CONCEPT, PROBLEMS AND CAUSES
OF CHILD LABOUR
Child Labour refers to physical or manual labour done by a child. The next
question arises up to what age a person would be called child? In fact there is
no uniform opinion on treating a person as a child. Child Labour, as a common
parlance refers to a child who is engaged in physical labour and it is prohibited
by law as it adversely affects his all round development in this regard the
questions arise: who is a child and what kinds of work would be regarded as
child labour?
(A) CONCEPT OF CHILD LABOUR:
These questions are properly evaluated in the light of observations which are
made after through study of different DICTIONARIES, LEGISLATIONS, and
INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS etc.
1) Definition of the Child:
Chamber’s Twentieth Century Dictionaries: - Child a very young person
(up to age of 16 years for the purpose of some Act of Parliament)
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (4th Edition) 1989:- ‘Child’
young human being below the age of poverty; boy or girl; son or daughter
unborn or newly born human being; baby.
Webster’s New Colligate Dictionary (Eight Edition):- ‘Child’ unborn or
recently born person; a young person esp. between infancy and youth; a person
not yet of age.
In the question of defining a ‘Child’ in literature we have a number of
different opinions. Many studies have defined a child from the biological point
of view. In their opinion child is a young person of either sex below the age of
poverty. The age of poverty is not same all over the world. It varies from
regions to region with different climatic settings. Some people want to
distinguish between childhood and adulthood with the help of criteria of mental
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
maturity. According to them child is a person who has immature experience
and judgment and approaching or entering upon adulthood.1 Over the time
many Laws and Acts have been passed in India to protect the children from
exploitation. A mager loophole in these laws lies in the definition of the term
‘Child’. In Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab a Child means a person less
than 16 years”, in “Gujarat, West Bengal and in Andhra Pradesh a person
under 18 years” a person to “Union Territories defined a child as a boy under
16 years and a girl less than 18 years”. Censuses of India total population and
workforce have been divided into four groups of child (0-14), Young (15-19),
Adult (20-59) and Old (60+).The present study will be carried out with the help
of secondary data of Census of India. Due to our convenience and dependency
on the census data, we shall consider those persons as children who are
belonging to the age group of 0-14 Years.2 The census of India defines
children as being below the age of 14. Social scientists include females in the
age group 15-19 years under the category of ‘girl child’.
The legal conception of child tends to very. While the age of majority is
18 years for girls and 21 years for boys, under the Indian Majority Act, 1875 a
child is defined differently for deferent purposes.
The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 defines a child as “a person who has not
completed his 14 years of age. 3Factories Act, 1948 a child below 14 years of
age is not allowed to work in any factory. The Mines Act, 1952 prohibition of
the presence of persons below 18 years of age in mines – subject to the
provisions of sub section 2 of section 40 after such date as such date as the
central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, appoint in this
behalf, no person below 18 years of age shall be allowed to present in any part
of mine above ground where any operation connected with or incidental to any
mining operation is being carried on.
1 J.A. Simpson, and E.S.E. Weiner, The Oxford English Dictionary, VOLL.III. 1990, Clarendon Press
2 Dipendtra Nath , Das Child Labour in India, 1996 Sane Publications, Delhi-5.
3 Sec. 2 (bb) of the Act. Inserted by Act. 61 of 1986
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958 Employment of children ---No person
under 14 years if age shall be engaged or carried to sea to work in any capacity
in any ship. Moter and Transport Workers Act, 1961 defines Children as being
below the age of 14 years. Apprentices Act, 1961 a person qualified to be
engaged as an apprentice only if he is not less than 14 years of age. Bidi and
Cigar Workers Act, 1966 defines a child as a person who has not completed his
14 years of age.
The child labour ( Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 “Child
Labourers” are the children, who are engaged as physical as mental labourers
in an industry, agriculture or profession, are called, child labourers . Section
2(ii) defines “Child “as a person who has not completed the age of 14 years.
The age of the child is the sole factor for determination as to who is a
child. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, which India has
ratified, defines children as persons below the age of 18 years. However, in
India there is no unanimous definition for a ‘child’ According to Convention a
child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law
applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.
Article 1 defines the holder of rights under the CRC as ‘every human
being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child,
majority is attained earlier.’ The Convention clearly specifies the upper age
limit for childhood as 18 years, but recognises that majority may be obtained at
an earlier age under laws applicable to the child. The article, thus,
accommodates the concept of an advancement of majority at an earlier age,
either according to the federal or state laws of a country, or personal laws
within that country. However, the upper age limit on childhood is specified as
an “age of childhood rather than majority” recognizing that in most legal
systems, a child can acquire full legal capacity with regard to various matters at
different ages.4
4 Savitri Goonesekere, Children, Law and justice: A South Asian Perspective. SAGE. 1998. Page 141.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
Thus, while the Convention defines a ‘Child’ as every human being
below the age of 18 years, it allows for minimum wages to be set, under
different circumstances, balancing the evolving capacities of the child with the
state’s obligation to provide special protection. Accordingly, Indian legislation
has minimum ages defined under various laws related to the protection of child
Through legislation has been enacted to make 18 years the general age
of majority in India, 21 years continues to be the upper limit for childhood for
same purposes, partly due to the influence of nineteenth-century English law
and partly due to current exigencies. For example, India recognizes 21 years as
the age of majority in circumstances where a guardian has been appointed by
the court for a child below the age of 18 years.6
Varying ages of legal capacity is a phenomenon that can be seen in
many countries. However, while the CRC’s definition of childhood can be
perceived as setting a basic minimum standard in view of Article 41, which
declares that ‘nothing’ in the Convention or any of its provisions shall effect
realization of the rights of the child’ under the law of a state party, it is
essential that there is some synchronization of the upper age limit for
childhood. India has achieved this to a large extent, for instance, the minimum
compulsory age of education is 14 years. The various laws relating to labour
prohibit a person under the age of 14 years to work thus, the minimum age at
which compulsory education ends synchronises with the minimum age of
employment.7
For economic and employment reasons the child has been grouped into
different classes depending upon the age group to which he belongs. Children
below 14 years are prohibited from working in hazardous industries. Provision
of basic minimum wages is also applicable to them.
