Peer-reviewed article
CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA: REALITY, LAW AND THE FAILURE OF ENFORCEMENT
Mansi Rani ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This paper examines child labour in India as a widespread violation of children's rights despite strong constitutional and statutory protections. The study analyzes the gap between India's legal framework—including ratified international conventions—and the reality of widespread child labour across the country. The authors identify socio-economic drivers of child labour including poverty, lack of education, and cultural factors, and highlight systematic failures in law enforcement. The paper calls for a holistic approach combining strict legal enforcement, education provision, economic development, and corporate accountability to address the problem.
Key points
- Child labour persists in India despite strong constitutional and statutory provisions protecting children
- The problem results from complex socio-economic factors including poverty, disparity, lack of education, unemployment, and migration
- India has ratified ILO Conventions 138 and 182 and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
- Significant loopholes exist in India's protection policies and law enforcement systems
- Abolishing child labour requires a holistic strategy involving legal enforcement, education, economic development, corporate responsibility, and community involvement
Limitations
This is a legal and policy analysis rather than an empirical study, so it does not provide quantitative data on the prevalence or characteristics of child labour in India, nor does it evaluate the effectiveness of specific interventions or programmes.
Abstract
Child labor is still one of the deepest-rooted infringements of the basic human rights of children in India, prevailing in the face of strong provisions in the Constitution, statutes, judgments, and policies. Child labor is not only the outcome of inadequate legal provisions but the result of a complicated interaction of socio-economic elements such as poverty, disparity, lack of education, unemployment, migration, and the culture of child labor. The country has also ratified significant international conventions, such as ILO Conventions 138 and 182, and the United Nations Rights of Child Convention, whereby it has agreed that it would not engage in or permit economic exploitation of children or compromise their rights. This paper offer an exhaustive analysis of child labor in India, including historical, theoretical, socio- economic background, international as well as national laws on child labor, court pronouncements, policies of government, rehabilitation policies, and the role of Non- Governmental Organizations. The study, from a critical and comparative perspective, recognizes various loopholes in the system with regard to the protection policy in India and hence sheds light on the need for an effective strategy in this aspect. The abolition of child labor needs a holistic strategy that involves strict implementation of laws and provisions for education and economic development at national levels while ensuring corporate responsibility and community involvement. The abolition of child labor not only helps in ensuring the rights of children but also contributes significantly toward national development in an inclusive way