There are no two opinions that the root cause of child labour is economic poverty and the impoverishment of millions who continue to live below the poverty line will only make it more difficult in uprooting the problem. A recent seminar was held in Kohima on child rights where many points were raised on how to address this particular problem. No one should be under the illusion that the problem of poverty and its cause effect—child labour—can be eliminated overnight. It will be a mounting challenge and one that will involve the active participation of several actors—both government and civil society. For instance, as Nagaland Governor K Sankaranarayanan during his address at the seminar pointed out, we have rules and regulations but its implementation is poor. Further more, he gave another dimension to the issue by rightly recognizing that if the practice of child labour has to stop, then the mindset of the people should also change. Therefore it is clear that only a multi-dimensional approach involving multiple players will be able to take us to a point from where the problem itself can be addressed.
As far as the law is concerned, while it is estimated that there are more than 10 million child workers in India, yet it is anybody’s guess that State governments across the country other than saying that they remain committed in enforcing the law banning child labour, in reality the enforcement of such laws—banning employment of children in households, eating joints, teashops, hotels, catering units, hostels, clubs, spas and recreation centres, remains merely on paper. And as per the notification by the Labour Ministry, no child up to the age of 14 years can be employed at such places from October 10, 2006 onwards. Facts will speak for itself but one can only assume that given the continued prevalence of child labour, the two years since notification of the ban, at best the status-quo continues. This is not surprising because even an earlier law banning the employment of children in factories, mines and hazardous work hardly acted as a deterrent for employers. What is also desirable is to ensure public awareness on the laws prevailing and also for interest groups and individuals to hold the government accountable when it comes to enforcing such bans on child labour or trafficking.
Beyond the realm of law, what is naturally required is to improve livelihoods especially of those vulnerable sections. The plethora of poverty alleviation programmes not to mention the rural employment guarantee schemes, need to be well guided and directed to reach the beneficiaries. What should be of concern to policy makers is that poor implementation has meant that there is large scale corruption taking place and the good intentions of government policy remains only on paper and slogans. Unless the fruits of development reaches the poorest of the poor, the millions in poverty will continue and thereby stalling the progress of human development—whether health, education, security. The other solution bearing area of intervention needed is on education. Whatever doubts or concern there may be, the ban on child labour should be seen in the context of fulfilling the constitutional mandate of the right to education and to ensure that children below the age of 14 years instead of working should be actively encouraged to join schools and in the process achieving the goal of universalizing elementary education. The recent welcome move to make elementary education a fundamental right under the constitution is another step in the right direction. But again such well meaning measures must be matched by the implementation on the ground.