5 Implementations Hand Book for the Convention on the Rights of the Child UNICEF.
6 Child and Law, India council for Child Welfare, Chennai, Tamilnadu India 1998.
7 NO, NLPC/SAP/132/2000/908dated July 31 2008, National Institute for public cooperation and
child Development .
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
The minimum age for entering into the labour market has not been
precisely fixed by law or convention, either at the national or international
level. Hence, child labour should be understood in the context of given
circumstances and the nature of occupation. The child normally constitutes
children between the age group of 14 to 17 years. But, in fact, children of even
much younger age are also coerced, or forced by the family circumstances, to
undertake various jabs for hire or reward, or without any economic gain
Almost all countries have enacted legislation prohibiting the
employment of children below a certain age and, where they are legally
permitted to work, specifying the condition under which they may work.
Many have set higher minimum age for 18. There are still shortcomings,
especially in the coverage of many of these laws and in their applications in
practice. Legislative commitments often lie doorman, sometimes due to lack of
resources for effecting monitoring and enforcement, sometimes due to lack of
political will, but often simply because the authority do not know how to tackle
the problem of eliminating child labour given the invisibility of so many child
workers and the fact that the poverty, discrimination and cultural attitude that
foster it are so deeply entrenched in society.8
2) Meaning of Child Labour:
Your Dictionary, Com define ‘Child Labour’ the regular, full time employment
of children under a legally defined age in factories, stores, offices, etc.: in the
U.S., the minimum legal age under federal law is 16.( in hazardous
occupations,)9
The term ‘Child Labour’ has many definitions depending on who is
talking about it. Unfortunately, this means that there is no way to give a
concrete, rock-solid definition of child labour.
8 Child Labour Targeting the intolerable, International Labour Office, Geneva.
9 www. Yourdictionary.com/child-labour.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
The International Labour Organization ( ILO), defines ‘Child Labour’ as
“some types of work” done by children under the age of 18 years. The ILO also
says that child labour includes full-time work done by children under the age of
15 years that prevents them from going to school (getting an education), or that
is dangerous to their health.
Statutory provision in India, defines the term ‘Child Labour’ in prices
terms. Even the numerous legislative provisions which prescribe the minimum
age for employment in different vocations does not fix any uniform age,
presumably, for reasons of multiplicity in the nature of activities in which
children are employed.
In fact, the term ‘Child Labour’ in law, is used for, Employed Child’ or
Working Child ‘. In this sense it is co-extensive with any work done by a child
for profit or reward. But more commonly the term Child Labour’ is used as
derogatory sense. It suggests something which is hateful and exploitative. But
the child labour is recognized by the sociologists, lawyers, educationists and
medical professionals as hazardous and injurious to the child, both physically
and mentally.
According to V.V.Giri The term Child Labour’ is commonly interpreted
in two different ways: first, as an economic practice and secondly, as asocial
evil. In the first context it signifies employment of children in gainful
occupations with a view to add to the labour income of the family. In the
second context, the term ‘child labour’ is now more generally used in assessing
the nature and extent of the social evil. It is necessary to take into account the
character of jobs on which the children are engaged, the dangers to which they
are exposed and the opportunities of development which they have been
The United state National committee on child labour has, therefore,
concluded in its report that “ Child Labour” can broadly be defined as that
10 V.V. Gin, - Labour problems in Indian Industries.” 1958, Asia Publishing House, Bombay.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
segment of the ‘ Children Population’ which participates in work, either paid or
Child Labour, thus, means the engagement of children in gainful
occupation which are often hazardous to their health, and deny them the
opportunities of development. Three factors should, therefore, be necessarily
present in employment or engagement of a child so as to bring it within the
concept of child labour. Firstly, the child should be engaged in some gainful
activities; secondly, the work to which he is exposed, must be deter mental to
his natural growth; thirdly, it must deprive him of the opportunity for
development. Hence, obviously, any work taken by a father from his child on
his field or at his business places for long hours also get covered by this
definition , but any work done by the student at school workshops cannot be
termed as ‘Child Labour.’
Child Labour is not child work can be beneficial and can enhance a
child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development without
interfering with schooling, recreation rest. Helping parents in their household
activities and business after school in their free time also contributes positively
to the development of the child. When such work is truly part of the
socialization process and a means of transmitting skills from parents to child, it
is not child labour. Such working children can increase their status as a family
member, citizen, and gain confidence and self-stem 12
On the other hand child labour hampers the normal physical,
intellectual, emotional and moral development of child. Children who are the
growing process can permanently distort or disable their bodies when they
carry heavy loads or are forced to adopt unnatural positions at work for long
hours. Children are less resistant to diseases and suffer more readily from
chemical hazards and radiation than adults. UNICEF classifies the hazards of
11 Report of the Committee on Child Labor,1979.
12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/child labour.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
child labour into three categories, namely (i) Physical; (ii)Cognitive;
(iii)Emotional, social and moral:-
(i) Physical Hazards
There are jobs that are hazardous in nature and affect child immediately.
