No Childs Play

The government estimates the number of child workers in the country to be 20 million. Of these, 2 million are employed in 13 notified hazardous occupations.

Non-government organistations claim that child workers are in the region of 30 to 50 million. They estimate that 6 million young hands are in unsafe jobs.

The figures though alarming could be in a for a rehaul. The recent Supreme Court judgement and the outcome of the Singapore talks of the World Trade Organisation show that there is hope for the child worker.

The court has recommended the creation of a corpus for rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations. The terms spelt out by the Court indicates that the corpus will have a size of Rs 5,000 crore. Of this, the government will have to contribute Rs 1,000 crore and the rest will come from the employers of working children.

 

The crucial question is: does the Supreme Court judgement and the decision at the WTO talks complement each other in favour of child labour? It doesnt appear so. For one, countries like Germany have been banning exports from nations indulging in child labour. The WTO talks only reinforces the foreign point of view.

On the other hand, the court judgement is looked upon as finally admitting that child labour is a problem. Hence, the need to create better facilities and security. But the numbers themselves show that implementation could be highly improbable. The court seems to have put the cart before the horse. How is it possible to rescue and rehabilitate child workers unless they are identified?

True, the Court has asked to identify them as well as create a corpus. But it has given what is perhaps an unintentional leeway to the government by not fixing a time limit on implementing the order. Though the government has been jerked into action by the Court order a meeting of state labour ministers was held on January 22 to discuss its implementation rescue and rehabilitation of child labour is still a distant dream.

For the past two years, the Indian government has spearheaded a protest movement among developing countries to thwart a move by rich nations like Germany and the US to incorporate the social clause in the WTO charter. Put simply, the move was to ban exports of goods produced by men, including children, who have been denied a certain minimum living standard.

India also persuaded the fifth meeting of labour ministers of non-aligned countries in New Delhi to pass a resolution. It opposed any linkage between labour standards and access to international trade, after it became clear that the International Labour Organisation (ILO) was not in a position to take sides between the proponents and opponents of the move.

But at the ministerial meeting of WTO in Singapore last December, India found itself isolated. Most developing countries voted along with the rich nations on the issue. India was forced to agree to the proposition, that a series of studies will be carried out under the aegis of WTO, to determine the extent of trade advantage gained by developing countries because of cheap labour. Hopes of keeping labour standards out of the WTO agenda were dashed.

This, alongwith the court judgement has had the labour ministry design its own formula of stepping away from thorny issues and getting away with lip services. The conference of labour ministers decided, among other things, to immediately take up the task of identifying child labour and complete it by June 10. Such time-bound programmes are as rare as the fact that the court has gone into the details of raising resources for the rehabilitation of child labour employed in 13 notified hazardous occupation.

But the conference carefully sidestepped the issue of creating the corpus. It is widely recognised that employers of child labour do not easily admit it. Earlier, efforts by non-government organisations to identify them in the carpet belt and glass making units in Uttar Pradesh had resulted in the employers either hiding or driving away child workers.

Even when they are identified, corruption among district-level inspectors implementing the Child Labour (prohibition and regulation) Act, 1986 is so extensive, that it is never possible to actually rescue and rehabilitate them. Identification of child labour is nearly an impossible task because of extensive corruption among officials working in the field, says Kailash Satyarthi who heads South Asian Association for Child Servitude.

Compounding the issue is the Court order, which is limited to only 10 per cent of child workers in the country who are employed in what the government regards as hazardous occupations. The fine distinction between hazardous industry and occupation is significant. A child employed in a hazardous industry may yet be denied the benefit of the court order, simply because he is not involved in a hazardous occupation. The hazardous occupations notified by the government include cement manufacture, textiles, matches and explosives, mica cutting and splitting, glassware melting, carpet weaving, bidi making, shellac manufacture, soap making, tanning, wool cleaning, building and construction.

The court has directed the appropriate government which is the central government, in sectors like railways and mining and state governments for other industries, to either deposit Rs 5,000 in a special corpus meant for rehabilitation of child labour or provide employment for one adult in the family of each such labour.

Under the court judgement, the liability of the employers is much larger. The employer is expected to contribute Rs 20,000 for each child worker identified in a hazardous occupation. But chances of the unit closing down are much more if a child worker is discovered.

Viewed in terms of the official estimates about the number of children in hazardous occupations, the government will have to either create 20 million additional jobs or contribute Rs 1,000 crore to the special corpus that will have to be created for the rehabilitation of the child workers. Employers of these children will have to contribute Rs 4,000 crore to the special corpus.

The corpus will be anywhere between Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, if the unofficial estimates of child workers in hazardous occupations is taken into consideration. In fact, the government estimate of child labour as a whole is under dispute. While it has not carried out any extensive survey on child labour, the government has been supporting manufacturing units producing export goods.

And if pressures exerted by the rich nations in the WTO on labour standards and the Supreme Court orders result in the closure of many industries, it will worsen the situation even more. With a squeeze on profitability, there is very little possibility of the corpus being created.

The court judgement on rescue and rehabilitation of child labour is meaningless without the corpus. Again, sending the millions of child workers to schools would necessitate more classrooms, which is in short supply even for the regular school going children. Whats more, creating an additional 20 million jobs for the parents of child workers will take a lot of government energy and resources.

The issue came up for a lot of debate when the Rajiv Gandhi government brought in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act on different occasions. These include social activists like Swami Agnivesh carrying out campaigns against corruption by child labour inspectors and ineffective implementation of the Act, the rejection of carpets produced with child labour by Germany and a few other countries, and the debate on social clause and labour standards at the WTO.

Two years ago, the then prime minister P V Narsimha Rao announced a scheme costing Rs 850 crore from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15. Since then, the government has been spending a paltry Rs 34 crore a year on identification, rescue and rehabilitation of child labour.

Scores of different ways have been recommended and a few ones tried out to mitigate the injustice done to child labour. But it is an issue which shows no signs of abating.

The fine distinction between hazardous industry and occupation is significant. A child employed in a hazardous industry may yet be denied the benefit of the court order, simply because he is not involved in a hazardous occupation.