Child labour menace
Child labour is a serious menace or hazard devastating not just childhood of millions of children in world but hurting humanity.
As a matter of fact, Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful.Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation worldwide, although these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, and some forms of work undertaken by Amish children, as well as by Indigenous children in the Americas.
In India too child labour was a serious issue. At the last count, there were over 10 million child labourers and 43 million children who were denied the right to an education.
As a matter of fact, a parliamentary standing committee on labour, textiles and skill development in its 52nd report on ‘National Policy on Child Labourers’ has said that it was “practically not possible” to meet the international commitment to eliminating child labour by 2025.
Noting that different definitions of ‘child’ under various laws leads to ambiguity, the committee called for examining the discrepancies in the criteria for determination of age of child and suggested a relook at the offences as being congnizable or non-cognizable to ensure that these do not lead to any ambiguity as well as delay in justice to the aggrieved child.
World Day Against Child Labour, June 12, 2023 we are calling for
Reinvigorated international action to achieve social justice, particularly under the envisaged Global Coalition for Social Justice, with child labour elimination as one of its important elements;
Universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age, which, together with the universal ratification of ILO Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour achieved in 2020, would provide all with legal protection against all forms of child labour.