They affect the overall health, coordination, strength, vision and hearing of
children. One study indicates that hard physical labour over a period of years
stunts a child’s physical stature by up to 30 percent of their biological potential.
Working in Mines, quarries, construction sites, and caring heavy loads are
some of the activities that put children directly at risk physically. Jobs in the
glass and brassware industry in India, where children are exposed to high
temperatures while rotating the wheel furnace and use heavy and sharp tools,
are clearly physically hazardous to them.
(ii) Cognitive Hazars
Education helps a child to develop cognitively, emotionally and socially,
and needless to say, education is often gravely reduces by child labour.
Cognitive development includes literacy, numeracy and the acquisition of
knowledge necessary to normal life. Work may take so much of a child’s time
that it becomes impossible for them to attend school, even if they do attend,
they may be too tired to be attentive and follow the lessons.
(iii) Emotional, Social and Moral Hazards
Some jobs may jeopardize a child’s psychological and social growth more
than physical growth. For example, a domestic job can involve relatively ‘Light
Work’. However, long hours of work, and the physical, psychological and
sexual abuse to which the child domestic labourers are exposed make the work
hazardous. Studies show that several domestic servants in India on average
work for twenty hours a day with small intervals. According to a UNICEF
survey, about 90 percent of employers of domestic workers in India preferred
children of 12 to 15 years of age. This is mostly because they can be easily
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
dominated and obliged to work for long hours and can be paid to an adult
worker. Moral Hazards generally refer dangers arising for children in activities
in which they are used for illegal activities, such as trafficking of drugs, the sex
trade, and for the production of pornographic materials.13
But the biggest lacuna is that there is no universally accepted definition
of ‘Child Labour’. Varying definitions are used by International Organisations,
non-governmental organizations, trade unions and other interested groups.
Writers and speakers don’t always specify what definition they are using, and
that often leads to confusion.
Not at all work is bad for children. Some social scientists point out that
some kinds of work may be completely unobjectionable----except for one thing
about the work that makes it exploitative. For instance, a child who delivers
newspapers before school might actually benefit from learning how to work,
gaining responsibility, and earn a bit of money. But what if he child is not
paid? Then he or she is being exploited. As UNICEF’s 1997 State of the
world’s Children report puts it. Children’s work need to be seen as happening
along a continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and
beneficial work – promoting or enhancing children’s development without
interfering with their schooling recreation and rest –at the other. And between
these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect’s a child
development” Other social scientists have slightly different ways of drawing
the line between acceptable and unacceptable work.
International Conventions also define ‘Child Labour’ as activities such
as soldiering and prostitution. Not everyone agrees with this definition. Some
child workers themselves think that illegal work (such as prostitution) should
not be considered in the definition of child labour. The reason is that these
child workers would like to be respected for their legal work.
13 Introducing Child Labour in India, with special reference to the hazards child labourers Faces-
Charence James coonghe.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
In order to conclude we can say that there is no uniformity in the
definition of child. Further criteria of basic minimum age as well as wages are
also not followed strictly. The age of working child is also not implemented in
letters as well as spirit of the Acts. A need of constant monitoring is required
by appropriate authorities.
3) Rights of Children:
Children are human beings and require safety and opportunities for
development. Protection of basic Human Rights is now recognized as a primary
obligation of every society irrespective of its political ideology or level of
development. Arbitrary exercise of power and denial of equality, justice and
dignity have been fought by individuals and groups through legal and political
processes in country during the last fifty years in scale.
Every child shall have without any discrimination as to race, colour, sex,
language, religion, national, or social origin, property or birth, the right to such
measures of protection as are required by his status as minor, on the part of his
family, society and the state.14
It may be concluded that due to lack of universally acceptable definition
of child labour there is problem faced by the authorities and the society in
eradicating this evil. No doubt there is increasing awareness of the ‘Child
Dimension’ in the development and implementation of social policies. Much
has been done, Law is supposed to protect the weak particularly against the
strong for a just share of resources and for fair treatment in mutual relationship.
Children and young people should be protected from economic and
social exploitation. Their employment in work harmful to their morals or health
or dangerous to life or likely to hamper their normal development should be
punishable by law. State should also set age limit below which the paid
employment of child labour should be prohibited and punishable by law.
(B) PROBLEMS OF CHILD LABOUR
14 Article 24 (1) of ICCPR.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
Children have been integral part of human labour force in all societies.
