India, with an estimated 155 million child workers aged 5–14 years, has the third largest labor force of child workers. In underdeveloped countries, children are used as primary and secondary sources of family income. Some adults simply exploit the children in pursuit of financial gains. These children are paid as children but treated as adults, work long hours, and engage in physical labor. They are denied educational and growth opportunities, and without education or vocational training, they are unable to compete in the work force as adults, and are thus confined to being victims and to endless life of poverty.
The first generation of child employment is attributed to
- The Factory Act of 1881,
- The Child Labor Act of 1933: prohibited the employment of children under the age of 14 years.
- The 1986 enactment of the Child Labor Act regulated the employment of children in certain types of fields and areas that are hazardous in nature.
- The Juvenile Justice Act (1986 and 1987), which created extensive measures to curtail, prevent, and prohibit the trafficking, abuse, and exploitation of India’s children.
However, the deplorable state of child labor continues unabated all over India. Despite international and Indian laws prohibiting the trafficking and exploitation of children, some of these child laborers are still being sold into debt-bondage at home and in far distant countries to work excruciatingly long hours to pay off their parental or ancestral debts.
Example of child labor in India:
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