Anil is a 13 year old boy who migrated from Uttar Pradesh to Haryana around 12 years ago, his disabled mother is unable to collect government funding due to her disabilities, and his father died recently. He lives with a family of six, that being his mother, four siblings and him. At the age of just 13 years old, Anil is the sole breadwinner of the family, he sells vegetables on a cart by the street, with dreams to simply have the ability to study he cannot due to the financial and social status of his family.
Deepika is a 15 year old, who is already shouldering the responsibility of the entire family and like Anil is the sole breadwinner for her family. She looks after both her younger sisters and father.
Panipat is another 15 year old, like Deepika and Anil shouldering the responsibility of her entire family of six, her father an alcoholic who does not work. She dropped out of school to support her family after their mother died.
These stories were recorded 3 years ago by News 18.
The Truth
For almost 10 million children across India alone (FRANCE 24), this is the story. The story where a single young teenager is forced to carry the weight of their entire family, and forced to grow up too quickly. Lucky for Anil, Panipat and Deepika, Non-Government Organizations were able to come to their aid and help them out of the tough economic situation. The remaining of those 10 millions childrens stories will go unnoticed, untold and they will likely continue to work under these unfair conditions.
The common theme here is child labour or child workers. India has the highest number of child workers in the world, with as stated previously an estimated 10 million children working under the age of 14. So what's the issue? When we look at child labour holistically, many may come to the thinking that children working to make money for their family isn’t to bad compared to other pre-exsintg issues like plastic pollution and global warming. But the economic and social effects of child labour and its industry are more devastating then you may realize.
The Effects
Harsh Reality
The first main issue presented by child labour is the harsh reality, by law in India it is illegal to make any child under the age of 14 work. So any functioning level of child labour is by law illegal if it doesn’t follow those regulations. Therefore those who employ children are likely to be breaking more laws as a result of it already being illegal to employ the children. This includes paying children under the minimum wage, dangerous and unfair working conditions as well as long working hours. According to The World Counts, the average child worker gets paid around 68 rupees, which is around 1.10 Singapore dollars. This way below the expected minimum wage for 2024. Estimated to be around 178 rupees a day (according to Trading Economics). When we realise that these children on average make around 25-100% of the family's income? The number can really start to settle in. For example Anil, he was the sole breadwinner of his family of six, making possibly one dollar a day? He likely went hungry many nights. For many children in India, lack of pay combined with dangerous working conditions and long hours can lead to mental and physical challenges, possibly resulting in death.
The Economy
These are not the only issues presented by child labour, by taking up the burden of the family many children are forced to give up education. This means that they will likely grow up without the basic educational skills they need to prosper in life. This means being illiterate, not being able to count and even lacking a basic vocabulary. With these lacking skills, there potential to contribute to the economy is heavily affected and without basic skills, they are unable to gain high skilled jobs going into the future, almost trapping them in this life of low pay, high working hours and unhealthy conditions. Hindering their potential to grow within the ever chaging and unpredictable economy.
The Causes
So why is child labour such a prominent issue within India as well as across the world? In india alone there are many causes surrounding child labour. The main reasons include the caste system, colonial history, and poverty.
The Caste System
The caste system is a relatively over looked cause of child labour for a mulitude of reasons, but in theory it explain why many people are so much better of then others within the Indian society. The caste system was implemented a long time ago during the 1500’s and though banned in 1950, it is still a strong influencing factor within hindu religions. The caste system basically divides people into a hierarchy of groups based on the type of labour they do and how they contribute to the economy. People like priests and academics are those among the top of the hierarchy, while those known to do jobs related to manual labour are considered around the bottom. The lowest being what is now coined as the Dalit’s or Untouchables. These are people who clean sewers and keep the city clean in general. The history of the caste system is still existent today because of the effect and attachment it has or had on people amongst the generations that endured it. Many people till this day follow the caste system and issues related to it prevail. Thanks to the caste system people who have a history of being named a in the lower areas of the caste system are forced to take up jobs and burdens that aren’t really that best options, these burdens can be carried forward across bloodlines and eventually result in situation where to keep families running, children like Anil and Panipat must take up the role to help the family due possibly to their position in the caste system. Though not the largest contributing factor towards child labour, the caste system still remains a prevalent issue.
