Child Labour In India: A Sociological Observation

International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 55 Original Article CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA: A SOCIOLOGICAL OBSERVATION Sri. Jagadevappa Chakki Head, Dept. of Sociology, Siddharth Arts and Commerce Degree College, Janwada Road Bidar. Manuscript ID: IJAAR-130110 Abstract: This research paper attempts to analyze the Child labor is a curse to our society and a crime against humanity. Child labor is a major problem in India. In Indian, despite, there is no enactment which genuinely contributed for eradication of child labor. Children are employed in both formal and informal sectors. Thus, the clarification of the term ‘hazardous’ is unclear and inadequate especially in the case of child labor. Child labor can be factory work, mining, or quarrying, agriculture, helping in parents’ business, having one’s own small business, or doing odd jobs. There are many types of child labor but bonded child labor or slave labor is one of the worst types of labor for children. It is estimated that approximately 10 million bonded children laborers are working as domestic servants in India. Apart from this there are nearly 55 million bonded child laborers who are employed across several other industries. Employment of children in the urban informal sector is an enormous problem in many parts of the world. This is especially true in areas where poverty, unemployment and inadequate opportunities for education and training are widespread. Some child rights activists argue that child labour must include every child who is not in school because he or she is a hidden child worker. Keywords: Child Labour, Factors, Nature, Forms, Child Rights, Bonded Child Labour ISSN: 2347-7075 Impact Factor – 8.141 Volume - 13 Issue - 1 SeptemberOctober 2025 Pp. 55-62 Submitted: 30 Sept 2025 Revised: 20 Oct 2025 Accepted: 28 Oct 2025 Published: 31 Oct 2025 Corresponding Author: Sri. Jagadevappa Chakki Quick Response Code: Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17677662 DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenod o.17677662 Creative Commons Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), which permits others to remix, adapt, and build upon the work non-commercially, provided that appropriate credit is given and that any new creations are licensed under identical terms. How to cite this article: Sri. Jagadevappa Chakki. (2025). Child Labour In India: A Sociological Observation. International Journal of Advance and Applied Research, 13(1), 55–62. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17677662 International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 56 Introduction: Child labor is a curse to our society and a crime against humanity. Children work when they are supposed to play or go to school. By making them work in this tender age we are not only destroying their future, but also playing with the destiny of the country. “The child is the father of man.” This famous line quoted by William Wordsworth specifies the importance of the child for the development of building a healthy nation and society. Childhood is the most innocent stage in human life. A child normally has to enjoy its childhood days with its parents, teachers, friends etc. It is that stage of life where fine and long lasting impressions gather in child‟s mind. However, this simple rule of nature has been crippled by the ever-growing menace of child labor.In this modern world, child labor still remains a serious problem in many parts of the world. Today, throughout the world, around 215 million children are child labors. The sad thing is that they work under hazardous circumstances. More than half of them are exposed to the worst form of child labor such as work in harmful environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labor, illicit activities including drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict. Child labor is a major problem in India. In Indian, despite, there is no enactment which genuinely contributed for eradication of child labor. The constitution in article – 25 states that no child below 14 years will be employed in any factories or mines or engaged in any hazardous occupation that is harmful for them. But, till now it is not remarked anywhere of ablution or elimination of child labor. Admitting that the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act of 1986 have put forward some average working conditions for children who work in hazardous environment, yet the word hazardous has not been specified clearly anywhere in the constitution, or in any act asserted on child labor. Thus, the clarification of the term „hazardous‟ is unclear and inadequate especially in the case of child labor.Child labor can be factory work, mining, or quarrying, agriculture, helping in parents‟ business, having one‟s own small business, or doing odd jobs. Children work as waiters in restaurants and sometimes as tourist‟s guides. Other children are forced to do draggy and uninteresting jobs such as polishing shoes of rich people or accumulating boxes. However, instead of working in factories and sweatshops, most child labor occurs in the informal sector, children are forced to sell products on the streets, work in agriculture fields or hidden away in housesfar from the reach of official labor inspectors and from media inspection. There are many types of child labor but bonded child labor or slave labor is one of the worst types of labor for children. It is estimated that approximately 10 million bonded children laborers are working as domestic servants in India. Apart from this there are nearly 55 million bonded child laborers who are employed across several other industries. A recent International Labor Organization (ILO) report says that in India there are about 80 percent of child laborers who are hired in the agriculture International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 57 sector. Generally, the children are sold to the rich moneylenders to whom borrowed money cannot be returned. In addition to this „Street children‟ is another type of child labor where children work on the street as beggars, flower sellers, etc. Sometimes children are not being provided with food for long so that people feel sorry for them and give alms. The statistical information regarding child labor cannot be taken to be precise, as there are areas where no accounting has been done.Child labor is in fact, a source of income for poor families. Poor parents give birth to children thinking they would earn more money. The children either increase their parent‟s income or are the only wage earners in the family. Because of poverty families are forced to send their children into labor, the employers find it a source of cheap and trouble free labor. Children can be beaten and tormented into doing dirty jobs. Innocent children are employed