India: Ban on child labour in residences and the hospitality sector

Submitted by crinadmin on


 

CRY - Child Rights and You welcomes the Ministry of Labour's recent notification but feels it's an insufficient response. Gaps exist and it cannot be effective without proper enforcement and rehabilitation provisions. For real change the root causes have to be addressed.

 

CRY CEO Ingrid Srinath:  " We welcome the Ministry of Labour's recent notification banning children below 14 from working in residences and the hospitality sector, for after agriculture; these areas are the largest employers of child labour. While necessary, this is an insufficient response. Child labour in India can be eradicated only if its root causes are also addressed - causes like the lack of a coherent education policy, insufficient schools, poverty, marginalization, migration etc -- situations that force children into work. Piecemeal efforts will not do."

 

Even within the notification's limited ambit, there are gaps:

  • The prohibition is restricted to servants at home, hotels, dhabas and other recreation centres. It is not clear whether this applies to the household manufacturing sector, where a vast number of children are employed in similar working conditions.
  • The conviction rate for the already existing Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 is abysmally low -- so low, that it is hardly a deterrent for employers. Without strengthening both enforcement mechanisms and provisions for rehabilitation, this step has little meaning.
  • The notification is premised on the belief that that child labour needs to be prohibited in hazardous occupations only. This totally ignores children's right to safe and facilitating environment for development, including health, nutrition and education needs.

 

Combined with the failure to table and pass legislation enabling the fundamental right to education and the likelihood that this notification is no more than an attempt to pre-empt the anticipated Supreme Court move to prohibit all forms of child labour, it is hard to imagine that this move will achieve significant impact. 

The National Sample Survey 2000, reported 16.4 million Indian children aged 5-14 years were 'engaged in economic activities and domestic or non-remunerative work'. Another 46 million children of school-going age are unaccounted for, neither enrolled in school nor officially working. Giving India at least one reason to be Number 1- home to the largest number of child labourers on the planet.

27 years of CRY's work with 2,500 marginalised communities across 20 states across India has shown that the piece-meal, scheme-based, relief-oriented approach adopted by both governmental and NGOs has limited impact and practically no sustainability. This is because they fail to address the underlying causes of deprivation. Causes related to gender, caste, ethnicity, religion and class keep over 100 million Indian children hungry, unschooled and vulnerable to the worst forms of abuse and exploitation imaginable.

 

CRY's experience has shown that irreversible change is possible when children, parents, community groups and local government come together to identify, address and resolve the issues that constrain children.

Country: 
India

Please note that these reports are hosted by CRIN as a resource for Child Rights campaigners, researchers and other interested parties. Unless otherwise stated, they are not the work of CRIN and their inclusion in our database does not necessarily signify endorsement or agreement with their content by CRIN.