AN analysis of child labour in india

AN analysis of kidskin prod in india sm all in either fry hollow has been in India from a long time in almost form or the other. Practice of peasant labour in dyad box industries, glass bangle industries and is very commonly seen in tuppeny restaurants and dhabas etc. Gener solelyy speaking kid labour can be said to be the exploitation or abuse of sisterren in factories, industries etc, who be beneath the fester specified by law attaining ( affablely or physically) to earn for his/her own survival or to support his/her family partially or fully, and which pr even sots his/her favorable and direction increment may be said to be shaver labour. The reasons which be generally responsible for child labour may include1Poverty,Ignorance,Illiteracy,Population explosion,Lack of knowledge of their own rights,Big amounts of debt on the p arnts,Large size of family but non enough income to support such big family,Lack of social security scheme in the unsophisticated, wanton enforcement of labour laws.According to an U.N.O report India has the maximum child labour in the world i.e. approx 20 per cent.2On the basis of Census 1991 and miscellaneous political and non-governmental organizations following are the number of child labourers in India3Census 1991 2.63 crore,establishment research group, Baroda, 1994-95 4.44 crore,Centre for concern of tyke toil 10 crore.Extra-governmental declare oneself organization more than than 5 crore.The numbers may vary correspond to different organizations but the fact is clear that the numbers of child labourers in India are in crores, which is again a pathetic sight, especially with all the various child labour legislation and the Constitutional provisions. In a report by the Labour Ministry every 4th child is a child labour, senesced between 5-14 eld and there is one child labour in every three families.4 only when its not as if Indian governments havent done anything about this grave social stigm a, over the old age it has enacted many statutory legislations and Constitutional provisions in order to revoke the business of child labour, to name some of them, we haveLabour legislationsThe Child Labour second, 1986,The Factories Act, 1948,The Mines Act, 1952,The Right of Children to drop by the wayside and Compulsory Education Act, 2009,The Minimum compensation Act, 1948,The juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000Constitutional provisions5 term 24 provides stringently prohibits children to work in unwarranted environment.Article 21, 45 gives the right to teaching to all the children below the age of 14years.Article 39 declares the duty of the allege to provide the children a free facilities to develop in conditions of freedom and self-worth in a healthy manner.India is in like manner a company to the unify Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1959. India is also a signatory toILO Forced Labour Convention (No. 29)ILO Abolition of Forc ed Labour Convention (No. 105)UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).World Declaration on the Survival,Protection and Development of Children.The presidential term of India adopted the National Policy for Children (NPC) in August 1974. This Policy provided that6It shall be the policy of the sound out to provide adequate service to children both in the beginning and after birth and done the period of time of their growth, to ensure their full physical, mental and social development. The State shall progressively increase the scope of such function so that, within a reasonable time, all children in the country enjoy optimum conditions for their balanced growth.Indian is also a party to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1959 and Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1992 and has formulated its labour laws in accordance to International Labour Conference resolution of 1979.The first base part of the paper aims to look into the various legislations rel ating to child labour. In the befriend part we shall look into the various precedents square up by the Supreme woo of India on the issue of child labour and finally the conclusion.Chapter 1CONSTITUTIONLA AND statutory PROVISIONSConstitutional provisionsThe government of India has enacted various labour laws has in accordance to International Labour Conference resolution of 1979. The Constitution of India, through various articles enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, lays down thatArticle 21 (A)The State shall provide free and imperious education to all children of the age six to 14 yearsArticle 24No child below the age of fourteen years shall be industrious to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other dubious employment. The word hazardous employment in Art 24 also includes anatomical structure industry, also in P.N. v. U.O.I7, it has been laid down that Art 24 is enforceable even in the absence of implementing legislation s8Article 39(e)States that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the cutlery age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strengthArticle 39(f)States that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment9. Hence Art 39 in whole requires the state to ensure and protect the children and provide proper child care.Article 45The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and authoritative education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen yearsThe framers of the Constitution imposed a duty on the State under Article 45 as one of the directive article of beliefs of the State Policy to provide free and compulsory education to all children until they complete the age of 14 year with the furbish up objective of only eradicating illiteracy and child labour. Also many of the states had passed various Acts providing for free and compulsory primary or elementary education to children. But unfortunately years after the commencement of the Constitution the goal develop by this Article which was to be achieved in 10 years, have yet not been reached. But the provision in article 39(f) and 45 of the organization gave certain directions in providing a wear out quality of life of children active in the factories.Labour legislationsThe Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 13 occupations and 51 processes that are