The Mischief of Child Labour

The mischief of Child Labour is very old not only in our country but in various other countries across the world. The chief reason for this is poverty and starvation. There are many casts, creeds, religions that have a strong belief in merely growing the family members just because when their children will grow up they will be earning for the family right from a very young stage. They hardly care whether the children of their family are malnourished or suffer a lot. Such people are targeted by poverty easily too. Many times family is so big and only one earning member is there to earn bread and butter. Under such cases many parents have to send their children at a very small age on streets to beg or work as a child labour so that they can eat one meal of the day. Many religions consider child birth as a wish of God and this has given rise to issues of child labour prominently There are many jobs that are continued generations after generations due to poverty. Many families involve their children at a very small age when they are unable to return the loan. Unfortunately there are many orphans whose parents die at a very young stage and they are compelled to work as a child labour. Such orphan people work as a bonded child labour throughout their life.

The issue of child labour was raised at an international scale too; however different countries merely did the formality of imposing a ban on it. Furthermore throughout the decade during 1990-2000, the whole labour department, local government departments, various states and central government offices did not took effective measures to curb the evil in the society. They were hardly concerned about it. As a result of the conspiracy of various labour officers, factories and industries, lock was imposed on the factories and industries from outside whereas the factories were still running inside and child labours were compelled and tortured during the process. During the period of 2000- 2010, some social institutions and media highlighted the issues of bonded child labours and this brought labour department into action. Unlike other countries, various illegal factories and industries freed many innocent child labours from brick making factories and chemical factories. But no measures were taken for their settlement and living. These children kept strolling here and there for some time in search of fulfilling their daily requirements and had to go back to work again as a child labour. No effective measures and prohibitions were taken for child labours and hence awareness campaign was started across various countries. The speed of these campaigns was slow initially in the beginning but by the end of 2012, everything started coming into shape. The child labour welfare organisations developed awareness and collected data of these child labours from every nook and corner. The report of International Labour Organisation was highly striking too. In the year 2012, the figure of child labour was 21 crore 80 lakhs which increased further to 22 crores later on out of which India alone revealed the figure of 1 crore 26 lakhs and 66 thousand child labours. However in the year 2012 on 12th June World Day against the Child Labour was formally declared. But the question arises- Whether merely prohibiting the child labour is enough? Will they be able to live a good life through this way in absence of adequate measures? The answer is “No”. Earlier to that, a summit took place in New York in 1990 where 151 countries participated. The summit came to a conclusion that the chief most reason of child labour is poverty and starvation but since no effective steps had been taken to eradicate child labour, it has become a curse. Prior to that also in 1986-87 some associations were organised to curb child labour from the society. Many other international programmes and government agencies took wide measures even prior to that. All these associations identified various causes that were liable for child labour but they could not stop it completely for certain deep rooted reasons. Analysing its various repercussions, when it seemed highly difficult to eliminate child labour from the society , then it was decided that children will not be introduced to highly dangerous acts but they can do light weighted work to earn their bread and butter and save themselves from hunger. Finally, the decision was made where all those children who are compelled to work right from their childhood were given the right to do light weighted jobs only. Apart from that emphasis was also put on the policy of “we two, our two’ so that small children can live a healthy and safe life with their families.