Child labour is the oldest problems in our society and still an ongoing issue. During the time, child labour evolved from working in agriculture or small handicraft workshops to being forced into work in factories in the urban setting as a result of the industrial revolution. Children were very profitable assets since their pay was very low, were less likely to strike, and were easy to be manipulated. Socio-economic difference and lack of access to education are among others contributing to child labour. Religious and cultural beliefs can be misguiding and concealing in outline the limits of child labour. Child labour prevents corporal, rational and psychic development of children.
The child labour episode is closely associated to that of out-of-school children (OOSC). The majority of children not in school are occupied in some form of work activity and, for children in school involvement in work makes them more liable to untimely drop-out. Considering the interplay between child labour and out-of-school children is therefore critical to achieving both Education for All (EFA) and child labour elimination goals. This study presents a vivid profile of links between child labour and out-of-school children from different developing countries included in the OOSC study. The focus is primarily on the 7-14 years age range, and on Dimensions 2-5 of the Five Dimensions of Exclusion. How are the OOSC and child labour phenomena related? The intersection of the OOSC and child labour groups can be expressed in two different ways: first, the extent to which the OOSC population is composed of child labourers and second, the extent to which child labourers are out of school. These two indicators offer different ways of viewing the interplay between the OOSC and child labour groups.
Child labour is a complex problem that is basically rooted in poverty. The government is quite committed to the cause of controlling and eliminating child labour from India. India has all along followed a proactive policy with respect to the problem of child labour, and has stood for the constitutional, statutory and developmental measures to combat child labour. Child labour laws and legislations have been enacted in our country, but the condition of child labourers still remains the same. This is because of lack of effective machinery for the implementation of such laws as well as the lack of awareness among labourers and employers about the restrictions on the employment of children as workers.
The human rights are essential for the growth and the development of every human being including the children. At present, the violations of children’s rights become the serious issue. Many children are working in the worst forms of labour like bondage, semi-slavery, prostitution and so on. They are depriving their basic rights such as right to education, right to development, right to survive and even right to childhood. Consequently, they are becoming victim of maltreatment, child marriage, kidnapping and abduction, immoral trafficking and child rape or sexual abused etc. The paper is trying to analyses the various aspects of child labour. Further, the study finds out the roots causes of the problems.
The article analyses the labour law aspects of child labour in the information age. It presents in detail the specific features related to the regulation of child labour and the possibilities of applying labour law legislation particularly to the work of children under the age of 15, pupils and students. Three sections are discussed: the normative regulation of child labour, the specific features of performing light work by children, the special protection provisions that apply to child labour, and the specific features related to digital child labour, which is emerging as a new form of work. The basic hypothesis in the article is that when defining child labour and the emergence of new forms of work, such as the work of information child influencers, it is necessary to regulate this appropriately in a way that takes into account the specific features of the situation of children who perform such work so that such work does not harm their safety, health, morality, education and development.
Indonesia has been ratified UNCRC through a Presidential Decree No. 36 of 1990. Meanwhile, under article 68 of Law No. 13 of 2003 on Labour, provide the prohibition of the employer from employing the children, with the exception in article 69.. In Central Aceh, it is become a habit for horse owners to hire children.This paper aim to find the protection of educational rights for child labour in Indonesia generally according to International Human Rights Instruments; and the protection of child labour especially in case of Child Labour at Horse Stable in Takengon, Central Aceh.The research use normative empirical approach. The result found the protection of educational rights have been stated in several International Human Rights Instruments; and it is the duty of government along with family toward the protection of educational rights for child labour. It is suggested to the Indonesian government to create a monitoring body that focus on Child Labour issue. The government of Central Aceh should make local regulation regarding the educational rights for child labour.