hazardous to the childrens lives and health listed in the Schedule to the Act10.The Factories Act, 1948The Act completely prohibits children working below the age of 14 years11. It further states that if a child is between 15 and 18 years of age, can be busy in a factory only if he has a certificate of fitness granted with reference to him under section 69 which is in the custody of the manager of the factory. The Act also says that no child shall be employed or permitted to work, in any factory for more than four and a half hours in any dayThe Mines Act, 1952The Act prohibits the employment of children in mines, who have not sinless their 15th year.The new-fangled Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000This Act was last amended in 2002 in consent with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child covers young somebodys below 18 years of age. function 26 of this Act deals with the Exploitation of a Juvenile or Child Employee, and provides in relevant part, that whoever procures a juvenile or the child for the intent of any hazardous employment and keeps him in bondage and withholds his profits or uses such earning for his own purposes shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable for fine.The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Educatio n Act, 2009The Act states that all children aged 6 to 14 years shall be provided free and compulsory education. It further states that all private schools should allocated 25 per cent of their seats for disadvantage and differently abled children.Chapters 2Precedents set by Supreme Courtthough the government of India has enacted various labour legislations to prevent child labour understood there are some contradiction in terms among them, mainly the commental debates on child labour as different legislation provide different definition of a child. Section 2(ii) of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, defines child as a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age Section 2(c) of The Factories Act, 1948 defines child as a person who has not completed his fifteenth year of age Section 2(e) of The Mines Act, 1952 defines child as a person who has not completed his fifteenth year Section 2(c) of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education A ct, 2009, defines child as male or womanly child of the age of six to fourteen years Section 2(k) of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000 defines child as a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age Section 2(c) of The Plantations Labour Act, 1951 defines child as a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of ageHence, we can clearly observe that these legislation are at contradiction to each other in defining whos a child and telescope an uniform age limit. Therefore the centre and respective state governments should set a uniform universal minimum age of the child as these contradictions adversely affect the objective of protection from child labour and providing a better educational and social development to children of India.Following are some of important Supreme Court cases that have helped in framing better laws regarding child labourIn Democratic Rights V. Union of India12, it was contended that the Employment of Children Act, 1938 was not applicable in the matter of employment of children in construction works, as it was not mentioned in the act. But the court held even construction work is a hazardous employment and no child below the age of 14 years can be employed as wedded under Art 24 of the Indian Constitution, even though construction industry has not been specified in the schedule to the Employment of children Act, 1938, therefrom the SC rejected the contention.In Salal Hydro Project vs. Jammu and Kashmir13, the Court has restated the principle laid in Democratic Rights V. Union of India14that Construction work is hazardous employment and any child below 14 cannot be employed in this work.In Sheela Barse and others vs Union of India and others15, Bhagawati, C.J. quoted from National Policy for the welfare of Children merged to provide better social and educational development to the children of India The Nations children a supremely important asset. Their nurture and solicitude are our respo nsibility. Childrens programme should find a prominent part in our national plans for the development of human resources, so that our children grow up to become robust citizens, physically fit, mentally tremendous and morally healthy, endowed with the skill and motivations needed by society. Equal opportunities for development to all children during the period of growth should be our aim, for this would serve our large purpose of reducing inequality and ensuring social justice.In M.C. Mehta v State of Tamil Nadu Ors16, the SC gave direction to the Union and state governments to identify all children and guide them from working in hazardous processes and occupations, and to provide them with free and proper education as incorporated into the Constitution, Artcle 21-A. The Court also directed the Union and state governments to set up a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund victimization contributions from employers who breach the Child Labour Act.In Unnikrishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh,17the SC held that every child has the right to free education till the age of 14 years. Artcle 21-A which was incorporated into the Constitution, reflects this standard.CONCLUSIONIt is said that child is the father of man, and the children of our country are our biggest asset. The government of India has enacted several(prenominal) laws in order to provide healthy social and educational environment for the children. But in spite of all the laws enacted, problem of child labour still persists in our Indian society that is because child labour laws are themselves flawed in some way or the other or suffer from poor implementation of programmes. Though ken towards child labour has increased and now there are several NGOs trying their best, but today what we require is to take concrete actions, the substitution and respective state governments need to provide for better machinery for enforcing child labour laws. Unless this is achieved our country wont be completely fre e the burden of child labour.