This Lit Review looks into specifics of child labor laws in India, how the children affect the economy, and has surveys from Indian citizens displaying their feelings toward the use of child labor.
Abstract
India is a major exporter in many areas such as silk and cotton, but most of the laborers that produce such products are working illegally. In India, the law for child labor is that no child under the age of fourteen can be employed in any domestic or hospitality industries; there is still an estimated 199,791,382 children employed in such fields (Bahree, 2008). Many Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) are working towards removing all children from illegal working conditions and getting them into schools. This literature review will look into the child labor laws in India, the economy of India and how the child laborers affect it, and the different points of views on the issue.
India and Child Labor
India is a developing country, according to the CIA’s The World Fact Book (2011). Many of the laborers are children who work in factories or in homes, where a large percentage of India’s exports are manufactured. India does have child labor laws and even ratified their constitution several times but, due to economic instability child labor practices are still accepted all over the country. Even though India has created laws and made ratifications to their constitution, thousands of children are still employed. In a recent survey, an estimated 6%, 199,791,382 children, are employed as seen in Table 1 on the following page (Bahree, 2008). This Literature Review will focus on the child labor laws in India, the economic impact these children have on the country, and how the citizens of India view the topic by these research questions:
1. What are the current Indian laws on child labor and how are they followed?
2. How do child laborers affect the economy?
3. How do citizens in India feel about the way the Indian government implements the child labor laws?
If India, and all other countries, were to strictly follow child labor laws, it is estimated that those children who would receive some sort of education will create around $5 trillion U.S. dollars from 2000 to 2020 (Alston and Robinson, 2005). Becoming well educated about child labor in India and what possible outcomes would result in the full compliance with child labor laws would allow the rest of the world know exactly how to handle child labor laws globally.
What are the current Indian laws on child labor and how are they followed?
On December 11, 1992, India endorsed the Convention on the Rights of the Child but did not agree to one clause that declared children, fourteen years of age and younger, to be protected by the law to not engage in hazardous working conditions. The convention was open for ratification in 1898 and mapped out basic necessary rights for children under the age of eighteen. These are a few of the rights India ratified: the right to education, the right to information, the right to nutrition, the right to health and care, the right to protection from abuse, the right to protection from exploitation, the right to development, and the right to survival. India has also created a law in 2006 that banned the use of child labor for domestic purposes and in the hospitality industry (Clifford, 2011).
The legal age is fourteen years of age for children to work but that law is not strictly followed. A number of children are recruited into industries at ages as young as six years old. The table on the above page represents the percentage of children, from seven to fourteen, who are child laborers. NGO, or Non-Governmental Organizations, are groups of people who stand up for social justice and sustainable development and human rights who are not a part of the government (NGOs India, n.d.). These organizations go around India and try to find the employers that still hold children under the age of fourteen as employees. NGOs then take the children out of their work places and place them in schools that are both funded by the government and donations. This is one way the country is trying to get younger children a couple years of formal education before they are sent back into the workforce. Once the child is fourteen years of age, agents are back in the picture and the children are right back to work.
Sumangli, is an institutionalized and legalized form of child labor which was created in the knitwear and hosiery districts in India. This program involves employers promising that they will train female children and pay them a total of 30,000 rupees (roughly equivalent to 704 U.S. dollars) at the conclusion of a set contract before their marriage. Sumangli is for females from the ages of fourteen to twenty years of age.
How do child laborers affect the economy?
India’s economy is certainly diverse. It is known for a large number of technological and scientific advances but it is still largely active in hand made products. India is a large exporter in lace, cotton, rugs, sarees, and beedis (hand rolled tobacco), lightbulbs, sporting goods and leather goods along with many other every day items seen all over the world. Loom, cotton farmers, and factory owners prefer to have children employees because of 2 different reasons such as:
1. Adults earn a higher pay as opposed to children (adults usually earn 35 U.S. dollars a month whereas children would earn 7 U.S. dollars a month)
2. Employers claim that children produce more product at a faster rate (they prefer younger children and believe adults over the age of 25 are weaker) (Macro International Inc., n.d)
Parents in rural and urban areas are promised profitable jobs for their children by recruiters. Recruiters, or agents, are paid in advances, or cash, by employers to find families that need to send their children away for work. The recruiters go into both rural and urban areas, all over India, to find children at any age. The number of agents has increased in the last couple of years resulting in lower advances for them. The agents try to find as many children as possible to make up for profit in the “recruiter industry’s” tough and rising competition.
Macro International Inc. sent a team of researchers, funded by the United States Department of Labor, into India and research the country’s biggest industries and how child labor is utilized. The team of researchers then produced “In-country Research and Data Collection on Forced Labor and Child Labor in the Production of Goods” , a brief report of the industries in terms of labor, processes and wages along with interviews with former and current child laborers, employers, and Indian citizens.
In one interview, a researcher asked if the goods child laborers produce are for in country use or for exportation. The interviewers name and title are blacked out but the viewer of the document would see that the interviewee works for an organization in Delhi that is involved with issues related to child labor. He/she answers that the products are for both domestic and exportation use; some of the goods include carpets, handcrafts, brassware, saris and silk which are “exported in large quantities” from a 2008 survey taken by Macro International Incorporated.
