kNow More on Child Labour

Who is a child labour?

Any child below the age of 18 who is forced to work for another and is being economically exploited in the process is a child labour. The work has to be in contravention of the anti child labour laws in India, international instruments and treaties, against the fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution, against human rights, and is detrimental to the child’s physical, mental, social, intellectual, cultural and moral well being.

Thus, Child Labour is a crime and each case of child labour is a basket of several crimes under several national laws.

 

Is a child labour also a victim of trafficking?

The basic reason why children work is the economics of cheap labour supply and due to this reason, often, children are trafficked away from their native place for the purposes of exploitation. All children rescued by BBA are victims of trafficking, whether they are alone, or a part of the family of all trafficked enslaved members.

For example, in the rescue operations being conducted in garment manufacturing/ value addition units in Delhi, majority of children have been trafficked from Bihar. Most of these children are found working for 12- 16 hrs a day for little or no wages, no freedom of movement, sometimes living and working in the same room for months.

Thus, each child is doing the work of almost 2 adults on a daily basis in absolute slavery like conditions.

 

If children are working to support their poor families – what is wrong with that?

Majority of child labourers are lured away from their families through deceitful means. As a result, most of them are not even aware of their place of employment and of the way to return home. While most of them are not paid any wages and just given food to survive after around 12-16 hours of work every day some are paid a meager amount of Rs 200 (around 4 USD) per month along with food and a promise that they would be offer better wages after 2-3 years when they become experts. They never earn/save enough to send back any money home and are actually not supporting the families at all.

Minimum wage in Delhi for an unskilled worker is Rs. 5500 (almost 120 USD) and thus, each establishment employing 10 trafficked child bonded labourers is earning a huge profit in lieu of this slavery.

 

What is Bonded Labour?

Bonded or forced Labour is a form of slavery where a person is working for another for little or no wages and having no freedom. In India, if a person is working for a consideration which is less than the minimum wages and has no freedom, the presumption is that such a person is a bonded/ forced labour. The onus of proving this presumption wrong is on the employer or the state.