‘Child labour a blot on society, economic and social welfare’

TNN Bureau. Updated: 8/12/2016 2:59:15 PM Ideas and Interaction

Jammu: India is sadly home to the largest number of child labourers in the world. The future of the country is forced to work in inhumane, hazardous conditions. Child labour is a serious issue and a blot on economic welfare.

Children do not get the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. Physical labour exhausts them making them vulnerable to diseases.

The News Now talked to some Jammuites to know their views in this regard:

Jang Bahadur

Poverty and lack of social security are the main causes of child labour in our country. A major concern is that the actual number of child labourers goes un-detected. Laws meant to protect children from hazardous labour are ineffective and not implemented properly. Children are increasingly being employed as domestic workers in cities. The conditions in which they work are unregulated, they are made to work on very low wages and there are cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers. Laws and regulations must be backed by effective enforcement machinery. This calls for strengthening of labour-inspection and related services. For correct verification of age, an effective system of birth registration should be maintained by public authorities.

Simranpal Singh

Bonded child labour is also a problem that is more in the informal sector. Such children mostly work in agricultural sector, brick kilns and stone quarries. Child labour also leads to trafficking to urban areas. These children are mostly migrant labourers, which opens them up to more exploitation. Bonded child labourers are at a high risk for physical and sexual abuse. In absence of efficient and rigorous inspection machinery, employers continue flouting law. We must tackle the root causes of child labour. These include poverty and inadequate child welfare policies.

Pankaj Malhotra

Child labour is a serious issue in developing countries like India, having high poverty rate and poor schooling opportunities. Worldwide, agriculture is the largest employer of child labour. Majority of child labour is found in rural settings and informal urban economy.

Most poor families in urban areas send their children to work in factories. Child labourers are exploited, exposed to hazardous work conditions and paid a pittance for long hours of work. The children are forced to forego education and shoulder family responsibilities. We must ensure due compliance of law by making punishment stringent, surprise checks and set up a separate vigilance cell.

Jodh Singh Soni

In a country like India, where a big percentage of population lives below poverty line, child labour is a complex issue. Children work out of necessity and without their earnings, however meager they may be, the standard of living of their families would decline further. A number of child labourers do not have families or cannot count on them for support. In such a condition, the alternate to work for them is destitution, beggary or worse, crime. The problem of child labour cannot be tackled until economic conditions and social structures are fundamentally improved. Toiling long hours for a pittance, these little breadwinners accept exploitation as a way of life. They only know their sorrows.

Bansi Lal

Child workers are more common in unorganized sector because here it is relatively easy for employers to circumvent laws. Children are hidden during inspection or their ages are raised arbitrarily to make them eligible for employment.

A large number of child workers are confined to small rooms in inhuman conditions and in most unhygienic surroundings. Most of these children come from extremely poor households. They earn a very meager wage and work in most unsafe conditions. The hazardous conditions take their toll. Children suffer from lung diseases, tuberculosis, eye diseases, asthma, bronchitis and backaches. The child labourers are vulnerable to exploitation. They become easy targets of drug pushers.


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