With the socio economic development and modernization, economic role of
children vanishes and child participation in labour force is curtailed to a
considerable extent. But this fact has been achieved only in few western or
developed countries. In most of the third world or developing countries, a large
number of children continue to be at work. According to ILO estimates, in
1973, some 55 milion children under the age of 15 years were at work around
the world. Of these, 30.5 milion were in south Asia, 9.9 milion in East Asia, 9.6
milion in Africa, 3.3 milion in Latin America and only 1.3 milion in all the
developed and western countries. In India, the 2001 census listed 12.59 milion
children as full time workers. In1991 census this number was 11.28 milion,
including that the absolute number of child workers is increasing in this
Now an obvious question; why child participation in labour force is a
menace to their development? Why must be curtail it? Work at direct
fulfillment a child’s natural abilities and creative potentialities as also
conducive to its healthy growth. But work, when taken up as means for
fulfillment of some other need, become in slaving in character and deleterious
in its impact. The letter type is harmful because the energy that should have
been spent on nurturing talent, capacity and power; is used for the purpose of
bare survival. It becomes a total evil when the energy generated by a child is
appropriated by some others and the child is left with a fraction of it, which
cannot meet even this basic problem in so for as it arrests or distorts the natural
growth process of a child to full adulthood. The use of children as a source of a
child force, raise many other question with demographic and economic
Demographically speaking, the economic contribution of children is an
important contributing factor in the demands for more children and
consequently leads to population growth. Among other implications, child
labour deprives children of educational opportunities, minimizes their change
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
for vocation training and forces them to remain unskilled labourers with low
wages as long as they are economically active. Thus, the participation of
children in labour force runs country to the whole thesis of the human resource
development which is so essential for the over-all socio-economic development
On the other hand it is argued that the child labour cannot be totally
banned in India, solely on the grounds of child development. For a poor man,
working child is an economic necessity. For the large number of people below
the poverty line (37 percent in India) measure earnings of children is a
necessity of sheer survival.15
1) Statement of the Problem
“Child Labour” the terms seem very simple in its meaning but it is actually a
very complex problem that has come into existence due to a host of socio-
economic factors and prominent among these factors is poverty. The term
brings before the eyes, picture of exploitation of little, and weak, tender and
underdeveloped bodies. Child Labour detracts the children from activities such
as, education, play, leisure etc. that is essential for their physical, mental and
emotional development and hence involves an element of exploitation.
Child Labour has several dimensions that vary from region to region and
society to society. However, child labour like any other phenomenon may be
analyzed in terms of demand and supply. Poverty is the main determinant of
the supply of child labour. It is a burning issue throughout the global economy
that has constantly agitated the minds of jurists, legislators, social thinkers,
politicians, economists, philanthropists from time immemorial. The problem
has changed its avenue and from public platforms it has reached the inner
circles of legislative, executive, and judicial chambers. However, the problem
is so acute particularly in the underdeveloped and developing countries that
there is no easy and shortcut solution in sight.
15 S.R. Goyal, Problems of child Labour in India.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
An effort is made by the International Organizations concerned with the
problem to accord priority to some aspects of child labour. ILO, for example, at
its 87th session, called for immediate abolition and Elimination of Worst forms
of child labour.
Children engaged in child labour are not only deprived of their dignity
but also of their freedom to play, and their scope to develop physically,
mentally and emotionally is also lost. It is really disheartening to note that child
labour in India is an alarming one and constitutes an egregious violation of
children’s rights. These children are denied education, which is a fundamental
right and should be available to them under any circumstances.
In India, education is the joint responsibility of both the state and the
central government, and the Constitution of India envisages free and
compulsory education for all children till the age of 14. Ironically, in reality,
large numbers are denied these fundamental rights and are subjected to back-
breaking labour in pathetic conditions. The result is illiteracy-a factor
inseparably linked with child labour.
Millions of children below the age of 14 years work in fireworks, carpet,
bidi and matchbox industries. Continuous exposure to hazardous condition
leads to their falling prey to various diseases, like chronic bronchitis,
tuberculosis, asthma, skin and eye ailments etc. Children working in various
offices, shops, rehris, dhabas etc, also face exploitation at the hands of their
It’s a common sight to see grubby-faced children working alongside
roadside dhabas on the Indian highways. They are hardly 10-13 years old but
their faces bear an expression of constant exhaustion and agony. Their names
to get lost in the daily routine of grinding work and are called as (little man) by
the customers. They work morning till night, serving customers. Cleaning and
washing utensils and listening to the constant abuses of their masters. These
children are often lured away from different villages on false promises of good
wages and decent life and become victims of abuse and exploitation.16
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
These child labourers are paid a meager sum for all their hardship,
which generally fails to ensure even one square meal a day. Driven to work at a
crucial formative age and burdened with hard labour these-ill fated children are
deprived of nutritious food, playtime, and education. They lead miserable lives,
devoid of simple childhood pleasures and do not even get the opportunity to
develop into valuable human resource.
Children are important assets of any nation, they are the future citizens.
The destiny of a country depends directly on how its children are nurtured to
fulfill the requirements of its society.
India has always stood for constitutional, statutory and development
measures required eliminating child labour. The Indian Constitution has
consciously incorporated provisions to secure compulsory universal elementary
education as well as labour protection for children .Labour Commissions in
India have gone into the problems of child labour and have made extensive
recommendations.
In India, the post independence era has seen an unequivocal
commitment of the government to eradicate the causes of child labour through
constitutional provisions, legislation, policies and programs. The constitution
of India in Article 39 of the Directive Principle of State Policy pledges that the
state shall in particular, 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 citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter
avocations unsuited to their age or strength, that children are given
opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner, and in conditions of
freedom and dignity, and that childhood and youth are protected against
exploitation, and against moral and material abandonment.”
The first Act, in India relating to child labour was the Enactment of
Children (Pleading of Labour) Act, in February 1933. Since then there have
16 Ravindra Kaur Pasricha, Violation of Child Right and Victimization of Child Labourers Working in
Restaurants & Dhabas, 2007, New Delhi.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
been various other Indian Legislations relating to child labour. 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 child detail and made some for-
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 Gurupadswamy Committee, the child labour (Prohibition
& Regulation) Act, was enacted in 1986.