by industries and individuals who put them to work under exhausting environments. They are made to work for long hours in dangerous factory units and sometimes made to carry load even heavier than their own body weight.Millions of children are involved in work that is unacceptable for children, including the sale and trafficking of children into debt bondage, serfdom, and forced labor. It includes the forced employment of children for armed conflict, commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities such as producing and trafficking drugs. Concept of Child Labor: The term 'child labor', suggests ILO is best defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, or work whose schedule interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or work that affects in any manner their ability to focus during war and clubs and boutros, school or experience a healthy childhood. UNICEF defines child labor differently. A child, suggests UNICEF, is involved in child labor activities if between 5 and 11 years, he or she did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work a week, and in case of children between 12 and 14 years of age, he or she did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work per week. UNICEF in another report suggests, "Children's work needs to be seen as a continuum, with destructive or exploitative work at one end and beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children's development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest - at the other. And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child's development." India's Census 2001 office, defines child labor as participation of a child less than 17 years of any financially productive activity with or without compensation, wages or profit. Such participation could be physical or mental or both. This work includes part-time help or unpaid work on International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 58 the farm, family enterprise or any other economic activity such as cultivation and milk production for sale or domestic consumption. Indian government classifies child laborers into two groups: Main workers are those who work 6 months or more per year. And marginal child workers are those who work at any time during the year but less than 6 months in a year. Some child rights activists argue that child labour must include every child who is not in school because he or she is a hidden child worker. UUNICEF, however, points out that India faces major shortages of schools, classrooms and teachers in in rural areas where 90 percent of child labor problem is observed. About 1 in 5 primary schools have just one teacher to teach students across all grades. The Factors and Nature of Child Labor: The factors that contribute to child labor - including "hazardous" child laborinclude the poverty and illiteracy of a child's parents, the family's social and economic circumstances, a lack of awareness about the child labor, lack of access to basic and meaningful quality education and skills training, high rates of adult unemployment and under-employment, and the cultural values of the family and surrounding society.Often children are also bonded to labor due to a family debt. Out of school children (OOSC) or those children at risk of dropping out can easily draw into work and more vulnerable to exploitation. Girls, especially those from socially disadvantaged groups, tend to be at high risk of being forced into work.Children are employed because they are cheap and pliable to the demands of the employer and not aware of their rights. The risks that these children face can have an irreversible physical, psychological and moral impact on their development, health and wellbeing. The Paradox of Child Labour in India: Irrespective of what children do and what they think of what they do, modern society sets children apart ideologically as a category of people excluded from the production of value.The dissociation of childhood from the performance of valued work is considered a yardstick of modernity, and a high incidence of child labour is considered a sign of underdevelopment. The problem with defining children‟s roles in this way, however, is that it denies their agency in the creation and negotiation of value.Illuminating the complexity of the work patterns of children in developing countries, recent anthropological research has begun to demonstrate the need to critically examine the relation between the condemnation of child labour on the one hand and children‟s everyday work practice on the other.The emerging paradox is that the moral condemnation of child labour assumes that children‟s place in modern society must perforce be one of dependency and passivity. This denial of their capacity to legitimately act upon their environment by undertaking valuable work makes children altogether dependent upon entitlements guaranteed by the state. International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 59 Approaches to Children's Work: The recent concern with child labor draws on a shared understanding among developers of how, from the mid-19th century, the western industrial society began to eliminate through legislation the exploitation of children. However, historians still discuss more deep-seated reasons for the nineteenth-century outcry in Western Europe and the United States against child labor, which is as old as childhood itself. For example, Nardinelii (1990) has questioned the assumption that this outcry was inspired, as some authors argue, by the brutal treatment of children working in factories. Besides humanitarian reasons, Nardinelii (1990) argued that there was a desire to protect initiatives to mechanize the textile industry from the uncontrolled competition of a labor force composed almost entirely of children. Another equally important reason was the fear of political instability created by a youthful working class by the disciplined by the military, schools, or church. While Some believe compulsory education was the single most important instrument leading to the elimination of child labor, while others argued that changes in the perceived roles of children and increased family income, played a more decisive role. Child Forms of Child Labor: Children are employed in both formal and informal sectors. Among the occupations where children are engaged in work are construction work, domestic work and small-scale industries. Incidentally, agriculture is not only the oldest but also the most common child occupation worldwide. Some of the industries that depend on child labor are bangle-making, beedi-making, power looms and manufacturing processes. These industries use toxic metals and substances such as lead, mercury, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos. Child labor is very harmful and wholehearted efforts to eliminate this must be done. Intervention and Child Labor: Education is a very important part of development. Children who are drawn to child labor are basically driven because of economic deprivation, lack of schooling and engagement of family for daily needs. Studies have found low enrollment with increased rates of child employment. Schools are the platform for early intervention against child labor, as it restricts their participation in menial jobs. Hurdles in this approach are economic reasons. Unless economic change is brought about, the children will not be able to attend the school. Child labor can be controlled by economic development increasing awareness and making education affordable across all levels, and enforcement of anti child labor laws.The Government of India has taken certain initiatives to control child labor. The National Child Labor Project (NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labor endemicity in the country. Under the scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special schools for child labor. