– Yogesh Kumar Goyal
The problem of child labor is a serious challenge for the whole world. Although laws have also been made by many countries to ban child labor to solve this, but still the expected improvement in the situation is not visible. With the aim of opposing child labor and making people aware of it, ‘Child Labor Prohibition Day’ is celebrated every year on June 12 worldwide, which was started by the ‘International Labor Organization’ (ILO) in the year 2002. It was done with the aim of getting them out of child labor and educating them. The first major international effort to address the problems of children took place at the World Summit in New York in October 1990, in which representatives of 151 countries discussed the problems of millions of children around the world suffering from poverty, malnutrition and starvation.
However, it is a matter of concern that even after 21 years of celebrating Child Labor Prohibition Day, child labor has not been curbed. Increasing population, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, food insecurity, orphans, cheap labor, non-enforcement of existing laws, etc. are important reasons for child labor. Due to child labour, children are deprived of education, their health is adversely affected, child crimes increase and they are trafficked for beggary, human organ trade and sexual exploitation.
According to an ILO report, more than 160 million children are forced into child labor around the world, of which about 73 million children are doing dangerous work in very poor conditions, including cleaning, construction, agricultural work, in mines, factories and Working as hawker, domestic help etc. According to the ILO, the number of children aged 5 to 11 involved in hazardous labor has increased to nearly 20 million in recent years. According to UN data, out of 540 million youth workers aged 15 to 24 years, 37 million are children who do hazardous child labour. After the Corona epidemic, these figures are expected to increase tremendously. Under the Sustainable Development Goal set by the United Nations, although it has been resolved to eliminate child labor completely by the year 2025, but seeing the way child labor figures are increasing all over the world, this does not seem possible at the moment.
It has been told in a UNICEF report that more than 130 million children are unable to go to school due to one reason or the other. By the way, in different countries of the world, different ages of children have been fixed regarding child labor. According to the United Nations, people below the age of 18 are considered child laborers, while according to the ILO, the age of child labor has been fixed at 15 years. In America, those who are 12 years of age or less are considered as child labor whereas according to the Indian Constitution, children between the ages of 5 to 14 who do physical or mental labor in any industry, factory or company are called child laborers. According to UNICEF, India alone accounts for 12 percent of the total child labor in the world. However, the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 in India prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any illegal occupation and in a number of processes considered injurious to life and health. In the year 1996, the Supreme Court also in its judgment directed the federal and state governments to identify children working in hazardous processes and occupations, remove them from work and provide quality education.
If we look at the condition of child labor at present, crores of children at the age of reading-writing, playing-jumping are engaged in carpet, matchmaking, gem polishing, jewellery, brass, glass, beedi industry, handicrafts, stone quarrying, tea gardens, in different parts of the country. Indulging in child prostitution etc. On the one hand, where the childhood of the children involved in labor works is burning in the furnace of labor, on the other hand, due to being involved in dangerous works at an early age, many such children are also at risk of many types of diseases. Due to involvement in hazardous work, child laborers often have diseases like respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, asthma, spinal cord disease, eye disease, cold-cough, silicosis, skin disease, neurological complications, excessive excitement, convulsions, tuberculosis. She goes
Although there is no clear data on child labor in India, but according to the 2011 census, out of 25.96 crore children aged 5 to 14 in the country, 1.01 crore were pushed into the quagmire of child labour. According to non-governmental statistics, there are currently more than five crore child laborers in India. If you look at the statistics, then about 80 percent of the total child laborers in the country are from the villages and are pushed into work ranging from agriculture to hazardous industries and even shameful professions like prostitution. There is a provision of punishment in the law for those who make children work as child labour, but the lack of administrative activism in this direction has been clearly reflected and this is the reason why this problem is not being curbed even after lakhs of efforts.
(The author is a freelance commentator.)
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