Child Labor In India

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Child Labour in India Introduction Child Labour, consisting of children below 14 years of age, is defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as the type of work performed by children that deprives them of their childhood and their dignity, which hampers their access to education and acquisition of skills and which is performed under conditions harmful to their health and their development. Children are the greatest gift to humanity and the same gift is being misused for personal gains as child labour. Magnitude of the problem Child labour is more a rural phenomenon than an urban phenomenon. Due to acute poverty poor families residing in rural areas send their children to urban areas for bread and butter. In urban areas, to survive in a cutthroat competition, manufacturers have lowered the real wages for adult workers in order to employ child workers on low wages. The problem is very much vast in its dimension. Children are forced to work in the most hazardous, unhygienic conditions, where they are vulnerable to many severe health problems. They constitute 36% of India’s population but a large majority of children in the age group of 5-14 years continue to remain in distress and turmoil. One in every five children below the age of 14 is a labourer. There are approximately 60 to 115 million child laborers in India (Human Rights Watch, 1996). Most child laborers work in the agriculture field but most organizations for human rights focus on the bonded laborers in the cities. The flower (Child) withers before it blossoms. Unfortunately this menace is prevalent in entire world. In America, people believe that child labor does not affect them, not realizing that the Persian rugs they put their feet on are made by suffering children in a dark, small room. They don’t realize the soccer balls that their children are kicking around outside are made by

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