However, the problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge
before the nation. It constitutes an egregious violation of children’s rights.
Besides the violation of rights, the practice of child labour makes children easy
victim of other forms of crime as well such as child sexual abuse, prostitution,
etc. Although all the children are vulnerable and easy prey of social vices but
child labourers living a barren life with no identities, no hopes are more
vulnerable and thus falls victim of many other forms of crimes besides being
exploited as labourers.17
2) World Context
Child labour remains a serious problem in the world today. According to
revised estimates by the ILO’s bureau of statistics, the number of working
children between the age of 5 and 14 is at least 120 million. As may be
expected given the prevailing economic conditions, the overwhelming majority
of these are in developing countries in Africa. Asia and Latin America but
pockets of child labour also exist in many industrialized countries. Numerous
17 Ravindra Kaur Pasricha, Violation of Child Right and Victimization of Child Labourers Working in
Restaurants & Dhabas, 2007, New Delhi.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
children work in occupations and industries which are plainly dangerous and
hazardous. They are found in mines, factories, making glass bangles, match
and fireworks, in deep-sea fishing, in commercial agriculture and so on. The
list is endless, as are the dangers and hazards and the consequences:-
Working children suffer significant growth defects compared with
children in school: they grow up shorter and lighter, and their body
size continues to be smaller even in childhood.
Both anecdotal evidence and statistical survey indicate that for too
many working children are exposed to hazardous conditions which
expose them to chemical and biological hazards.
Large numbers of working children work under conditions which
expose them to substances with long latency period.
In rural areas, more children are believed to die of exposure to
pesticide than from the most common childhood diseases put together.
Children in certain occupation are especially vulnerable to particular
types of abuse.
Many Governments have embarked on a review and updating of national
legislation on child labour and adopted practical policies and programmes on
child labour (Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines,
United Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, and Zimbabwe). The ILO’s
International programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) is now
operational in more than 25 countries.18
3) Indian Context
India being a developing country has the largest number of working
children. According to 2001 Census 12.6 million children engaged in
hazardous occupations in India. In spite of protection legislations the social evil
of child labour persisted in India from the early days of the industrial system.
The evil still persist in many unorganized sectors of Industry and Agriculture.
18 Report VI(I) Child Labour Targeting the intolerable, sixth item on the agenda International Labour
Conference 86th Session 1998, Geneva.
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In India child worker constitutes a significant protection of the totally of
main workers. According to 1971 Census enumeration, child labour constituted
about 5.9 percent of the total labour force in the country, while the total
children were about 42 percent of the Indian population. Although slight
decline is noticed in the work participation rate for main workers between 1971
and 1981, in substantive terms, the gravity of the situation has drawn
everybody’s attention. As per 1991 census the total number of children
between ages 5-14 years in India was 203.3 million of which 11.28 million
were working children (6.18 million boys and 5.10 million girls). This number
was reported to have risen to 12.59 million in census 2001.
In absolute numbers, the problem is large. As per the census 2001, there
are 1.26 crores economically active children in the age group of 5-14 years.
The number was 1.13 crores in the 1991 census. The state with the highest
child labour population in the country is Uttar Pradesh, followed by Andhra
Pradesh. Other states where child labour population is more than 1 million are
Rajasthan, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and west Bengal. While there has been a
decline in the incidence of child labour in few states like Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Orissa & Tamilnadu, there has been an
increase in Bihar, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal.19
The Registrar General of census has recently provided occupation-wise
data of children in this age group working in the non-agricultural sector.
Though the classification of occupations in the Census data is not exactly
matching with the occupations listed as hazardous under the child labour(
Prohibition & Regulation ) Act, a tentative segregation of data into hazardous
& non hazardous occupations has been done to enable us to have a broad
estimation of children working in deferent occupations. As per this data, 36.43
lack children in the age group of 5-14 years are working in non-agricultural
sector in the country, out of which 12.19 lack children are working in
19 www.labour.nic.in/cwl/Census 1971 to 2001 .pdf
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
hazardous occupations ( 2001 Census ) for instance India has the largest
number of child labourers in the world.20
4) The Nature and Magnitude of Problem
UNICEF’S states of the world’s Children report say only that although
the exact number is not known, it is surely in the hundreds of millions. In 2003
survey by the ILO suggested that there are 246 million child labourers ( aged
14 years or less) in the world and that as many as 180 million of them are
engaged in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or
mental; health, and moral development and thus put them in direct risk.
However there are widely divergent views as to the magnitude of child labour
in India, due to various reasons that including differences in definitions,
typology of the work involved, the different methods of estimation used which
range from pure guesswork to over-generalization from small samples and
varying perceptions of the different agencies working for curbing this problem.
Ahead count of the number of working children, however, has been done only
during the decennial Census. The census Commissioner of India is the sole
authority with the requisite machinery (manpower and resources) capable of
undertaking an operation of this magnitude. Census figures, therefore, give by
far the most accurate and authentic data on child labour population in India.
UNICEF estimates that there are more than 35 million such children.
