Child labour: “Life of little one is destroyed, when child labour is employed”

 

Child labour is defined as the works that deprive children of their true potential, dignity, and their childhood, and that's harmful to them both physically and mentally

The main reason behind child labour is poverty. In the poorest countries, one out of four children is engaged or forced under child labour. The primary reason is for his or her survival or household, the secondary reason is lack of alternative such as affordable and quality of education.

India is home to the largest number of underage children working illegally in various sectors. According to the national census in 2011 there were about 10.1 million children age 5-14 out of 256.64 million children of that age group. India contributes one-third of Asia's child labour and one-fourth of world child labour. The involvement of international organizations and the tightening of rules and regulations have led to a decrease of 64 percent in 1993 -2005. But high numbers of children are still engaged in child labour. And it's one of the biggest challenges for India with second highest population has to overcome. It might seem difficult but it's possible. By strengthening the rules, regulation, and roles of different organizations and more importantly are providing children with quality education.

Enormous steps have been taken by the Indian government like forming the Gurupad swamy committee to find the root cause of child labour in India and how to tackle it. The CLPRA Act (Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act) prohibits the engagement of children. Ministry of labour and employment supervises all these policy, act and makes sure the child labour rate keeps declining and the organization and NGO’s like PECUC, CareIndia, Childfund have been working hard to eradicated child labour in India. Under CLPRA Act the penalty for employing a child will now be imprisonment between 6 months to 2 years or a fine of 20,000 to 50,000.

Children should not be engaged as labourer, they need education. Putting children in schools can stop this evil from the society. Art 32 of UNCRC children have the right to be protected from economic exploitation & from work that could harmful for them. Children that are working are often not going to school, which violates their right to education. Lets join hand to eradicate child labour.

Sugyan Mohanty