India: The Land of Deprived Childhood
by Jagdish N. Singh • September 4, 2023 at 5:00 am
A large number of Indian children... are still subjected to bonded labour and forced employment. India today has more than 33 million children under the age of 18 in work requiring hard labour.
India's agriculture sector accounts for the majority (70%) of employed children. Child labour, regrettably, is used in almost all of the informal sectors of the Indian economy, including coal mining, and the diamond, fireworks, silk and carpet industries.
A 2003 Human Rights Watch report claims that children as young as five work for up to 12 hours a day, six to seven days a week, in the silk industry.
Official estimates for children working as domestic labourers and in restaurants is more than 2.5 million; some NGOs estimate the figure to be around 20 million.
As of September 2022, the US Department of Labor lists India in its "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor of Forced Labor," with 25 types of goods produced by child labour.
The main reasons for child labour, clearly, are poverty, illiteracy and malnutrition. Out of India's 217 million children, 49.9% are poor. Children in this category have little choice but to join the labour force.
The welfare of children has long been a concern in India. Aware of this need, the founding fathers of independent India in 1949 wrote a Constitution that prohibits employing children under the age of 14 in factories and other hazardous work (Article 24).
India's Parliament has also tried to safeguard children's rights by passing legislation . The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 makes employing a child a criminal offence.[1] Parliament has also enacted other laws to prohibit, identify and prosecute child labour.
To stop children from being forced to join the labour force, India's Constitution (Article 15- 3) states that "Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children." Article 21A says that "the State shall provide free and compulsory education to children from the age of six to fourteen years." Article 39, clauses (e) and (f) state:
