“Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains, but I will see the end of child labour in my lifetime.”
Nobel laureate Satyarthi’s admirable vision might be on its way to becoming even more distant than before. An amendment proposed by the Modi government to the Child Labour Prohibition Act might soon allow for legal child labour in the country again, with children below the age of 14 being allowed to work as a part of ‘family enterprises’. A term most consider to be less about ‘children helping the family in fields, forests and home-based work after school hours or during vacations’, and more a euphemism for industries including lock-making, gem-polishing, matchbox-making, beedi-rolling, powerloom industry and carpet-weaving, with the sports and entertainment industry also coming under its ambit.
Close on the heels of the recent legalisation of marital rape, the amendment proposed is based in a similarly inherently flawed logic, creating a conversation that we wish wasn’t required in our society in the first place. The problem is multi-faceted, but first...
Let’s hear the government's reasoning behind the proposal.
"We don't want to redraw the social fabric of Indian society where children learn by participating in work with family elders. We, instead, want to encourage learning work at home as it leads to entrepreneurship," said a government official.
Claiming that this entrepreneurial spirit will especially help the kids of families living at subsistence levels, the amendment could undo the years of progress that the Right To Education, 2009, has been able to bring about by guaranteeing education for every child. The amendment could also bring with it a host of implications, if passed, that would pose a serious setback to the work done by child rights activists and NGOs fighting against bonded labour and exploitation of children.
“All our campaigns to end bonded child labour, starting from the ’80s, will go up in smoke,” Mirzapur-based Shamshad Khan, president of the Centre for Rural Education and Development Action said to Scroll.
On who will be hit the worst by the law...
“Schools will be emptied out and poor children in states such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh will be back to working in sheds and makeshift factories that will all go by the nomenclature of family enterprises. The worst-hit will be the children of Dalits, Muslims, tribal families and those belonging to marginalised communities,” Khan continues.
Moreover, the girl child too stands to lose the most thanks to the looming possibility of exploitative employment given the massive chasm between literacy rates between the genders with the dropout rate for females being almost double the rate for boys.
I. Nicole Rangel, Leher
“If employment of kids under the age of 14 is allowed, it’s going to be impossible to control what qualifies as ‘home-based’ and what doesn’t, and it’s going to be very scary if this happens unregulated. The government does not have a system to monitor the children who are currently employed in these industries either. It’s not wrong if it doesn’t interfere with the kids’ education; besides that, I think we should stick to defining what is abusive and exploitative of the kids. On one hand, the government is saying that they want these kids to learn traditional occupations and to teach them about entrepreneurship – why not give them access to technology and upgrade their skills, then? Let everyone aspire to be whatever they want, you can’t box them in based on their family’s traditional occupation. Unless civil society takes to the streets, it seems likely that the amendment might go through.”
II. Enakshi Ganguly Thukral, HAQ Child Rights
“The government is clearly of the opinion that the informalisation of labour is the way to go. This would mean no labour unions, and less rights for the workers. When they say ‘home-based’ work, I find it a term that’s very easy to manipulate - how do you ensure that it is indeed ‘home-based’? Not every social or cultural practice that has existed in our society is necessarily correct – how can you justify the violation of the fundamental right to education, and to equal opportunity?
There’s also the matter of caste-based occupations. It’s the poor children in rural areas who are going to be hit the hardest, and the middle class will justify child labour forever in the name of poverty.
The proposal for this amendment and the one in the Juvenile Justice Act pose a curious deadlock – you expect that children take up the responsibility of earning as an adult, with this kind of law, and yet, when they act like adults in certain ways, they are to be penalised for it harshly. This is a chipping away of protection and rights across the board, and we need to see that they’re all connected to each other. It’s high time we make that connection.”
III. Komal Ganotra - Director, Policy Advocacy and Research, CRY - Child Rights and You
“It is very important that the government sanction the complete ban of child labour including ‘family enterprises’. It is something that has existed in our country for too long, and it is not possible to monitor all families for this – and now, it is being encouraged under the guise of fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.
There is a massive number of children who do not attend school, or work 8 hours after that. Even if they’re enrolled in a school, many do not attend and spend their days working instead. This amendment would allow kids to work unrestricted hours and deprive them of equal opportunity [in terms of the choice of their career], not to mention hamper their education, recreation and overall development. Besides, if you have grown up in a family engaged in a certain profession, it is likely that the child will pick up the relevant skills along the way; we hardly need to amend a law to state that this can take place.
As for the kids aged between 14-18, these kids are allowed to work in ‘non-hazardous’ environments, but this is only classified within the organised sector, under which working in factories, with explosives and mining qualify. Most children are engaged in employment in the unorganised sector. It is also important to mandate an accountability with respect to rehabilitation –even when labour officials pull out kids who are involved in child labour, there is rarely a pro-active service to restore their quality of life and most of them return to working soon after.”
IV. Roshni Nuggehalli, Executive Director, YUVA - Youth For Unity & Voluntary Action
“There has been a systemic failure to respond to the needs of children in our country. Let’s take a step back and look at the background: we have always had loopholes that allowed child labour, whether it was the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, or the UNCRC when we sided with the caveat in 1992. Even with the existing act, the government hasn’t addressed children at all.
With the youth demographic entering the job market, it’s important to address how and where you are going to employ them. The government seems to be looking at informal labour as a valuable resource and we feel that the government doesn’t have a plan to accommodate these many employees, which is why a proposal like this is being discussed. They might be talking about it as though these ‘family enterprises’ are some well-to-do businesses, but more often that not, the parents are only a part of a supply chain, just a cog in the wheel; they are not entrepreneurs. Children learning skills is very important - but we can do this through vocational training as well, and sort it out at the education level.
Instead of providing the job market required for the youth, they’re reversing the work of decades in what can only be described as diabolic. We don’t have money? Let the kids work. We cannot look after them if they commit a crime? Send them to jail [with respect to the Juvenile Justice Act]. The number of secondary schools being shut down across the country is appalling.
The youth are going to be the voice of india and instead of further criminalising the poor, through vocational training in the education system we can empower our kids and give them the jobs they deserve - a responsibility that is not the parents’, but the government’s.”
V. Kishore Jha, Terre des Hommes
...On our disgraceful lack of progress as far as children's rights are concerned, right from 1986 to 2015.
As for the ‘non-hazardous’ sector that kids between 14-18 are allowed to work in - there is no such thing as non-hazardous, when it comes to occupations for children. To make them work is an obstacle in their development and it gets in the way of their education.
Since 95% of this sort of work is happening in the unorganised sector, it is the children of low income families in rural areas that pay the most. We need to make provisions for the kids who are the future of our country.”
VI. Anant Kumar Asthana, Child Rights Lawyer
...On practicality vs. idealism and children's right to work if that's what they want to do, without commenting on the specific merit of this proposal.
Words: Aditi Dharmadhikari