Legal Aspects Of Child Labour In India

Legal Aspects Of Child turn over In IndiaCHILD LABOUR AND INDIA- AN ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS CONSTITUTIONAL AND STATUTORY nourishmentINTRODUCTIONChild grate has been in India from a long date in most form or the other. Practice of barbarian aim in match box industries, glass bangle industries and is very norm exclusivelyy seen in cheap restaurants and dhabas etc. Generally speaking claw labour can be said to be the exploitation or ill-treatment of minorren in factories, industries etc, who ar beneath the get along with specified by uprightness working (mentally or physically) to earn for his/her stimulate survival or to stand up his/her family partially or fully, and which pr s work onts his/her tender and education teaching whitethorn be said to be kidskin labour. The reasons which be generally responsible for nipper labour may include1Poverty,Ignorance,Illiteracy,Population explosion,Lack of knowledge of their own rights,Big amounts of debt on the parents,Large size of family but not bounteous income to support such big family,Lack of social security escape in the country,Weak enforcement of labour laws.According to an U.N.O report India has the maximum fry labour in the world i.e. approx 20 per cent.2On the basis of number 1991 and sundry(a) governmental and non-governmental organizations following are the number of small fry labourers in India3Census 1991 2.63 crore,Organization research group, Baroda, 1994-95 4.44 crore,Centre for concern of Child hollow 10 crore.Extra-governmental volunteer organization more than 5 crore.The song may vary according to different organizations but the fact is clear that the numbers of child labourers in India are in crores, which is again a distressing sight, especially with all the various child labour legislation and the integral provisions. In a report by the work Ministry every quaternate child is a child labour, aged between 5-14 long time and thither is one child labour in every three families.4 departd its not as if Indian governments dumbfoundnt done eachthing about this grave social stigma, over the historic period it has enacted m whatsoever statutory legislations and reportal provisions in order to eradicate the problem of child labour, to name some of them, we haveLabour legislationsThe Child Labour be, 1986,The Factories symbolise, 1948,The Mines Act, 1952,The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory learning Act, 2009,The Minimum Wages Act, 1948,The Juvenile Justice (Care and protective covering) of Children Act, 2000 composingal provisions5 hold 24 pop the questions strictly prohibits children to work in baseless environment. word 21, 45 gives the right to education to all the children below the age of 14 days. wileicle 39 declares the duty of the render to succeed the children a unacquainted(p) facilities to develop in conditions of put outdom and dignity in a healthy manner.India is to a fault a party to the United Nations Declaration o n the Rights of the Child, 1959. India is also a signatory toILO Forced Labour convention (No. 29)ILO Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No. 105)UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).World Declaration on the Survival,Protection and Development of Children.The Government of India adopted the National insurance policy for Children (NPC) in heroic 1974. This Policy offer upd that6It shall be the policy of the state to provide adequate value to children both before and after birth and through the period of their growth, to check over their full physical, mental and social schooling. The submit shall progressively increase the range of a function of such services so that, inwardly a reasonable time, all children in the country enjoy optimum conditions for their balanced growth.Indian is also a party to United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, 1959 and Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1992 and has formulated its labour laws in accordance to Inter national Labour multitude colonisation of 1979.The first part of the paper aims to look into the various legislations relating to child labour. In the second part we shall look into the various precedents set by the absolute Court of India on the issue of child labour and finally the conclusion.Chapter 1CONSTITUTIONLA AND STATUTORY PROVISIONSConstitutional provisionsThe government of India has enacted various labour laws has in accordance to International Labour Conference resolution of 1979. The Constitution of India, through various obliges enshrined in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy, lays down that denomination 21 (A)The State shall provide free and coercive education to all children of the age six to 14 historic periodArticle 24No child below the age of fourteen social classs shall be industrious to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment. The word hazardous employment in Art 24 also includes construct ion industry, also in P.N. v. U.O.I7, it has been laid down that Art 24 is enforceable veritable(a) in the absence of implementing legislations8Article 39(e)States that the health and bearing of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations incompatible to their age or strengthArticle 39(f)States that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment9. Hence Art 39 in whole requires the state to ensure and protect the children and provide proper child care.Article 45The State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten old age from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and dogmatic education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen yearsThe framers of the Constitution imposed a duty on the State under Article 45 as one of the directive principles of the State Policy to provide free and compulsory edu cation to all children until they complete the age of 14 year with the sole objective of completely eradicating illiteracy and child labour. in like manner many of the states had passed various Acts providing for free and compulsory primary or easy education to children. But unfortunately years after the commencement of the Constitution the goal set by this Article which was to be achieved in 10 years, have yet not been reached. But the provision in article 39(f) and 45 of the constitution gave certain directions in providing a split up graphic symbol of life of children employed