Peer-reviewed article
The Children of Manual Scavengers in Child Labour: A Study with Reference to Madurai Corporation - Tamil Nadu
John Kennedy ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examines child labour among children of manual scavengers in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, a group subjected to caste-based discrimination and social exclusion. The research highlights that despite constitutional prohibitions on child labour and emphasis on children's well-being and education, children from manual scavenging families continue to experience persistent exploitation and discrimination. The study conducts a critical legal analysis to assess whether legislative, executive, and judicial systems adequately protect these children and promote their human rights and dignity. The authors call for stronger implementation of existing child labour laws and greater socio-legal awareness of this vulnerable population's plight.
Key points
- Children of manual scavengers experience unending child labour as part of a caste-imposed traditional occupation
- These children face multiple forms of discrimination due to the caste-based nature of manual scavenging work
- Despite constitutional prohibition of child labour and stated commitment to children's well-being, legislative and executive protection remains inadequate
- The study questions whether judicial activism has been sufficient in protecting manual scavengers' children's human rights
- Legislative measures are needed for effective implementation of existing child labour laws with accompanying socio-legal awareness
Limitations
This document is a policy and legal analysis rather than empirical research; it does not provide quantitative data on the prevalence or scale of child labour among manual scavengers' children, nor does it report on specific interventions or their effectiveness. The study is limited to Madurai Corporation in Tamil Nadu and may not represent the situation across all of India.
Abstract
The Indian history witnesses the plight of the Manual Scavengers in socio -legal context. The untouchability and sociolegal exclusion is the day to day reality in their life. They are socially impure, economically poor and legally abandoned. They remove the human excreta manually as traditional occupation imposed by the caste -system. The children of Manual Scavengers are not exception to this. Child labour is an unending misery in the life of the children of manual scavengers. But the expectation of the children is not the employment but empowerment. The problem is even though the well being of children and educational empowerment are portrayed and child labour in any form is prohibited by the Constitution of India, the sad truth is the misery of child labour in the life of manual scavengers' children is unending. Moreover, they experience all kinds of discriminations due to the caste -based traditional work of manual scavenging. The question is whether the legislative and the executive are aware of protecting and prohibiting the child labour of manual scavengers' children? Whether the judicial activism in protecting the Manual Scavengers' Children from the misery of Child labour and protect the human rights of these children is sufficient? It aims to study the importance of protecting the Manual Scavengers' children from child labour and promoting the human dignity and equality in their life. It also aims to provide legislative measures for effective implementation of the existing laws prohibiting child -labour. Also aims for sociolegal awareness as a need. A critical analysis is made with the help of legislation, bylaws, ordinance as primary source and the judgments as secondary source. Also it contributes to stakeholders such as the literature, Manual Scavengers' children as victims, the litigants and citizens.