO) and United Nations (UN) Conventions. The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the goal to slowly eliminate child labor around the world by promoting a worldwide movement. The ILO itself has also created international law that prohibits hazardous child labor as well as child labour monitoring (CLM) to identify child laborers, remove them from work, and finally track them afterwards to ensure their safety. Additionally, UNICEF has been attempting to prevent child labor by creating child protection systems. Many other NGOs have also been raising awareness and striving for child labor to be eliminated on a global scale.
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