India is one of the largest silk and silk good producer in the world. Figure 1 shows that it isn’t just an area of India that produces silk but a whole country. In the sari industry in Delhi, India, there is approximately 100,000 children that work on and produce the clothing (Macro International Inc., n.d). This industry alone employs hundreds of thousands of children throughout India and involves different jobs for workers. There are three major areas in silk production including silk cocoons, silk reeling, and silk weaving. Each individual area involves different tasks for the laborers. In an interview held by the Macro International Inc., a woman in a village known for a large silk reeling industry stated, “Go to any house in this locality and you will find at least one child who works in silk reeling units. This is what we are doing for so many years,” (Macro International Inc., n.d.).
Sarees are made on woven hand looms that are installed in houses. The home owners find laborers through agents but mainly look for children so that they can pay them less and make enough profit off their goods to keep their own livelihood. Many loom owners have noticed the decline in the silk industry because of the increased child labor law enforcements. Loom owners are now looking for children ages thirteen to fourteen, when they drop out of school, instead of the norm of children being six to seven years of age. Also, the amount of production has gone
down due to the amount of children going to school and only being able to work part time after school hours. Many industries have been affected by the implementations of the laws.
Another major industry in India is knitwear and hosiery where undergarments, T-shirts and other products are produced for both domestic and export markets (Macro International Inc., n.d.). In Tirupur in the Coimbatore district of Tamilnadu, researchers visited a vast number of the industries units. This area of Tirupur is highly populated due to the large demand for laborers which has resulted in better wages than other areas of the country.
India’s economy is extremely affected by the labor performed by child laborers, yet not solely dependent. Many of the goods the laborers produce are a large part of the exports sent out all over the world. What would happen if India were to fully enforce their child labor laws? Would parents earn enough revenue to support themselves along with their families? What about the bigger picture: India as a whole?
How do citizens in India feel about the way the Indian government implements the child labor laws?
There are many different points of views among the Indian population about India’s implementations of child labor laws. Some children depend on their labor to eat at least once every day and support their families who are also needed to work. A. Hernandez, an Economics doctorate holder, stated, “If some of those children who are employed do not work means they do not eat, they do not have a roof over their heads and they cannot support their fellow family members.” (A. Hernandez, personal communication, March 14, 2011). There are also those child laborers who need to assist in paying off debt the family owes. If the child labor laws were to be fully enforced, those children and their families would have no other way to pay their debts.
The NGOs are doing everything they can to get the laboring children out of work and into classrooms that are both funded by the government and donations. These child labor activists’ goals are clearly to get the government to completely enforce the child labor laws that India has created almost a decade ago.
Some citizens have created their own programs to help the activist side of child labor. Kailash Satyarthi founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement) that journeys across India trying to find those who violate the laws. She stated, “There have only been 1,680 prosecutions launched against employers.” There are hundreds of activists throughout India and internationally that donate their time and money to get children proper education and time to enjoy their childhood.
“In-country Research and Data Collection on Forced Labor and Child Labor in the Production of Goods” produced by Macro International Inc., provides a number of interviews from ex-child laborers and their family members. The document gives the children’s point of views so that those uneducated on the subject get a deeper look into the issue. One interview is with an agent who was once a child labor himself. The boy, sixteen years of age, created a good relationship with his employer and has become an agent for him. The boy still participates in manual labor but also protects the younger child laborers from sexual exploitation and takes care of the laborers if injured of ill. The interview also states, “Some children like to go work there as there they would live with their friends in a group and like it,” presenting the fact that not all the laborers are abused and enjoy their work (Macro International Inc., n.d.).
Conclusion
India is still a country strongly dependent on the labor of young children. These children produce goods for in country markets and export throughout the globe. India has created many different laws to try to make it illegal to employ children under the age of fourteen but economic standing makes that difficult. The issue of child labor in the country is widely known, but only vaguely. Many people, in countries where child labor is nonexistent, believe child labor to be outright wrong and horrible, but there are many different sides to the issue that need to be looked into further before judging the Indian government. People need to know the exact laws on child labor are in India, how the child laborers effect the economy, and how the issue is viewed from actual citizens in India before they can take an actual stand on the topic.
References
Alston, Philip and Robinson, Mary (2005). Human Rights and Development Towards Mutual Reinforcement. New York: Oxford University Press Inc.
Bahree, Megha. (2008). Forbes Magazine. Retrieved from
C Clifford. (2011, July 21). India Continues to Battle Against Child Labor. Retrieved from
(2011, March 24). Child Rights: A gist. Retrieved from http://smilefoundationindia.org/child_rights.htm
Dameron, Amanda. February 21, 2011. Nani Marquina. Dwell: Nice Modernist. Retrieved from http://www.dwell.com/articles/nani-marquina-nice-modernist.html
In-country Research and Data Collection on Forced Labor and Child Labor in the Production of Goods. Macro International Inc.: Calverton, Md.
(March 16, 2011). India. The World Factbook. Retrieved from
Other Areas of Opportunity. Jharkhand: Department of Industry. Retrieved from
Sansthan, Strishti. Vision and Mission. NGOs: India. Retrieved from