Colonial History
The second cause related to child labour is the colonial history of India, though very deeply rooted the basis of colonial rule in India revolves around a company called the East India Company, this company founded in the 1600’s had one objective, to put their hand on unique items they could use to trade between other rising empires at the time. India at the time was ruled by the Mughal Dynasty, worth around 21 trillion dollars today (according to TRT World). So during the 1600’s, Queen Elizabeth allowed the East India Company to set sail for India in search of rare commodities like spice and tea. The East India Company was no ordinary company; they commanded an army made of hundreds of thousands of British soldiers. The history that occurred after the events of the East India Company landing in India can be summarised like this. After long wars and plundering of Indian resources, the British had brought India to its knees, the British ruled for a long time but the crumbling society forced it way through to independence though never truly being capable of bouncing back from such a deeply rooted past and plundering of their land. The long term economic impacts of Indian colonial history are what caused India to have such deep ties to poverty, one of the other causes of child labour. The colonial history of India paved the way for many long term economic impacts leading to many individuals to suffer the consequences, in many cases forcing children to also suffer these consequences taking up the mantles of their suffering family and leading them into a life of lacking education and child labour.
The Biggest Factor: Poverty
So the two causes I explored earlier were the caste system and colonial history, but those issues are quite minor in comparison to the true issue behind child labour, that being poverty.
According the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), poverty is the number one cause behind child labour. But why is poverty such an issue in India? Well that is for a multitude of reasons including income inequality, overpopulation, corruption, lack of development and lack of education. Thanks to current and historical affairs, India is always being challenged on different fronts. Combined with the sheer size of the population, and the size of the country itself, it is no surprise that the government struggles to address the issue. This article could go into more through detail about why poverty is such an issue, but the real issue is the effect it has on child labour. In 2012 alone, it was reported that around 250 million people lived in poverty, with over 34 million living in extreme poverty since 2024 (according to the Hindu Business Line). Such conditions force people to find jobs wherever they can. These jobs tend to be either illegal, dangerous or both. Yet due to the situation people are forced to take these risks in order to just get by. It's these situations that also in turn force children to also have to start working just to get by in the struggling society. As well as this, in many areas due to the lack of development and huge levels of poverty, children are not made aware of any other alternatives, taking up jobs is not just something they are forced to do, but the only thing they know.
What is are we doing about child labour in India?
So after exploring the causes of child labour, we can see the deeply rooted history and current affairs play an important role in shaping child labour today. So what are we doing about the issue?
Across the world poverty rates have dropped by nearly half over the past 20 years (according to a Gapminder study), extreme poverty still exists today but the efforts made to counter it have been working effectively. In terms of child labour, the Indian government has set in place rules to avoid child labour including,the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 (CALPRA) and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, these acts’s have all been accepted by the government and have been put in place as of 2024.
Organizations working to stop and improve child labour include Child Rights and You (CRY). CRY has been functioning for over 4 decades now, taking over 3 million children out of the hand of child labour.
Another well known organisation is Salaam Baalak Trust which like CRY is another non profit organisation. With over 8.5 million meals provided and over 100,00 impacted by the program. The trust is a truly inspiring organisation.
But its not enough, obviously CRY and the Trust are not the only ones continuing to improve child labour in India, but there efforts must be made globally aware. By doing this we can rally countries to make united change like we did with global warming. With the right funding and effort we can help to support this issue.
Though not everyone can rally other countries, simple acts like donating, volunteering and raising community awareness will always help. Small footprints together can leave behind a massive step.
Learn more about Salaam Baalak Trust here
What Will You Do?
Around the world and through the streets of India children like you and me are waking up everyday knowing that they must work as hard as they can just to keep their family alive, living under horrible conditions, getting paid minimum wage and working long hours.
By simply donating, raising awareness or simply researching more about certain aspects of poverty you can make a difference. Poverty is an issue that exists outside of just India as well, by helping out in your home country, your joining hands with a global effort to end child poverty. Remeber, each choice, each action, each dollar or cent, matters.
And so, thank you for your time and consideration, together we have taken the journey to learn about the issues, causes and importance of child labour. You have now learned what you can do to support the issue and I hope that maybe you choose to make a difference.
Bibliography
Works Cited
British Safety Council. "Child Labour in India." British Safety Council, -www.britsafe.in/safety-management-news/2024/child-labour-in-india-a-persistent-problem.
"Child Labour In India: A Story Of Three Kids Who Became Adults Too Soon." News18, 23 Sept. 2021, www.news18.com/news/buzz/child-labour-in-india-a-story-of-three-kids-who-became-adults-too-soon-4231088.html.
"Child Labour in India." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, 17 Jan. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_India. Accessed 14 Mar. 2024.
"India National Floor Level Minimum Wage." TRADING ECONOMICS | 20 Million INDICATORS FROM 196 COUNTRIES, tradingeconomics.com/india/minimum-wages#:~:text=Minimum%20Wages%20in%20India%20is,macro%20models%20and%20analysts%20expectations.
TRT World. "India's Colonial History." YouTube, Mar. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_gSRlgwMLs&t=1s.
UNICEF. UNICEF, www.unicef.org/.
"The World Counts." The World Counts, www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/people-and-poverty/child-labor/modern-day-child-labor.