The Hindu : Social workers pick holes in Child Labour Bill

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala-Thiruvananthapuram

Social workers pick holes in Child Labour Bill

By C. Maya

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 13. The Kerala Child Labour (Relief, Rehabilitation and Welfare) Bill, which aims at the total eradication of child labour along with the rehabilitation of the victims, has drawn flak from NGOs and social workers who feel that it fails to address many crucial issues.

According to T. Narayanan of the Kerala State Child Welfare Council, the Bill does not correctly define who is a child and what exactly constitutes child labour. It needs to be revamped if it is to achieve the objective of banning child labour, he maintains.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 has prohibited the employment of children below 14 years in hazardous occupations/processes, while in non-hazardous areas like shops and establishments, child labour is not banned, but only regulated.

``About 90 per cent of the children are engaged in the so-called non-hazardous occupations. The basic assumption must be that all those children who are not school-going, are engaged in some form of labour or the other,'' says Mr. Narayanan.

There is also the crucial question of the definition of a `child'. The 1986 Act defines a child as a person in the 0-14 years age group whereas the WHO, UN and the ILO define a child as one under 18 years of age.

The Director of Don Bosco Society here, Philip Parakkat, points out that the State has accepted the international definition of a child in the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000. The new Bill, however, fails to define either the `child' or `child labour'.

The Social Welfare Department had put forth the view that rather than imposing a total ban on child labour and robbing children of their livelihood, the focus should be on the enforcement of the provisions in the Child Labour Prohibition Act.

But the Labour Department had stuck to the view that regulating the working conditions of child workers, as envisaged in the 1986 Act, was practically not enforceable and that only a law banning child labour in all its manifestations would work.

M. P. Antony, who is in charge of Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL) here, a national network campaign, points out that the new Bill does not say anything about the rights of a child or about the punishment for those who violate these rights. It also does not mention about tackling domestic child labour or children who are employed as helpers in households.

NGOs point out that the UN Charter on the rights of the child should be the basis for a law prohibiting child labour and that stress should be on rehabilitation of the child worker and his family.

``There should be a total ban on employing children under 14 years of age. However, this might not be practically possible in the case of those above 14 years because of social compulsions.

In the case of children in the 15-18 age group, the Government should regulate their employment,'' says Fr. Parakkat.

He points out that a large number of children are being engaged in households, but at present, domestic labour by children does not come under the purview of enforcement officials.

Social workers complain that they are being kept out of a survey being conducted by the Government to assess the population of child labourers in the State.

The work has been handed over to the Statistics department, but the NGOs claim that they are better placed to conduct such a survey.

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