CB BureauKanna, a boy of 12 hailing from Rajahmundry in Andhra Pradesh, thought child labour was normal, as many of his close friends were working. After dropping out of school in Grade 7, he worked as a blacksmith and as an assistant for an automobile mechanic. While working at the blacksmith’s shop, he had to hammer away at big metal objects, like shock absorbers of large trucks. He once had his fingers crushed and split when the hammer landed on them instead of the metal pieces he held in them. Kanna was rescued and rehabilitated following World Vision India’s intervention.
In a country that adopts a lenient approach towards putting an end to child labour, it becomes tough to combat both the policy-level and ground-level obstacles that effectively promote the practice. The fact remains that child labour in any form, in any age below 18, is hazardous to children on many levels.
While the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Amendment Bill, which proposes to prohibit employment of children below 14 in all sectors and adolescents (14″18) in hazardous sectors, was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2012, there has been little to cheer about.
In a recent interview, Kailash Satyarthi, Indian children’s rights advocate and activist, said that the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986, is obsolete in the sense that after two progressive laws – Juvenile Justice Act and Right to Education Act – this should not exist. Now, after the Cabinet nod, the government will move the Child Labour Amendment Bill, 2012, in Parliament.
Satyarthi has been demanding a total ban on all forms of child labour up to the age of 14. He also demands for total ban on all hazardous forms of child labour between the age of 15 and 18 years.
However, as most of the instances of child labour today happen within closed walls in the form of domestic labour, it is a Herculean task to identify and act upon such cases. A well-thought-out, graded rehabilitation process needs to be in place, so that children who come from such backgrounds blend well into the road ahead. Child protection units need to be firmly in place in each of the vulnerable areas, so that community members, government officials, teachers, parents and children themselves can be a part of the rescue and rehabilitation process.
‘There could be no exceptions – all forms of work by children under 18 needs to be banned. Also, the RTE Act needs to be implemented effectively, supported by a necessary budgetary allocation of six per cent of the GDP for it,’ points out a statement by Dr Jayakumar Christian, CEO and national director, World Vision India, in a press release shared with CauseBecause.
Key recommendations
- Ban all forms of child labour up to the age of 18; no exceptions
- No division into hazardous and non-hazardous – all forms of child labour to be banned
- Proper implementation of RTE Act supported by a budgetary allocation of six per cent of GDP
- Functional child protection units across the country