Khairatunnisa Khairatunnisa, Muhammad Ya’kub Aiyub Kadir
A sizeable number of growing children of poor socio-economic class especially in rural areas are known to be inducted as child labour. Studies have shown that labour at very young ages can have dire consequences on the child’s development, both physical and mental. Child labourers always had lower growth and health status compared to their non0working counterparts, besides exposure to occupational hazards at a very young stage in their lives. The Declaration of the Rights of the Child and our own Constitution has laid down that childhood and youth should be protected against exploitation. In 1973, the ILO passed a convention establishing 15 as the minimum work age for most sectors while permitting light work from age 13, provided that such work was unlikely to harm child’s health, moral s and safety or prejudice his school attendance. Official estimates for child labour working as domestic labour and in restaurants is more that 2,500,000 while NGOs estimate the figure to be around 20 million. The Government of India expanded the coverage of the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act and banned the employment of children as domestic workers and as works in restaurants, dhabas, hotels, spas and resorts effective from 10 October, 2006. The problem of child labour exploitation is major challenge to the progress of developing countries. Children work at the cost of their right to education which leaves them permanently trapped in the poverty cycle, sadly without the education and literacy required for better-paying jobs. This is particularly serious in India as it tops the list with the highest number of child labourers in the world. The 2001 national census of India estimated the total number of child labour, aged 5-14 to be at 17 million. Out of the 12.6 million, 0.12 million engages in hazardous job. However, according to informal labour force statistics, the problem seems to be more severe than reflected. Child labour is estimated to be as large as 60 million in India, as many children are “hidden workers” working in homes or in the underground economy. In the long run, this phenomenon will evolve to be both a social and an economic problem as economic disparities widen the poor and educationally backward states and that of the faster-growing. India has the highest number of labourers in the world less than 14 years of age. Although the Constitution of India guarantees free and compulsory education to children between the age of 6 to 14 and prohibits employment of children younger than 14 in 18 hazardous occupations and 65 hazardous processes, child labour is prevalent in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy. Companies including Gap, Primark, Monsanto and others have been criticised for using child labour in either their operations in India or by their suppliers in India.
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through work that deprives them of their childhood, education and basic rights. It is a global issue, often driven by poverty, lack of access to education, and economic inequality. The study was conducted using primary data collected from 120 respondents (60 farm and 60 off farm) to analyse factors responsible for the child labour. The findings showed that personal factors i.e. economic needs and drunken father were the dominating factors responsible for child labour. Irregular income of the family and family debt forced the children to earn at earlier age. Besides these, migration, which is more common among farm respondents and large family size were contributing factor for increasing child labour. Thus, the study suggested that government should provide avenues of vocational training to provide better employment opportunities to unemployed parents and encourage them to send their wards to school for education.
Child labour is a persistent phenomenon, and its prevalence globally has challenged law makers to focus on legislative intervention but most importantly, to employ a multifaceted approach towards an effective and sustainable elimination of child labour. The new “Global Estimates on Child Labour”, covering the period 2016-2020 show a global increase from 152 to 160 million children involved in child labour. It is estimated that of all the regions in the world, child labour is most prevalent in the sub-Saharan African region. This region has seen an increase of children in child labour since 2012. Children work for different reasons; the most important reason being poverty, and the pressure for these children to escape it lands some of them in situations of child labour. This study thoroughly discusses the legislative framework implemented towards the regulation of child labour in South Africa, and further highlights the importance of tackling the root causes of child labour by implementing poverty alleviation programmes for its effective elimination. With poverty at the centre of this challenge, the study argues that any intervention should seek to alleviate poverty and create decent work for adults so that children can stay in school and acquire education that will empower them for a better future. The study acknowledges that the introduction of legislation regulating child labour is a great start towards child protection, however without effective enforcement mechanisms, the elimination of child labour becomes impossible. Therefore, challenges relating to the enforcement of existing legislation are highlighted and the importance of collaborations to ensure a coordinated approach for effective implementation and enforcement of legislation is discussed. vii
Nowadays we perceive child labour as a shameful torture and a wicked destruction of the natural order of things. After all, childhood is a time for carelessness, fun and schooling, and children are innocent and vulnerable. Nowadays people believe that these are primeval and natural rights, which is not true. There used to be two models of child labour which I present in my paper. Domestic work in the countryside and in cities, characteristic of the feudal economy at the time when a workplace and a place of residence were the same place (this is still the case in the countryside nowadays), and work outside home, for example in a factory, characteristic of the capitalist economy. There were also varied mixed forms. Thus, in the pre-modern period, rural children were already given to work on a lord’s farm, to a rich farmer, or to serve in a city. Similarly, in modern times, children worked at home in domestic industries. The extensive use of child labour was first made possible by the lack of compulsory schooling, which in turn later prevented regular child labour. As long as there was an economic need, however, school had to give way to earning a living for one’s family.