These estimates are for less compared to the non-governmental estimates,
ranging between 60 and 125 million child labourers in India because it
considers every out-of-school child either engaged as child labour or as
potential child labour.
a) Child Labour Today
Much has been achieved, but there is still so far to go. Statistics on child
labour are elusive not only because of the special and practical difficulties
involved in the design and implementation of child surveys but also because of
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
differences in perception about what constitutes a child, or child work, or child
labour, and specially in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Limited statistical information obtained from about 100 countries
indicated that there were 246 million working children between 10 and 14
years of age in these countries in 2005. According to survey carried out by
ILO’s Bureau of statistics in a number of countries indicates that even children
below 10 years of age are at work in substantial numbers. The bureau now
estimates that, in the developing countries alone, there are at last 120 million
children between the ages of 5 to 14 who are fully at work and more than twice
as many if those for whom work is a secondary activity are included. Of those,
61 percent are found in Asia, 32 percent in Africa, and 7 percent in Latin
America. Although Asia has the largest number of child workers, Africa has
the highest incident at around 40 percent of children between 5 and 14 years
old. Though primarily a developing country problem, child labour also exists in
many industrialized countries and is emerging in many East European and
Asian countries which are in transition to a market economy.21
b) Children in Hazardous Work
The most common situation in which children are venerable is when
they work in hazardous occupations and industries. Health and safety in the
working environment can be related to the nature of the work to their exposure
to hazardous substances and agents or to their exposure to poor working
conditions. Chemical, Physical, biological and Psychological herds are often
found in combination in the workplace. Often, too, their adverse effects are not
only cumulative but magnified through their synergic interaction. It is not easy
to isolate one single source or cause of an occupational hazard.
Children are susceptible to all of the dangers that are faced by adults
when placed in the same situation, and survival and physical integrity are of
course as important to them as to older people. Even if most child labourers
work side by side with adults, the conditions of work of children and of adult
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
workers may not be the same. Children may be more exposed to an
occupational hazard than adult workers in the same trade because of the type of
task they carry out.
Some example of occupation hazards in specific occupations and
industries are set out below:-
Agriculture: Children work in agricultural throughout the world and are
subject to occupational hazards such as exposure to machinery, biological and
chemical agents. They can be found mixing, loading and applying pesticides,
fertilizers or herbicides, some of which are highly toxic and potentially
carcinogenic.
Mines: child labour is used in small-scale mines in man; countries in Africa,
Asia and Latin America. The children work long hours without adequate
protective equipment, clothing and training, and are exposed to high humidity
levels and extreme temperatures.
Ceramics and glass factory work: child labour in this industry is common in
Asia but can also be found in other regions as well. Children carry molten loads
of glass dragged from tank furnaces at a temperature of 1,500-1,800 OC .They
work long hours in room with poor lighting and little or no ventilation.
Match and fireworks industry: The production of matches normally takes
place in small cottage units or in small scale village factories where the risk of
fire and explosions is present all the time. Children as young’s as 3 years of age
are reported to be involved in the production of matches in unventilated rooms
where they are exposed to dust, fumes vapors and airborne concentrations of
hazardous substances-asbestos, potassium chlorate and antimony disulphide
amorphous red phosphorous mixed with stand or powdered glass tetra
phosphorus disulphide. Intoxication and dermatitis from these substances are
Deep- sea fishing: Murayama fishing, which involves deep sea diving without
the use of protective equipment, is common in Asia, particularly in Burma,
Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. It relies on children who bang on coral
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
reefs to scare the fish into nets. Each fishing ship employs up to 400 boys
between 10 and 15 years old requited from poor neighborhoods. Drivers rest
the net several times a day and therefore children are in the water for up to 12
Carpet Industry: An ILO study estimates that there could be 4, 20,000 child
labourers in India employed in the carpet industry.23 According to some
NGOs, between 1979 and 1993 the value of extort earnings in the hand-knotted
carpet industry in India tenfold. They also claim that the number of children
working at the looms has increased from 100,000 in 1975 to 300,000 in 1990.
The Indian ‘Carpet Belt’ is found mostly in Uttar Pradesh stretching over a vast
area. There are usually about 20 or so loom sheds in each village. Some
children work as bonded labourers: others are kidnapped from their poverty
stricken home villages, including villages in Bihar, the neighboring state.24
Since the carpet industry is labour intensive entrepreneurs, try to reduce
labour costs by employing child labour. Under the pretext of getting practice,
children are introduced into the sector as early as the age of five. Though
initially the children find it difficult to sit in the particular posture required for
weaving, they gradually adopt to it.
There is a new awareness at present in the International media about
child labour exploitation in the south Asian carpet industry. This is partly due
to 12 year-old Iqbal Masi, a bonded carpet weaver in Pakistan who was later
killed for his anti-child labour campaign. At present, genuine efforts are made
by some humanitarian agencies in the carpet importing nations to reduce or
eliminate child labour in the sector.
Brass Industry: According to the researcher Burra Neera, about 40,000-
45,000 children are employed in the brass industry in India. Children in the
brass industry are employed in different sectors. Molding is one of the
activities, which is very hazardous and dangerous both to adult and children.
23 UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children 1997, p. 68.
24 Janet Hilowitz, Labelling Child Labour Products, A Preliminary Study, p.15.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
More than 15000 children are employed in this sector. If the child is a new
recruit, he is given the work of rotating the wheel that fans the underground
furnace. Other children in the molding section must heat the oblong ingot on
top of the furnace, break it into small pieces with a hammer and then melt the
required amount of brass. These activities have to be done continuously and
children in the molding section would always be engaged in one or other of
these activities. They may not receive any break in a ten-hour working day,
even though a slight distraction or lapse of concentration may cause the child
life-long injuries. The temperature in the furnace is about 1100 centigrade. If a
drop of molten metal falls on the child’s foot, it will create an immediate hole.
