Child Labor in India - Research Proposal Example

I. Introduction Imagine a child stacking matchboxes in a workshop even before he has been aware of his ability to walk or even stand. This scenario is not unusual in the match and pyrotechnics industries in Sivakasi, Tamilnadu in India. Sivakasi perhaps has the maximum concentration of child laborers in the planet, hiring countless children from rural communities that enclosed Sivakasi (Browne et al 2005). A portrayal of the pattern of moving these child laborers back and forth from work is greatly dreadful than the mental picture of a toddler working: “The factory bus leaves the factory premises around 6 p.m. It drops the children on the way, while the nearest village is 1 km. from the factory, the farthest one is about 20 km. The bus… reaches the last village by 8 to 9 p.m. The bus starts from that village between 3 to 4 a.m. with the last child and proceeds towards the factory. It reaches the factory premise around 6 a.m. The sleeping children are thereafter dumped into a hall to sleep up to 7 a.m. After that… they have their breakfast and start work” (Browne et al. 2005: 1). After almost six decades of Independence and more than a decade after India joined the United Nations Convention on Child Rights, children in the country persist to be the most abandoned segment. Statistics show that India has 17 million child laborers, which is the highest in the world. Illiteracy regarding the fundamental rights of a child has resulted in to trouble free violation of laws intended to safeguard and motivate children (Fan 2004). In homes, outside the safety of their houses, and in sweatshops, children are being oppressed and abused by many. More than half of the laboring children, or 54%, are in the agricultural sector and mainly others are employed either in construction work, which is 15.5%, or in domestic occupation which is 18%. Approximately 5% are in manufacturing occupations, and the remaining, which is about 8%, are dispersed across other types of occupation. The table presents a gender-based division of working children, and their educational circumstances. Please keep in mind that the data are for children in the age bracket of 5-14 years (Narayanan 2006, para 2). Children of Age Group (5-14 years) Activities Number of Children (%) Number of Children (in 100’s) Boys Girls Total Boys Girls Total Children engaged in economic activities 4.18 3.86 4.02 52967 45618 98392 Attended domestic duties only 0.30 3.15 1.67 3770 37208 40788 Attended domestic duties plus free collection of goods, tailoring, weaving for HH only 0.25 1.92 1.06 3178 22693 25897 Children at Work 4.73 8.93 6.75 59915 105519 165077 Attending schools 72.98 61.45 67.44 925350 725964 1651186 Children neither at work nor at school 17.26 20.42 18.80 218889 241255 460205 (Narayanan 2006, para 3) Child labor in India is a serious and depressing problem. Children below the age of 14 are compelled to work in glass-blowing, pyrotechnics and most generally, carpet-manufacturing companies. While the Government of India discloses about 20 million children laborers, other NGO’s approximate the population to be near to 50 million. Most widespread in the northern section of India, the use of child labor has turned out to be a legitimate practice, and is perceived by the local citizenry as fundamental to surpass the extreme poverty in the area (Murshed 2002). Child labor is one of the primary apparatus of the carpet industry. Factories compensate children unreasonably low wages, for which adults decline to work, while coercing the youth to slavery under hazardous and unsanitary labor circumstances. A large number of these children are workers from other regions of the country or from another county, the mainstream coming from northern India, who are disposed away by their families to earn money and then send it directly home (Browne et al. 2005). Hence, children are compelled to endure the dreadful conditions of the carpet factories because their families rely on their hard-earned wages. The condition of the children at the factories is hopeless; majority labor around 12 hours a day, with only unhelpful breaks for meals. Malnourished and undernourished, the children are frequently nourished only minimal staples; the massive majority of immigrant workers who cannot come back home at night sleep beside their work site, further attracting disease and poor health (ibid). Provided with these heartrending conditions of poor children in India, it is then important to investigate the complex issue of child labor. The idea that children are abused and exploited while not receiving any education which is critical to their development, concerns millions of people. India is the prime example of a nation afflicted by the societal pathology of child labor. II. The Causes and Frameworks of Unending Child Labor in India How essential is child labor to the households in South Asia? Child labor is a source of income for impoverished families in India. A research embarked on by the International Labor Organization (ILO) Bureau of Statistics discovered that “children’s work was considered essential to maintaining the economic level of households, either in the form of work for wages, of help in household enterprises or of household chores in order to free adult household members for economic activity elsewhere” (Mehra-Kerpelman 1996 cited in Badiwala 2007: para 2). In some instances, the study discovered that a child’s income can be attributed for between 34 and 37 percent of the overall household income. This only emphasizes that a child laborer’s income is essential to the subsistence of an impoverished family. According to the survey, also carried out by ILO, parents admitted that it is a crucial decision for them to send their children to child labor. They are perhaps correct in their decision, for majority of the families in India has alternative sources of income that are almost worthless. Social welfare systems like those established in the West are absent in India and there is no convenient access to loans (ibid). However, it is evident that child laborers are exploited and abused, which is manifested by the wage they receive. The portion of the population of India subsisting in poverty is extremely high. In 1990, 37% of the population residing in the urban areas and 39% of those living in the countryside