Child Labour

India has banned child labour and declared it punishable by law. The Indian intelligentsia has hailed it as a victory of morality and it has been used to showcase the human side of the corrupt politicians. It does not come as a surprise to me that this ban has been rampantly flouted everywhere.

The first thing we need to ask is who are these legislations made for and what are their purpose? If the ban on child labour was implemented to safeguard the child, then the legislation absolutely failed in its mission even before it failed in practice. The legislation provides no solution to the problem of child labour or the exploitation of children. The legislation attempts to remove the child from labour without going into the realities that bind these children to exploitation in India. Let us look at the realities that have so easily been shoved aside while formulating the legislation.

In India, slums are a part and parcel of urban life, and these slums teem with people of all ages. Families who live in these slums beget themselves large families, even while they do not have the means to feed them. The reasoning behind this is that more the children, more the working hands, and more the chances of earning money. So the urge to get children into the labour market from a tender age starts from the family. Parents refuse to send their children to school, mainly because free schools are rare and the education there serves no purpose and the parents know it. When I was associated with the SSL and trying to get street children to attend evening classes for an hour every day, many of the parents refused to send their children because they felt their children will be able to earn more if they work for that hour than study.

Banning child labour at this stage is not the solution. The question that we need to ask ourselves is how can we keep the children out of the labour market? One way is to provide alternatives to labour keeping in mind the concern of the parents. There should be schools where these children can be sent and where they can also be fed. This will at least convince the parents to send their children to school, where their children will have an opportunity for a meal. At the same time, legislation needs to be passed that enforces equal pay for children at the rate at which an adult is paid. If this law is stringently enforced, employers will refrain from employing children, except in the tea and tobacco industry. Both these combined will result in the lowering of the number of child labourers. The government might view this as an expensive proposition as immense amounts would have to be spent on building schools, employing teachers and providing food. But this is only for one generation. When this generation grows up, they will be educated enough to control the size of their family and the pressure on the government will be lowered.

But rest assured nothing of this sort is ever going to happen in India. The population is enormous and everyone is trying to better their condition by any and every means. This compounds the problem of corruption. The politicians will refrain from making this a success as their electoral success depends heavily on the continuation of poverty and illiteracy and inefficiency. They will never make it a success. All that the children will receive are hollow legislations and insincere promises.