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district. Under the scheme, these children are provided formal/informal education along with vocational training, International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 60 and a stipend of Rs. 100 per month. Health check-up is also done for them. Bonded Child Labour: Bonded child labour is a hidden phenomenon as a majority of them are found in the informal sector. Bonded labour means the employment of a person against a loan or debt or social obligation by the family of the child or the family as a whole. It is a form of slavery. Children who are bonded with their family or inherit a debt from their parents are often found in agricultural sector or assisting their families in brick kilns, and stone quarries. Individual pledging of children is a growing occurrence that usually leads to trafficking of children to urban areas for employment and have children working in small production houses versus factories. Bonded labourers in India are mostly migrant workers, which opens them up to more exploitation. Also they mostly come from low caste groups such as dalits or marginalised tribal groups. Bonded child labourers are at very high risk for physical and sexual abuse and neglect sometimes leading to death. They often are psychologically and mentally disturbed and have not learnt many social skills or survival skills. Child Protection & Child Rights India: “Out of school children comprise the workers and non workers. In our view they together signify a measure of deprivation among children and can be considered as a potential labour pool always being at the risk of entering the labour force" - NCEUS, 2007 India is sadly the home to the largest number of child labourers in the world. The census found an increase in the number of child labourers from 11.28 million in 1991 to 12.59 million in 2001. M.V. Foundation in Andhra Pradesh found nearly 400,000 children, mostly girls between seven and 14 years of age, toiling for 14-16 hours a day in cottonseed production across the country of which 90% are employed in Andhra Pradesh. 40% of the labour in a precious stone cutting sector is children. NGOs have discovered the use of child labourers in mining industry in Bellary District in Karnataka in spite of a harsh ban on the same. In urban areas there is a high employment of children in the zari and embroidery industry. Poverty and lack of social security are the main causes of child labour. The increasing gap between the rich and the poor, privatization of basic services and the neo-liberal economic policies are causes major sections of the population out of employment and without basic needs. This adversely affects children more than any other group. Entry of multi-national corporations into industry without proper mechanisms to hold them accountable has lead to the use of child labour. Lack of quality universal education has also contributed to children dropping out of school and entering the labour force. A major concern is that the actual number of child labourers goes un-detected. Laws that are meant to protect children from hazardous labour are ineffective and not implemented correctly. A growing phenomenon is using children as domestic workers in urban areas. The conditions in which children work is completely unregulated and they are often International Journal of Advance and Applied Research Peer Reviewed | International Open Access Journal ISSN: 2347-7075 | Impact Factor – 8.141 | Website: https://ijaar.co.in/ Volume-13, Issue-1 | September - October 2025 61 made to work without food, and very low wages, resembling situations of slavery. There are cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers. The argument for domestic work is often that families have placed their children in these homes for care and employment. There has been a recent notification by the ministry of labour making child domestic work as well as employment of children in dhabas, tea stalls and restaurants "hazardous" occupations. Conclusion: The child labour has become a social evil when people started exploiting the children of tender age. At rural areas and even in many of urban areas, the children of school going age are found in factories, hotels industries, street workers, trafficked, beedi workers, agricultural field which deprives opportunities for normal, physical, mental and social growth and development. This is the story of child labor in all the poor developing and underdeveloped countries of world including India. Even after sixty-five years of independence India has not been able to give any liberation to the poor. Yet withdrawal of child labor is cureless task in the current socio-economic scenario, the Indian government is dedicated to the task of confirming that all the children should be literate and that no child remains illiterate, hungry and without medical care. When this ideal will be achieved is a million dollar question. Child labor is, no doubt an evil that should be done away with at the earliest. The prevalence of child labor rebound and effects adversely on society that it is not able to stop this evil. But in a society where many households have to go through the discomfort of starvation if the children are withdrawn from work, beggars can‟t be chooser. Unfortunately these families have to send their children to work, knowing that the future of the child will be ruined but they have to, as that is the only way open for them to survive in this world. Therefore unless the socio economic status of the poor families is improved, India has to live with child labor. Bringing 8 million out-of-school children into classes at the age-appropriate level with the support to stay in school and succeed poses a major challenge. Substantial efforts are essential to eliminate disparities and ensure quality with equity. 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