1. Article Writing with Format on: Child Labour Introduction and Article

Child Labour: India’s Future in Threat

Whenever we leave our house and take a stroll around, if we try to notice, we can easily see young children engaged in laborious works. The child may be a rickshaw puller, a girl working in a mill, a boy working at a tea-stall or some that’ working as a domestic help at one of our neighbours’ house. Most of them are famished and overworked, and there seems to be no hope of getting their childhood

Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous, and harmful. It is such a pity to learn that according to a census, India has one of the largest populations of child labourers.

The law in Indian soil says that any child below the age of 14 cannot be employed either in a factory or office or restaurant. In fact, India’s international business has been severely affected in many cases because child labourers have been used at some stage or the other in manufacturing, packaging and transport of those items. However, laws are seldom enforced or followed in India.

In India, working children are engaged in different organised and unorganised sectors, both in rural and urban areas. In rural sector, children are engaged in, field plantations, domestic jobs, forestry, fishing and cottage industry. In urban sector, they the re-employed in houses, shops, restaurants, small and large industries, transport, communication, garages etc. In the in, working children are also self-employed as newspaper boys, milk boys, shoeshine boys, rag pickers, rickshaw pullers etc. About 78.71% of child workers are engaged in cultivation and agriculture, 6.3% are employed in fishing, hunting and plantation, 8.63% in manufacturing, processing, repairs, house industry, etc., 3.2.10/0 in construction, transport, storage, communication and trade, and 3.15% in other services. At the time when they should be exploring things around them, they are exploited for selfish gains.

 For much of human history and across different cultures, children less than 17 years old have contributed to family welfare in a variety of ways. In India, poverty is the biggest cause of child labour. Parents are forced to engage their children in labour as it brings them more money.

 In factories and other establishments, children are employed because they are a form of cheap labour and can work for hours (unlike their older counterparts) on meagre wages. Also in rural and impoverished parts of the country, children have no other real and meaningful alternative.

 When schools and teachers are unavailable and poverty is abject, child labour is the eventual result. Children work, instead of going to school, remain illiterate which limits their ability to contribute to their own well being as well as to the community they live in.

 We tend to forget the fact that a child is meant to learn, not to earn and ‘Child Labour’ is nothing but ‘Child Abuse’. So for a better Nation, we must stop ‘Child Exploitation’.

Realising the effects of child labour, one can easily conclude that not only does it deeply destroy the tender age of childhood but also undermines the economic prosperity of the entire country. Children employed as labourers do not form a part of the skilled workforce.

 Hence, child labour must be banned at any cost. In 2013, the Punjab and Haryana High Court gave a landmark order that directed that there shall be a total ban on the employment of children up to the age of 14 years, be it hazardous or non-hazardous industries. 4 However, mere passing of laws is not going to help; we have to enforce them strictly. Moreover, we cannot have the law-keeping an eye on every the screen. It is, therefore, the duty of every citizen to discourage such incidents and report them whenever possible. Awareness about the issue can do wonders to improve the current sorry state.

Download the above Article in PDF (Printable)

Need our help or have some question