CHILD LABOUR

A child is considered to be involved in Child Labor activities under the below classification given by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF):

• Children 5 to 11 years of age, those who did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work during the week preceding the survey did and
• Children 12 to 14 years of age those who did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work combined during the week preceding the survey.

Child labor is a complicated and ongoing issue in the present world. According to the statistics given by International Labour Organization (ILO) and other government agencies, more than 73 million children between 10 to 14 years of age are considered as child labour. Asian countries occupies distinctive place with 44.6 million child labour followed by Africa with 23.6 million and Latin America with 5.1 million. Child labour is wide spread in rich and industrialized economies than in poor countries. It is also estimated that there are 60 to 115 million working children in India- which was the highest in 1996 according to human rights watch. As per the statistics, child labor appears to be more in villages than in urban areas. Nine out of ten village children are employed in agriculture or household industries and craftwork. Due to urbanization, more children are getting in to the service and trading sectors rather than marketing. To differentiate on the basis of gender, it is considered that more boys are employed in laborious activities than girls. This consideration is made based on the fact that it is difficult to take a count of girls working in households.

Child labour can be found majorly in below sectors in India:

1. Bonded Child Labour
2. Child Labour Agriculture sector
3. Street Children
4. Children at glass factories
5. Child labour in match box factories
6. Child labour in carpet industry
7. Child labour in Brass and Lock industries