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CRY’s campaign
Child labour ban?? Not here!
Only 15 per cent of India’s 17 million child labourers covered by the Ban
Twenty three years after child labour was banned in India [vide the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986], the country continues to be home to the largest number of child labourers in the world – 17 million.
On occasion of the Anti-Child Labour day, CRY (Child Rights and You) urges the government to renew its commitment to children by putting the weight of its political will behind the ministries and departments responsible to send children to school, not to work.
CRY Demands |
- Send every child to school, not to work. Make free, quality schooling available to all.
- Implement the current Act that bans all forms of child labour
- Ensure each family has all the basic rights – regular livelihood, food, and healthcare – so that the pressures of poverty do not force children into labour
- All children upto the age of 18 to be banned from labour. Ambiguities in the current Act must be removed.
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“The Act to ban child labour today covers only 15% of the total child labour population in the country. Sectors like commercial agriculture, unregulated factories and immediacies like chronic poverty, that employ close to 80% of the child labour, is not covered by the Act,” said CRY’s regional Director, Regina Thomas.
“Every Census throws up larger numbers of children labouring across the country. In fact, we see the increase in real poverty as closely linked to increase in the number of child labour. How will child labour decrease in a country where it often the only choice for the increasing number of near-destitute families?” asks Dipankar Majumdar, Director, Development Support and Youth, CRY.
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Tackling the root cause: |
For those who are forced to send their children to work, ensure:
- Employment with a minimum wage
- Remunerative prices for primary products
- Credit is easily accessible
- Social welfare schemes are implemented
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On the positive side, the State is, has taken some concrete, commendable steps, the most recent being the ban on child labour in the domestic sector. But rather than limiting action to what is visible, the State must address is the root cause, which is poverty.
About CRY (Child Rights and You):
CRY – Child Rights and You is India’s leading advocate for child rights. Over 30 years CRY has partnered with NGOs, communities, government, the media to help create a movement that addresses the root causes that deprive children of their rights
For more information please visit us at www.cry.org or write to Padma, Child Rights and You at padma.koppa@crymail.org; Susan, Genesis Burson-Marstelle
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