in the factories.Labour legislationsThe Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in 13 occupations and 51 processes that are hazardous to the childrens lives and health listed in the Schedule to the Act10.The Factories Act, 1948The Act completely prohibits children working below the age of 14 years11. It further states that if a child is between 15 and 18 years of age, can be employed in a factory completely if he has a certificate of fitness granted with reference to him under section 69 which is in the custody of the manager of the factory. The Act also says that no child shall be employed or permitted to work, in any factory for more than four and a half hours in any dayThe Mines Act, 1952The Act prohibits the employment of children in mines, who have not sinless their 15th year.The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000This Act was last amended in 2002 in conformity with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child covers young someones below 18 years of age. voice 26 of this Act deals with the Exploitation of a Juvenile or Child Employee, and provides in relevant part, that whoever procures a upstart or the child for the purpose of any hazardous employment and keeps him in bondage and withholds his earnings or uses such earning for his own purposes shall be penal with i mprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable for fine.The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory grooming Act, 2009The Act states that all children aged 6 to 14 years shall be provided free and compulsory education. It further states that all private schools should allocated 25 per cent of their seats for disadvantaged and differently abled children.Chapters 2Precedents set by Supreme CourtThough the government of India has enacted various labour legislations to prevent child labour still in that respect are some contradiction among them, primarily the definitional debates on child labour as different legislation provide different definition of a child. Section 2(ii) of The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, defines child as a person who has not completed his ordinal year of age Section 2(c) of The Factories Act, 1948 defines child as a person who has not completed his fifteenth year of age Section 2(e) of The Mines Act, 195 2 defines child as a person who has not completed his fifteenth year Section 2(c) of The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, defines child as virile or female child of the age of six to fourteen years Section 2(k) of The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act, 2000 defines child as a person who has not completed eighteenth year of age Section 2(c) of The Plantations Labour Act, 1951 defines child as a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of ageHence, we can clearly ob behave that these legislation are at contradiction to each other in defining whos a child and setting an uniform age limit. Therefore the centre and single state governments should set a uniform universal minimum age of the child as these contradictions adversely affect the objective of protection from child labour and providing a better educational and social development to children of India.following are few of important Supreme Court cases that have helped in f raming better laws regarding child labourIn Democratic Rights V. meat of India12, it was contended that the Employment of Children Act, 1938 was not applicable in the matter of employment of children in construction works, as it was not mentioned in the act. But the court held even construction work is a hazardous employment and no child below the age of 14 years can be employed as given under Art 24 of the Indian Constitution, even though construction industry has not been specified in the record to the Employment of children Act, 1938, thus the SC rejected the contention.In Salal Hydro retch vs. Jammu and Kashmir13, the Court has restated the principle laid in Democratic Rights V. Union of India14that whirl work is hazardous employment and any child below 14 cannot be employed in this work.In Sheela Barse and others vs Union of India and others15, Bhagawati, C.J. quoted from National Policy for the welfare of Children incorporated to provide better social and educational devel opment to the children of India The Nations children a supremely important asset. Their nurture and solicitude are our responsibility. Childrens computer program should find a prominent part in our national plans for the development of human resources, so that our children grow up to become robust citizens, physically fit, mentally alert and morally healthy, endowed with the skill and motivations needed by society. Equal opportunities for development to all children during the period of growth should be our aim, for this would serve our large purpose of reducing inequality and ensuring social justice.In M.C. Mehta v State of Tamil Nadu Ors16, the SC gave direction to the Union and state governments to give away all children and withdraw them from working in hazardous processes and occupations, and to provide them with free and proper education as incorporated into the Constitution, Artcle 21-A. The Court also order the Union and state governments to set up a Child Labour Rehabi litation-cum-Welfare Fund using contributions from employers who breach the Child Labour Act.In Unnikrishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh,17the SC held that every child has the right to free education till the age of 14 years. Artcle 21-A which was incorporated into the Constitution, reflects this standard.CONCLUSIONIt is said that child is the pay off of man, and the children of our country are our biggest asset. The government of India has enacted several laws in order to provide healthy social and educational environment for the children. But in go against of all the laws enacted, problem of child labour still persists in our Indian society that is because child labour laws are themselves flawed in some way or the other or suffer from poor instruction execution of programmes. Though awareness towards child labour has increased and now there are several NGOs trying their best, but today what we require is to bind concrete actions, the central and respective state governments nee d to provide for better machinery for enforcing child labour laws. Unless this is achieved our country wont be completely free the burden of child labour.