Laboring under delusion

1
Laboring under delusion
Common myths about child labor
Vinod Viswanath
2
Child Labor in India

• There are more children under 14 in India than
  the entire USA population
• Children under 14 form 3.6 of Indias labor
  force
• Of these, 9 out of 10 work in their own rural
  family settings
• 85 are engaged in agriculture related labor
• Less than 9 in manufacturing and less than 1 in
  factories

3
Child Labor in India

• GOI figure is 15million child laborers
• Actual figures are much higher
• ILO/UNICEF figures upto 80million
• Stone quarries, Brick kilns, picking rags in city
  streets, domestic servants
• Earn little much abused
• They dont go to school
• More than 50 do not attain basic literacy
• Mostly from SC/ST/Dalit communities

4
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 1 Employers are obligating children by
  employing them
• Solely profit motive for employers
• Child labor is low/no cost exploitation
• Children work for little/no wage for long hours
• Gem/jewelry, carpets, brass/artwork, handlooms,
  tea etc.

5
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 2 Poverty is the single major cause for
  child labor
• Most child laborers do come from impoverished
  social setting
• Children start working at an young age, hence
  remain illiterate/unskilled are burnt out by the
  time they are adults as adults suffer from
  unemployment and increase chances of child labor
  in the next generation!
• Child labor, in fact, causes poverty!

6
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 3 If children do not work, they and their
  families will starve
• Starvation is an independent problem
• Pricing policy, low income, unequal food
  distribution
• Liberalization policies
• Eg farmer suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala

7
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 4 Child labor is the result of the poor
  having more children than they can provide for
• Policy level problem
• Eg, the poverty index measures calorific
  consumption of people and not in terms of denial
  of basic rights to education and health care
• Kerala, with its land reforms and a strong
  working panchayat system has lowest child labor
  incidence

8
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 5 Parents would rather send their children
  to work than to school
• Definitely not true until ages of 10
• Mid-day meal scheme has helped a good bit
• Efficacy of formal education system a factor,
  depending on socio-economic situation

9
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 6 Children themselves want to work
• Mostly because they cannot conceive of an
  alternative
• Lack of access to schools
• Irrelevant curriculum
• Physical abuse from teachers
• Earning enhances self worth

10
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 7 There is nothing wrong in allowing
  children to work in non-hazardous occupations
• Hazardous is debatable
• Focus on what is hazardous to the child, rather
  than inherent hazardous nature of the occupation

11
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 8 If children work, they become equipped
  with skills for their future
• No skill being developed
• Exposure to various work environments as a child
  will only endanger their future

12
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 9 Child labor is necessary to preserve
  traditional arts and crafts
• This argument hides the reality of children
  bonded to families, or hired bonded laborers are
  rarely taught any art or craft
• The arts and crafts can be passed on within the
  childs family as part of their socialization and
  growing up

13
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 10 Children work faster and have nimble
  fingers needed in certain types of work,
  especially knotting carpets
• In various studies undertaken in carpet
  industries, match making industries, as well as
  weaving industries, this has been proved a myth

14
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 11 Industry will collapse if child labor is
  not available
• ILO conducted a study among gem polishing,
  brassware, carpet and match industries
• Increase in cost of a product by employing adults
  instead of children is marginal and can be easily
  absorbed by either the industry itself or the
  consumer

15
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 12 A global ban on child labor products
  will force the elimination of the practice of
  child labor and protect children's rights
• Global ban proposals focus on export oriented
  products
• Bulk of Indias child labor is in domestic
  industries (92)
• Linking concerns of human rights to export and
  trade only serves the concerns of developed
  nations
• Social clauses and blanket boycotts do not make
  any commitment towards rehabilitation of these
  children

16
Laboring under delusion

• Myth 13 Legislation prohibiting child labor is
  sufficient to resolve the problem
• Sometimes legislation can compound the problem
• Child Labor Prevention and Regulation Act of 1986
  is in violation of articles 14,21, 23,24 of the
  constitution
• This legislation does not prescribe minimum age
  limit and prohibits employing children in
  specific occupations which removes the protection
  given to children by the earlier articles of the
  constitution against all kinds of employment

17
GOI perspective

• There is no child labor in India
• 1933 Enactment of Children (Pledging of Labor)
  Act of February 1933
• 1974 National Policy on Children policy of the
  state to provide adequate services to children
• 1986 The Child Labor (Prohibition Regulation)
  Act
• 1993 working conditions of children have been
  regulated in all employment not prohibited under
  the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act
• 1992 Convention on the Rights of the Child --
  awareness act

18
Indias 5 yr old policeman

• Forced into labor
• Saurabh works at the police
• station in Raipur
• Part of an Indian system that allows a family
  member to take the post of a government employee
  who dies while in service
• There is no age limit and many families have no
  alternative but to send young children to work to
  make ends meet