Context:

ILO released the report ‘Child Labour: Global estimates 2020, trends and the road forward’, ahead of World Day Against Child Labour.

Key-highlights of the Report

• The report points to a significant rise in the number of children aged 5 to 11 years in child labour, who now account for just over half of the total global figure.
• The number of children aged 5 to 17 years in hazardous work – defined as work that is likely to harm their health, safety or morals – has risen by 6.5 million to 79 million since 2016.
• Nearly 28 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 years and 35 per cent of children aged 12 to 14 years in child labour are out of school.
• Even in regions where there has been some headway since 2016, such as Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean, COVID-19 is endangering that progress.
• Globally, nine million additional children are at risk of being pushed into child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of the pandemic.

Major sector employing child labours

• 70 per cent in the agriculture sector (112 million)
• 20 per cent in services (31.4 million)
• 10 per cent in the industry (16.5 million).

Gender issue

• Child labour is more prevalent among boys than girls at every age.
• When household chores performed for 21 hours or more each week are taken into account, the gender gap in child labour narrows.

Rural vs Urban

The prevalence of child labour in rural areas (14 per cent) is close to three times higher than in urban areas (5 per cent).

Explain: child

• UNCRC: a child means every human being below the age of 18 years.
• The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: a child is a person who has not completed fourteen years of age.
• The Factories Act, 1948 and Plantation Labour Act 1951 states that a child is one that has not completed fifteen years of age.
• The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 has changed the definition of a child to any person who has not completed 18 years of age.
• POCSO Act 2012: a child is any person below eighteen years of age.

World Day Against Child Labour (12th June)

• The World Day Against Child Labour is an International Labour Organization-sanctioned holiday first.
• Launched in: 2002
• Aim: To raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour.

Constitutional provisions:

• Article 24: No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
• Article 21 (A): The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age six to 14 years.
• Article 39-e: The State shall direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and that they are not forced by economic necessity to enter vocations unsuited to their age and strength.
• Article 39-f: Children shall be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth shall be protected against moral and material abandonment.
• Article 45: The State shall endeavour to provide within a period of 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of 14 years.

India has also ratified two Core Conventions of the International Labour Organization (ILO) i.e.

• Conventions 138 regarding admission of age to employment
• Convention 182 regarding worst forms of Child Labour.