Portal talk:Latin America/Featured quote/Day 16
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Child labour Introduction: The International Labour Organization (ILO) has estimated that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries at least 120 million on a full time basis the highest number in the world. Most of them forced to work in agriculture, others picking rags, making bricks, polishing gemstones, rolling cigarettes, packaging firecrackers, working as domestics, weaving silk saris, carpets etc. in addition poverty has become the main cause of child labour, as their families depend on their wages. The manufactory exploitation of child labour is one of the main issues, children are forced to work in factories under perilous and unhygienic conditions. The Indian government has established laws to bond the plight of working children of all ages .
Cause of child labour
The causes of child labour normally relates to the phenomenon in general, and a great deal remains to be learnt about the causes of child labour in hazardous work. However, poverty is the most important reason why children work. Poor households need the money which their children can earn, they commonly contribute around 25 per cent of family income. ( Endnote1) Since by definition poor households spend the bulk of their income on food (the poverty line in a relatively poor country such as India is defined as only 20 per cent more than the income required for purchasing the minimum nutritional needs for a family) it is clear that the income provided by working children is critical to their survival. It cannot, however, be said that poverty necessarily causes child labour. The picture varies, and in many poor households some children at least are singled out to attend school. Similarly, there are regions in India where child labour is extensively practised while in other equally poor regions it is not. Other supply factors affecting child labour are also important for understanding not only why child labour exists but also why children from certain families, areas and countries are more likely to be available for hazardous work. Certain areas and certain families have a tradition of children following in their parents' footsteps. If the family has a tradition of engaging in a hazardous occupation such as leather tanning, then there is every likelihood that the children will be caught up in the same process. In industries and occupations where payment is at low price, children are frequently called upon to "help" the other members of the family, for example, in construction, cultivation. Among others. Finally, child labour in hazardous conditions is most prevalent in the most vulnerable families, those whose low income allows them little margin to cope with the injury or illness of an adult member of the household or the distress and disruption resulting from abandonment or divorce. Not only do poor households have few financial assets, but in many cases they are in debt. Whatever the reason, debt or the threat of debt is very often at the root of hazardous and bonded child labour.
Poverty is the main cause of child labour.
Exploitation of child labour The manufactory industrial is one of the main forms of exploitation labour. Factories pay children extremely low wages. Many of these children are migrant workers, the majority coming from northern India, who are sent away by their families to earn an income sent directly home as their families depended on their wages. Working conditions in textile factories were unfavourable relative to modern standards. Children volunteered for 68 hours per weeks. Factories often were not well ventilated and became very hot in the summer. Worker health and safety regulations were non-existent. Children who suffered debilitating injuries from work were simply dismissed without any compensation .children were force to chose to work at these factories because other work for unskilled, children was less consistent throughout the year, and offered less possibility for earnings Factories set hours of work, and the machinery within them shaped the pace of work.
Child rights in India
The Child Labour Act, bans the employment of children, below 14 years of age in specified occupations and processes which are considered unsafe and harmful to child workers and regulates the conditions of work of children in employment’s where they are not prohibited from working. It also lays down penalties for employment of children in violation of the provisions of this Act, and other Acts which forbid the employment of children; The Act extends to the whole of India. The Child Labour Act of 1986 applies to all establishments and workshops wherein any industrial process is carried on. An "establishment" includes a shop, commercial establishment, workshop, farm, residential hotel, and restaurant, eating house, theatre or other place of public amusement or entertainment No child should be employed or permitted to work in any occupations set forth below, or in any workshop except a workshop wherein the process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of his family or a Government recognised aided school. Any occupation connected with: Transport of passengers, goods or mails by railway, Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pit or building operation in the railway premises, Work in a catering establishment at a railway station, involving the movement of a vendor or any other employee of the establishment, from one platform to another or into or out of a moving train, Work relating to the construction of a railway station or with any other work which is done in close proximity to or between the railway lines, A port authority within the limits of any port, Work relating to selling of crackers and fireworks in shops with temporary licences, and Abattoirs/Slaughter Houses.