were subsisting in poverty (International Labor Organization 1995 cited in Badiwala 2007: para 3). Poverty has a noticeable association with child labor, and researches have “revealed a positive correlation -in some instances a strong one- between child labor and such factors as poverty” (Mehra-Kerpelman 1996 cited in Badiwala 2007: para 3). Families demand money to continue living, and children are an immediate source of supplementary income. Poverty itself has fundamental factors, one such factor being a member of caste. When examining the caste background of child laborers, Nangia (1987) finds that “if these figures are compared with the caste structure of the country, it would be realized that a comparatively higher proportion of scheduled caste children work at a younger age for their own and their families’ economic support” (cited in Narayanan 2006: para 6). Children belonging to the lower caste are inclined to be thrown into child labor due to their family’s despondency. Nangia (1987) continues to reveal that in his investigation 63.74% of child laborers admitted that poverty was the primary reason they are enduring forced labor (cited in Narayanan 2006: para 8). The fusion of poverty and unsatisfactory social security network shape the foundation of the even crueler kind of child labor, which is bonded child labor. Calculations suggest that roughly eleven million children in India labor full-time. Child labor is fundamentally a provincial occurrence with “cultivation, agricultural labor, forestry and fisheries accounting for 84.9% of child labor” (Weiner 1991: 28). In cities, the children labor in manufacturing, service and mechanical works. The factories account for an extremely insignificant portion of child labor; child labor, in rural, partly urbanized and industrialized areas is nearly completely an attribute of the informal and disordered sectors. Furthermore, researches show that the occurrence of child labor, in several states is greatly associated to the level of poverty. Poverty is not the only cause of child labor; poverty is also the beginning of numerous other causes of child labor. For example, the demand for child labor frequently comes from on account of the low profit margins of the new companies in the unorganized and informal economic sector (ibid). A significant aspect of the informal sector is the deficiency in technology and mechanization indicating the non-necessity of highly skilled laborers. The low skill demand enhances the replacement of adults with children in the labor force. This replacement is made more enticing by the low compensations that are given to the children. In what types an unending cycle, the low wages given to children additionally demoralize the adult wage, as a result decreasing adults’ motivation to work. Parents who are unemployed allow their children to work in order to add to the nowadays insufficient family income (Browne et al. 2005). Moreover, the low levels of technology indicate trouble-free admission into the industry, resulting in increased levels of competition, thus, lower profit margins that merely dishearten any motivation to improve technologies. Even if producers could invest in labor cutback technology, child labor still lingers on as the most inexpensive type of production (ibid). In a number of industries, the exploitation of child labor is defended by the argument that only children can bear out the particular duties and adults cannot carry them out as well. This argument encompasses the ‘agile hands’ (Murshed 2002: 171) rationales applied in several industries. Moreover, the exploitation of child labor is further defended based on the premise that children have to gain awareness and to be accustomed to work so that they can be self-sustaining individuals in the future (ibid). Nevertheless, none of these arguments would be as justifiable were it not for the reality that child labor is more inexpensive, more submissive, and hence better abused by employers. The demand for inexpensive labor appeals for an investigation into the wage systems of the industries using child labor. Societal constraints have functioned in further manners than in the displacement of women from the labor force to promote the exploitation of child labor. In a society that is mainly uneducated and unconscious of the advantages of education, the focus on child labor is remotely greater. While a number of parents suggest that a child working will be kept away from trouble, others find no value in educating their children who will decisively have to labor in a field that doesn’t demand any formal education (Rodgers 1981). Moreover, the low quality health services and facilities fused with the poor nutrition in impoverished regions highly increase life mortality rates. Frequently, children have to take on the obligations of the breadwinner due to weak health, or in some instances, the death of a parent who is usually the father. Religious affiliations, particularly in the case of Muslims, also appear influential in the choice to send children to child labor (ibid). Even though unsatisfactory law enforcement and deficiency in political determination have often been accounted as the primary cause for the continuation of child labor in India, even by others who are aware of the circumstances that envelops child labor, these causes mask a much more difficult condition; moreover, the effectiveness that the U.S. child labor regulations have attained might not be duplicable in India provided the tremendous dissimilarities in context (Browne et al. 2005). III. The Failure of Child Labor Laws in India From the moment of its independence, India has devoted itself to be opposed to child labor. Article 24 of the constitution of India evidently maintains that “No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or employed in any hazardous employment” (Constitution of India cited in Jain 1985: 218). Further, in Article 39, it guides State regulation such “that the health and strength of workers… and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength” (Constitution of India in Human Rights Watch 1996: 29). These mentioned articles demonstrate that India has at all time had the objective of protecting the rights of its children and guaranteeing the safety of workers. However, despite of these regulations, child labor has persisted in India. There