Peer-reviewed article
CHILD LABOUR: A WORLDWIDE PROBLEM AND REMEDIES
Dr. J.P. Arya ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper examines child labour as a global problem with particular focus on India, which has the largest number of child labourers worldwide. The document describes how child labour perpetuates poverty cycles across generations, denies children education, and harms long-term economic prospects. It analyzes the economic, social, and legal dimensions of child labour and discusses India's legal framework prohibiting employment of children under 14 years old. The paper emphasizes the need for awareness-raising to address this persistent problem.
Key points
- India has the largest number of child labourers in the world
- Child labour perpetuates intergenerational poverty cycles as adults who worked as children are more likely to live in poverty and depend on their own children's labour
- Child labour deprives children of education and affects prospects for decent work throughout life
- Indian law prohibits employment of children below 14 years of age
- The problem requires examination of economic, social, and legal facets alongside public awareness creation
Limitations
This document is a general review paper that describes the problem and legal context but does not present empirical data, evaluate specific interventions, or provide quantitative evidence about the effectiveness of remedies. It cannot tell us which specific approaches work best to reduce child labour or what outcomes have been achieved by particular programmes.
Abstract
Child labour is one of the major factors to deprive our future generations from education. It is an obstacle to sustainable socio-cultural development and economic growth of the country. It is very disheartening to see the plight of young budding childhood plucked by deep-rooted poverty. Starting work early, in the form of child labour, can affect prospects for decent work throughout a person’s life. They have no hope for a promising future. As adults they are likely to be living in poverty. Often, they have to rely on their own children working to have enough money to afford basic necessities for the survival of their family. This continues the child labour-poverty cycle into the next generation. The cycle of poverty is one of the largest contributing factors to child labour. The concern of the child labour has been a global issue, as it highly involved in inhibiting the sustainable growth and development of the country. According to the Indian law, children below the age of 14 years cannot be employed to any type of work forcefully. India has unfortunately the largest number of child labourers in the world. The problem of child labour is haunting humanity at global level. This Article outlines the key issues relating to present child labour prohibition law to control the situation. It also attempts to make an analysis of the nature of the problem, the causes of rising instances of child labour and their remedies. This Endeavour also examines in brief the economic, social and legal facets of the problem and emphasizes on creating the awareness among people to improve the present position of the problem of Child Labour.