Peer-reviewed article

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA – A SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY

S.V. Manjula · 15 Feb 2019

Abstract

A child in Indian society has forever been a topic less spoken or discussed. The reasons of the same can be traced back to the socio-cultural setting of the country. In the world children are taken as the furthermost gift to humanity. Childhood is an important stage of human development as it holds the potential to the future of any society. Children who are brought up in an environment which is obliging to their intellectual, physical and social enlargement will go on to be responsible and productive part of the society. Thus every society links its future to the present status of its children. Today child has been defined differently by different agencies as per their view and there is a very large gap and contradiction in these definitions. In 2011, 4.5 million were working in India, compared to 12.6 million a decade before, according to the country’s labor minister. 2015 estimate from the International Labor Organization put the number of child laborers between the ages of 5 and 17 at 5.7 million. Both numbers may not fully reflect the scale of exploitation, due to the underground nature of a lot of working arrangements, but overall the problem seems to be declining. The government’s figures claim the problem has fallen by 64% in a decade. That’s significant progress. Child labor is harmful because it puts children in dangerous and abusive situations, exposes them to dangerous chemicals, potentially stunts their growth and usually ends or limits their education. Poverty and lack of social security are the main causes of child labour. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor, privatization of basic services and the neo-liberal economic policies are causes major sections of the population out of employment and without basic needs. This adversely affects children more than any other group. Entry of multi-national corporations into industry without proper mechanisms to hold them accountable has lead to the use of child labour. Lack of quality universal education has also contributed to children dropping out of school and entering the labour force. A major concern is that the actual number of child laborers goes un-detected. Laws that are meant to protect children from hazardous labour are ineffective and not implemented correctly.