New child labour norms leave many dissatisfied

69.5% of child labour in India are employed in the agriculture sector

Not many anti-child labour activists are content with the Union government's recent changes to child labour laws. At a recent function in Bhopal, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi said the new Bill in this regard was inadequate to curb labour by those aged less than 14. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, dealt with child labour in the country. The Act prohibited the employment of children (aged below 14) in hazardous industries. Under the amended child labour Bill, all forms of labour by those aged less than 14 are banned, except in select 'non-hazardous' family enterprises. There is apprehension the Bill will lead to widespread misuse in the name of 'family enterprises'.

"Today, about 70 per cent of child labourers are in the farm sector. Now, there will be more incidences of child labour in this segment. The move might also lead to more child-trafficking. In a study by NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights), we found children from Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh are being trafficked to Gujarat for working in BT farms," said Vinod Tikoo, formers member of NCPCR.

According to Census 2001, there were 12.6 million working children aged 5-14 in the country, against the overall population of 252 million of such children. Census 2011 showed the number of working children in this age group fell to 4.35 million.

In India, agriculture employs about 69.5 per cent of child labour (5-14 years), according to a 2013 report, Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, by the US labour department. "Children are engaged in the manufacturing of goods, many in the informal economy, and increasingly in home-based production," the report said. "We only partially welcome the new legislation. While the government accepted our pending demand to ban all forms of child labour below the age of 14, it will encourage child labour in farmlands," said Yogesh Dube, chairman of Bhartiya Vikas Sansthan and a former member of NCPCR. "Industries such as rice mills, bidi factories and coir making, to mention a few, will now see more child labourers. The government is taking us to the pre-industrialisation era," said Sujata Mody, president of the Garment and Fashion Workers' Union.

The new legislation, however, has more stringent penalty provisions for first-time offenders in this regard - a jail term of three years and a fine of up to Rs 50,000. Currently, the penalty is imprisonment of three months to a year, or a fine of Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000, or both. Also, under the new proposals, the imprisonment term is a year to three years in case of subsequent offenses. Under the current law, the penalty for subsequent offenses is imprisonment of six months to two years.