Lock Industry: The lock industry is mostly concentrated in the Aligarh
district of Uttar Pradesh. Studies reveal that more than 60 percent of the
workers in this sector are children less than 14 years of age. Children do
polishing, electroplating and working on hand presses. They cut difference
components of locks for nearly 12-14 hours a day with hand presses.
Exhaustion causes accidents; many lose the tips of their figurers, which get
caught in the machines.
The most hazardous job for children in the lock industry is polishing.
The boys who do polishing stand close to the buffing machines which run on
electric power have emery powder coated on books. While polishing the locks,
they inhale emery powder thereby suffering from respiratory disorders and
tuberculosis. In the small units, about 70 percent of the polishing is children.25
Similarly, electroplating is another extremely hazardous process in which
more than 70 percent of workers are children below the age of 14 years.
Children work with naked hand in dangerous chemicals and have their hands in
these solutions for the better part of the twelve-hours a day. Some cases of
electrocution have been due to illegal electric connections obtained by some of
these units from streetlights.26
25 Child Labour Cell, Child Labour in the Lock Industry of Aligarh. P. 10.
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About 50 percent of the workforce in the spray-painting sector of the lock
industry is comprised of children due to whom they suffer from breathlessness,
fever, tuberculosis, bronchitis, asthma, and pneumoconiosis and from such
symptoms and diseases. Work in the lock industry is dangerous and very
hazardous for all employees, but is especially so for children. Thus, in India
children do all kinds activities, from household work to brick making, from
stone breaking to selling in shops and on streets, from bike repairing to garbage
collecting and rag picking. Most children work on farms and plantations or
houses, far from the media security and the reach of a labour inspector. There is
no product that there is no product that has not been scented by the sweat of a
child labourer. India today has earned the dubious distinction of having the
highest child labour force in the world.27
c) Children in Domestic Work
Violence and sexual abuse are among the most serious and frightening
hazards faced by children at work. It is of course almost inevitable that children
growing up in such an environment will be permanently damaged both
psychologically and economically.
Among the groups subject to such abuse are child domestic workers. Child
domestic services are a widespread practice in many developing countries
witch employers in urban areas often recruiting children from rural villages
though family, friends and content. While most child domestic workers come
from extremely poor families, many have been abandoned. are orphaned or
come from single parent families.
d) Slavery and Forced Labour
Slavery is not dead. Societies are loath to admit to still harboring it but, as can
be surmised from cases reported to the ILO committee of experts on the
Application of Conventions and Recommendations, numerous children are
27 Joe Arimpoor, “Profile of the Child Worker” , Social Action. July-September, 1994, Vol.44 No. 3 p.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
trapped in slavery in many part of the world. Of all working children, surely
these are most imperiled.
One of the most common forms of bondage is family bondage, where
children work to help pay off a loan or other obligation incurred by the family.
The lenders, who are often landlords, usually manipulate the situation in such a
way that it difficult or impossible for the family to pay off its debt, thereby
assuring essentially free labour indefinitely. A family may thus remain
bounded through generations, with children reflecting their aged are informed
parents in and inter -generational bondage agreement. Perhaps most widespread
of all informal bondage agreement under which in impoverished parents
surrender their children to outsider simply to work in exchange for their
upkeep, on the assumption that they will be better provided for as
unremunerated servants in an affluent household than they could be in their
(C) CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR:
Child labour is a socio-economic phenomenon. It is generally connected
that illiteracy, ignorance, low wages, unemployment, poor standard of living,
stark poverty, deep social prejudice appealing backwardness of the country-
side are all, severally and collectively, the root causes of child labour. 28
Mr. G. S. Modan, former deputy director, ministry of labour stated that
“the children are required to seek employment either to argument the income of
their families are to have a gainful occupation in the absence availability of
school going facilities at various places” as so we can say child labour is no
longer only economic exploitation but is necessitated by economic necessity of
parents and the children themselves.29
Pro. Gangrade believes that child labour is a product of such factors as
customs, traditional attitude, lack of school of reluctance of parents to send
their children to school, urbanization, Industrialisation, migration and so on.
28 Dr. J.C. Kulshresthra; Indian Child Labour, Uppal Publication House, New Delhi, 1994, p. 27.
29 S.K. Tripathy; Child Labour in India, Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 1989, p. 26.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
Thus, though there are many causes of child labour, it will be faithful to
study some of the principal ones in details.
i. Poverty
The most important cause of child labour is widespread poverty. Poverty
compels the parents to send their children to seek employment. Disease and
other community contingencies may need extra money and the employment of
children is resorted to as easily accessible method to fetch in that money.
The institute of public opinion conducted a survey in 1969, which
showed “that 41.2 percent of Indian population was under poverty line. Half of
these belonged to the scheduled caste and Tribes. In village a vast majority of
agricultural labour belongs to these communities.” 30
Seminar on the subject organised by National institute of public
cooperation and child development, New Delhi, on November 25-28, 1975 also
came to the conclusion that “Millions of families were below the poverty line
and they had to deploy their children in the labour market in order to eke out a
bare subsistence.”31
The problem of child labour is inter-related to the problem of living
wage of adult worker. This very inadequacy in wage of adult compels them to
send their childr3en to do some work in return of some compensation and
employer also takes the benefit of this weakness by providing work to their
children on low wages. The report of the International Organisation (ILO) also
indicated that this problem of child labour is not the problem of itself but it is
the problem of maintenance of the child and the living wage of the adult wage
earner so that they should maintain their family at adequate standard.32
This child labour, by and large, is a problem of poor and destitute families,
where parents have to depend on the earning of their children.
ii. Low Income of the Bread Earner of the family
30 Institute of Public Opinion, Monthly Commentary of Indian Economic Condition, Dec. 1973.
31 National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development-Seminar Recommendations.
32 Report of ILO quoted in the Book ‘Needs of Children’ Published by UNICEF, P. 144.
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In so cases, it has been observed that the inadequacy of wages of adult
earning member’s of the family compels them to send their children to work
and supplement the family income.
