Beginning in 2002, the International Labour Organization (ILO) launched the World Day Against Child Labour to bring attention to the issue of child labourers across the globe and call on member states to continue implementing the Conventions on child labour by taking immediate action to prohibit and eliminate child labour in all its forms. Now, June 12 each year marks the World Day Against child labour. Yet, despite decades of concerted global efforts comprising of pledges and policies, the crisis deepens.
Instead of reducing, child labour is on the rise. ILO and UNICEF report that the number of children in child labour has increased by 8.4 million in the last few years with a new generation of children put at risk as more families have plunged into poverty, forcing millions of more children into child labour. Today, 160 million children are engaged in child labour worldwide. Generations are bonded to poverty, as families driven to desperation are forced to send their children to work. India, as a developing nation, has the highest number of child labourers worldwide, with 10.1 million children between the ages of 5-14 engaging in work. At an age where they should be nurtured and supported through play and leisure time, access to education, and other social supports, children are instead forced to financially support themselves and their families by working, to their own detriment. These are young children whose hands should hold books and toys, yet they are seen carrying bricks and ploughs.
Child labour remains an issue in many states, including Punjab, affecting children’s health, education, and limiting their future opportunities, all of which propel them into vicious inter-generational cycles of poverty. In states like Punjab, child labour is not a statistic only reflected in newspapers and books – it is a daily reality. It lives in the heat of roadside dhabas, in the fields, in the dust of brick kilns , and between the threads of the carpet industry. Out of the 18 states where the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) conducted raids as an attempt to identify child labourers and execute rescue operations, the highest number of children labourers (4,867) identified under the National Child Labour Project were in Punjab.
Child labour is both a consequence and a cause of poverty – it is a cycle that perpetuates itself. Poverty propagates child labour and child labour propagates more poverty. Household poverty forces children into the labour market to earn money, often placing them in hazardous conditions without any employment protections. Some children are forced to work to supplement their family income and other have to work to survive. Child labour hinders children from gaining the formal education required in order to seize opportunities of work as adults in regulated sectors and industries. Poverty contributes to the existence and persistence of child labour in India and factors such as age, caste, and gender impact the type of intensity of work that children carry out.
India’s flagship legislation addressing child labour was enacted to address this issue and is titled the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986. Legal interventions are a common mechanism implemented by the state to address issues and bring about change –however this does not guarantee its effectiveness in every circumstance. Research about this piece of legislation against child labour illustrates that it has in fact had a perverse impact in the country, increasing child employment and decreasing child wages. Moreover, the research demonstrates that increases in the probability of child labour are largest for children who come from families that are poorer. For families who rely on child labour to meet their basic needs, a decrease in child wages can force them to utilize more child labour in order to survive.
This is not to suggest that child labour bans are without merit and have no impact on the diminishment of child labour. However, it is important for us all to understand that the eradication of child labour does not automatically constitute an increase in child welfare. And a legislative prohibition on child labour does not address the cause of child labour – poverty.
The ILO theme for the World Day Against Child Labour this year is “Generation Safe & Healthy” and given that progress around child labour has regressed, with millions of more children in child labour across the globe, we are at a critical juncture where nation states must adopt a holistic approach to tackling this issue. The urgency is now. Poverty risks for children have increased, with the COVID-19 pandemic having a major impact on child poverty, marking the first global increase in decades.
We must look beyond legal prohibitions, understanding that underlying child labour is child poverty and inequality, and adopt broader policy measures. India lacks a comprehensive, universal child benefit regime. Universal child benefits are a foundational policy for economic and social development adopted by many countries around the world. Extensive evidence demonstrates that social protections such as universal child benefits can lower the risk of intergenerational poverty and help to prevent child labour. Approximately 50 countries currently have a variation of a universal child benefits regime. Most children engaged in child labour do so because their families depend on their wages to survive and a socioeconomic policy such as this could help mitigate this financial vulnerability that underlies the persistence of child labour. Universal child benefits are not a silver bullet to eradicating child labour but are evidently a powerful instrument in increasing child welfare by reducing child poverty. Research reveals that the implementation of a universal child benefit of just $6.80 USD per month could reduce the national child poverty rate in India by 55 percent. If India is truly seeking to reduce child labour and ensure that the next generation is safe and healthy, then it’s time to finally invest in universal child benefits to reduce child labour and intergenerational cycles of poverty. To be against child labour is not merely to legislate its ban, but to build the social protections necessary for a nation where no child needs to work to survive.
Author: Sanjam Panag
Contact: info@savingpunjab.org
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