Child Labour Law

 Child Labour Law - We Have Once Again Failed Our Children 

( by Sravani Gokaraju )

Today's children are tomorrow's future. Children need to be educated so that they have a better future, leading to a better and prosperous society at large. They are the ones who will be in high positions tomorrow, ruling the nation in all fields. Education empowers them to have a better standard of living. Education could be the ticket to get their family and their upcoming generations out of poverty. 

But a lot of poor people cannot afford good education for their kids. They also are not willing to send their children to study. They would rather prefer them to work and help their family financially, from a young age. Since children avoid getting educated, they end up doing menial work that pays them less from a very young age. 

To avoid this, the Parliament of India and Ministry of Labour and Employment introduced a law in 1986. This law is called the Child and Adolescent Labour Act. It states that any child who is under the age of 14 should not be allowed to work, even as domestic help, failing which, the parents and employers will be severely punished. This forces the parents to send their children to schools. But this law is not strictly implemented everywhere as even till date, there are children below the age of 14 who are still working as domestic help in houses. 

The latest amendment allows children between the age of 14 to 18 to work in non-hazardous occupations. This step pulls back all the progress that we have achieved in this so far. With the new amendment, we have truly let our children and their future down. Parents who had no other option but to send their children to schools till the age of 14 can now stop their education after they attain 14 years and send their children to work. The age between 14 to 18 are prime as the education and exposure they receive in this age could either make or break their future. Parents now having the right to deprive 14+ year old children to not study means that they will again go back to doing menial work, leading too little to no use of the education they have received until then. 

 This not only affects them on an individual level but also affects the economy at large. As they end up doing menial work, they will earn very little. All their earnings will go into meeting their basic needs, leaving nothing to save. They will have no purchase power or financial stability. All of this will lead to lower economic growth of the country. 

Hence, the education children receive till the age of 21 will help them with better jobs and get a better pay. Education is everyone's basic right and to be deprived of that is a crime that must be avoided at all costs. As this quote says, "Life of little ones are destroyed, when child labour is employed". 

Disclaimer:-

The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Light de Literacy and LDL does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.