It is in the report of ILO that “this problem of child labour is not the
problem of itself but it is the problem of the maintenance of child and the living
wage earner so that should maintain their family at adequate standard.”33
iii. Child Labour is Cheap Commodity
With the advent of industrialism, there came a tendency among the
employer to have quickly and more profits at low costs. Hence, in very country
there was an employment of children in large number – in factories who were
paid very low wages, were subjected to excessive hours of work and were
made to work under terrible condition.
Employers have developed ancient ‘commodity Approach’ towards these
working children. At present, too, employers think that a lot of work can be
done by the children in their workplace and this labour and this labour of
children is very cheap in corporation – to that of main. In fact, it ensures them
more ‘margin of profit over less investment.’ Jorome Devis stated that, besides
the compulsion of poverty within the family, it is the stimulus of the
manufacturer who desires to secure cheap labour and more profit.”34
Child labour exists not because they can be had for less money. Thus
preference for child labour by many employers is mainly due to the fact it is
cheap, safe and without any liability. All the reports on child labour indicate
that the wages paid to the children are exploitatively low.
iv. Large Family
Large family with comparatively less income cannot have the happy
notions in their mind. As a result, they cannot give sheltered childhood to their
children. If a family is limited and well planned there will be no question of
sending their children to the labour market and the children can be carefully
33 National Labour Commission Report, 1989.
34 Jrome Davis, Worker Problems and Modern Industry; Codicate Press, London. P. 117.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
educated. Illiterate and unpolished parents think just contrary of this. Thus if
parents have a small size family, they can provide all facilities to their children
which are necessary of their mental, physical and social growth.35
v. Illiteracy and Ignorance of parent
In India, the lower socio- economic groups of population are illiterate. They
only think about the present time which is their sole concern and worry. They
never think of future. They are fully satisfied with the gain by the earning by
children. It is ignored by them that their children many participate even in
educational opportunities, but child labour deprives the children of all the
educational opportunities and minimizes their chances for vocational training.
It also affected their health and they are converted into labourers of low wages
for all their lives.36
Ministry of labour, Government of India, has maintained tradition poverty,
lack of adequate awareness among parents of education children, illiteracy,
large size of family, unemployment and lacks of land as the causes of child
Child labour is common extensively in the lower socio-economic groups
because of the lack of appreciation of their part of the role that education plays
in improving life and living conditions of the people. Thus greed for money
and gross ignorance on the part of parent in not sending their children to school
is a sad commentary, and condemnable. Addam predicate that, “the child
labourers today will be the paupers of tomorrow, they are the boy and girl who
will grow up without either formal schooling or knowledge of a trade; sooner
or later, their youthful energies exhausted they will became dull shiftless drift
less.” Thus illiteracy and ignorance of parents is also an important factor. These
parents do not consider child labour as evil.
vi. Unemployed Parent
35 Dr. J.C. Kulshresthra; Indian Child Labour, Uppal Publication House, New Delhi, 1978, p. 15.
37 Ministry of Labour, Government of India, 1979, p. 10-13.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
Some time children seek work because of their unemployment parents or
adult relation in the family, which is sometime due to under –employment of
the adults, also.
In our country the agricultural workers are engaged at the maximum for 290
days in different agricultural and allied works; but absolutely sit idle for other
75 days which sometimes force them to send their children for small
employments.38
vii. Migration to Urban Areas
Further, some studies have found migration to cities, due to cities, due
to industrialization and urbanization, also to be one of the factors responsible
for the problem of child labour. The Delhi study shows that there are a
sustainable number of migrants among child workers, particularly in the field
of domestic services, tea-stall and ‘dhabas’. Urbanization had been allured the
children to run away from their rural homes to the cities to find employment.39
viii. Other Reasons
In addition to the above causes of child labour, there are also certain
significant reasons for child labour. Firstly the process of protective labour
legislation is slow which could not even cover agricultural, domestic servants
and small scale industries. Secondly, inspecting machinery which is provided
by the state government is inadequate to check the child labour. Black
employment opportunities, lack of physical and mental fitness due to
malnutrition and shear encouragement to take up jobs instead of going to
school are other reasons which contribute to the problem of child labour.40
The Government of India in 1979 has expressed the view that, “it is the
poverty coupled with ignorance that forces parents to send their children to
seek employment. Inadequate income of the bread earner of the family,
unemployment, abuse of any family allowance or subsistence allowance on one
38 S.K. Tripathy, Child Labour in India, Discovery Publishing House, New Delhi, 1989, p. 27.
Concept, Problem and Causes of Child Labour Page
side, and large family on the other side, death of the adult bread-earner,
drinking and other social evils in adults and absence of school, illiteracy and
ignorance of parents etc. , are the main reasons of the child labour.41
From the forgoing paras, it is thus sufficiently clear that poverty coupled with
ignorance, educational backwardness that forces parents to send their children
to seek employment are the main causes of child labour.
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