New Indian regulation prohibits domestic child labour
Saturday, 14 October 2006
As part of the Child Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act of 1986 the Indian Government has announced a ban on employment of children in roadside eateries, restaurants and teashops. The ban came into effect on October 10th.
In India it is estimated that there are over 20 million child labourers, some people would say that it is actually closer to 100 million, because of all the ‘invisible children’ meaning domestic workers, hired in private homes.
There is a provision in the act to fine of up to 20,000 rupees (€350) for those found to be employing children.
"Children under 14 are vulnerable to physical, mental and even sexual abuse. Their exploitation goes unreported and unnoticed inside the closed confines of homes and food stalls." said senior official in the Labour Ministry, SK Srivastava.
Concern welcomes and applauds such a ban. But there are two areas about the ban that Concern are concerned about.
Primarily, it is not possible to just ban child labour outright.
Senator Harkin passed an act in the US congress that in effect made it illegal for US companies to deal with companies in Bangladesh that employed child labour.
This seemed liked a positive move but without providing rehabilitation for the children affected, it left them open to be exploited, driving child labour underground, onto the streets or into prostitution.
Concern calls for a provision of education for all children, when enforcing a ban on child labour.
"A coordinated effort between the labour, police, revenue and education department at the local level must provide immediate relief to the children rescued under the Act" Shantha Sinha, MV foundation.
The second area of concern is that there has not been a good track record in India of enforcing laws on child labour. Already there are laws to prevent children working in so called hazardous industries like mining, or with harmful chemicals and fireworks, but are not enforced.
There are thousands of children that work in completely unregulated industries so it difficult to remain optimistic about how this ban will be policed.
It is reported that there are thousands of middle class people who employ children as domestic servants, who have access to court officials and police whom they can bribe to have charges dropped.
Who employs child labourers?
When we talk about Child Labour here in the West we have visions of children working in sweatshops for clothes, shoe or carpet manufacturers and while sadly the sweatshop is still a reality, the vast number of children are employed in agriculture - working in fields, tending livestock and harvesting crops.
Concern's partner in India the MV Foundation works full time on removing children from child labour and enrolling them in education.
The MV foundation states that in 90% of the cases child labour, it is not because of poverty but actually causes poverty, by not employing adults.
Child labour exists in society simply because it is allowed to exist. Once people see it as an unacceptable practice then it will no longer be tolerated.
What can we do here in Ireland?
Concern has been running a campaign inspired by our Indian partner to raise awareness about the issue.
Last year we handed Bertie Ahern 45,000 signatures asking him to raise his voice at European level to ensure that any EU aid props up bans on child labour and supports increased education.
With the rise of Fair-trade and other ethically consumed products, providing alternatives, we are asking consumers to question retailers about their product sourcing policies.
