Context:

Child laborers continue to be employed in large numbers in the country.

The current situation of child labor in India

• India, home to one-fifth of the world’s children, has the highest rates of child labor.
• The continuing practice of child labor has the potential to jeopardize India’s push for incentivizing foreign investments into the sector and integrating them into global supply chains.
• While the number of child labor has declined over the years, child labor in India remains on a massive scale and represents the insidious side of not only domestic but global supply chains.
• Current definitions of child labor do not include children between the age of 14-18.
• They are considered too young to be adults but old enough to be out of school and in low-paying, low-productivity jobs.

International treaties

• Most recently, in 2017, India signed two ILO conventions concerning the ‘Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour’ and the ‘Minimum Age for Admission to Employment.
• With India’s ratification, almost all of the world’s children are covered by both these conventions, enhancing global efforts on abolishing child labor.

India’s current legislative architecture

• Article 24: No child below the age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986.
  • The law, albeit controversial, contained a particular set of occupations and processes where children under the age of 15 were prohibited from being employed.
• The 2016 amendment to the Act expanded the ambit of the legislation to adolescents (15-18).
  • The amendment prohibits all forms of labor for children under the age of 15 except in the case of family businesses and home-based enterprises.
  • It further prohibits hazardous adolescent labor in only three sectors – mining, explosives,
    and those occupations mentioned in the Factory Act.