are several reasons for the failure of child labor laws in India to regulate and curtail the occurrence of child labor in the country. Primarily, the laws do not get in touch with the workplaces where children are hired. Either the unorganized sectors of the economies and improvised sweatshops that hire children are not subjected under the power of child labor legislation, or the laws are complicated to implement under such circumstances. Second, in the instances where the child labor laws are implementable, employers and parents jeopardize getting caught so as to earn insignificant income as the instance may be (Fan 2004). As Gerry Rodger and Guy Standing (1981) emphasize in their writings on child labor, “It is one of the ironies of child labor that, where it is protected by law, the law is likely to leave child workers unprotected, since legally they do not exist” (187). In a number of instances, the whole industry is reliant on child labor; and hence, law enforcers have to take into account the wellbeing of the industry and the trade prior to implementing a law that might cause substantial damage to both. The nature of the legislation regarding child labor and its shortcoming to enhance the welfare of laboring children in India concern the reliability of this framework in its effort to restructure the dilemma of child labor. While passing legislation may be a decision that has been effective in abolishing child labor in highly industrialized nations such as the United States, the same may not be applicable for a developing country like India (ibid). A current progress in governmental policy took place in August of 1994, the moment the Prime Minister Narasimha Rao declared his recommendation of an Elimination of Child Labor Program. This program promised to terminate child labor for millions of children in dangerous industries as stated in the Child Labor Act of 1986, by 2000. The program acts around a motivation for children to leave their work and take admission to non-formal education. In order for this program to be realized, the government must have billions of dollars over the next five years and yet “about 4 percent of the five-year estimated cost was allocated for child labor elimination programs in 1995-1996” (Human Rights Watch 1996: 120). All of the regulations that the Indian administration has put in place are in harmony to the Constitution of India, and all advocate the abolition of Child Labor. Nevertheless, the predicament of child labor still lingers on despite of the existence of policies. Enforcement is the essential factor that is deficient in the government’s attempts (Browne et al. 2005). The population of child laborers and their work involvement rates indicate that enforcement, if present, is ineffective. IV. Possible Solutions against Child Labor in India Because of the probability of further damaging children through prohibiting all types of child labor, an intricate framework is required to consider the background of a specific community or family. The radical abolition of the most threatening labor conditions should be handled with independently from other types of child labor. Separate legislation or programs more capable to incorporate the background into the solution could then cater to the non-threatening child labor. Poverty and income demands should be specifically addressed to assure that the family is capable to survive without the income from child labor. Programs and legislations should take into account economic rewards for families to abandon child labor for substitutes, such as education (Weiner 1991). To rationalize the family sacrifices necessitated to abolish child labor, a relevant alternative, such as high standard education for the child, is important. For those who hold the belief that the exploitation of child labor is a segment of economic progress suggest that the single solution is for developing nations such as India to overcome this stage of progress as rapidly as possible. Hence, the demands created by developing nations to eliminate child labor may be untimely and even damaging that their tempo of progress may be hampered, slowing their emergence out of poverty, and hence eliminating the primary cause of child labor (Browne et al. 2005). Yet one premise claimed by developing nations is the scarcity of resources to sufficiently address the predicament of child labor. Not only do developing nations have to implement laws controlling child labor, resources also have to be channeled into alternatives to work, such as education and vocational preparations, in order to establish the transition from work a profitable one for children and their families (ibid). Inadequacy in resources makes it hard for developing nations to apply this multi-dimensional framework to abolishing child labor. References Badiwala, Mitesh. "Child Labor in India." Free India Media (2007): 1+. Browne, M. Neil et al. "Universal Moral Principles and the Law: The Failure of One-Size-Fits-All Child Labor Laws." Houston Journal of International Law (2005): 1+. "Economic Developments in India:Achievements and Challenges." The World Bank (1995). Fan, C. Simon. "Child Labor and the Interaction between the Quantity and Quality of Children." Southern Economic Journal (2004): 21+. Grootaert, C. & Kanbur, R. "Child Labour: An Economic Perspective." International Labor Review (1995): 187-201. Hartjen, Clayton A. Delinquency in India: A Comparative Analysis. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984. Jain, S.N. "Legislation and Government Policy in Child Labor." Naidu, U. Child Labour and Health: Problems & Prospects. Bombay: Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1985. Murshed, Madiha. "Unraveling Child Labor and Labor Legislation ." Journal of International Affairs (2002): 169+. Narayanan, Pradeep. "Child Labor in India." India Together (2006). Rodgers, Gerry & Standing, Guy. "Child Work, Poverty and Underdevelopment, ILO." Child Labor: An Economic Perspective (1981): 187-200. "The Small Hands of Slavery-Bonded Child Labor in India." Human Rights Watch (1996). Weiner, M. The Child and the State in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991. "World Labor Report." International Labor Organization (1993). "World Labor Report." International Labor Organization (1995). "World Labour Report." International Labor Organization (1992). Read More