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India has about 12.6 million children engaged in economic activity according to the Population Census 2001.
Save the Children has long been concerned about the prevalence of child labour in India and actively engages with key stakeholders to raise awareness about the negative effect it has on the childhood and rights of a working child and on their prospects for future personal and professional development. The estimates of working children in India range greatly, with figures as varied as 12.6 million acknowledged in the Government of India’s 2001 Census, to approximately 50 million as suggested by many NGOs.
However, it is important to note that Government figures do not include children between 15 and 18 and also fail to consider those children involved in agriculture—it is estimated that that up to 75% of child labourers under fourteen are engaged in traditional agricultural activities.
In the context of the historic Right to Education Act (RTE) guaranteeing compulsory elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 to 14, Save the Children launched a 45-day campaign on April 30 to raise public awareness about the reality of child labour in India and to lobby the Government to ensure that the millions of children now engaged in child labour are included in the implementation of the RTE Act. The premise of the campaign was simple: With this historic piece of legislation, the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (CLPRA) must be amended immediately. You cannot have one law that promises elementary education to all children and another one regulating child labour. Children cannot be both working and in school at the same time — let’s ensure that it is only the latter.
Officially, there are close to 13 million children who are now engaged in child labour; unofficial estimates put this figure at over 40 million.
Save the Children asked 45 eminent individuals to endorse a petition to the Prime Minister seeking changes to the CLPRA to bring it in line with the RTE Act. Three National Advisory Council Members, two Planning Commission members, MPs from across the political spectrum, the Executive Editor of Times of India, the Editor and Executive Editor of Tehelka, the CII head, several business heads and the NCPCR chairperson were among those who unhesitatingly threw their weight behind the petition.
On submitting the petition to the Prime Minister, we issued a press release which was carried by The Times of India, The Hindu, Deccan Herald and others.
Several of the States where Save the Children works conducted a series of activities during the 45-day campaign. For example, West held a poster and post card campaign against child labour and placed anti-child labour hoardings throughout the city.
Around 25,000 children from four districts of Gujarat conducted a massive survey to assess issues affecting them directly, such as education, health, sanitation, etc and produced a report card. The children found, for example, that 8800 children were engaged full-time in child labour and a majority of them were under 14.
As part of the 45-day campaign, the team in Maharashtra organised a photo exhibition in Pune. Eighteen children from Amravati who had been put through the paces on handling a camera captured their reality and their environment on camera. The result was a photo exhibition which also signed off the 45-day campaign. It was a fitting finale and the result was an excellent coverage in all the major media houses.
Media coverage of the events and issues was heartwarming and helped us to drive home the message that children should be at school, not at work.
Many, if not all, child labourers work in unacceptable conditions, their most basic rights denied. All are vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
Some of our biggest projects around child labour are in the geographies of Gujarat and Maharashtra in the west. Following are fe key achievements in the past month;
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2,982 children have been helped out of exploitative child labour across 8 districts of Gujarat and Maharashtra
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Child rights promotion and child labour mitigation programme has helped facilitate registration and access to pre-school Anganwadi centres for 64,805 children ages 3-6; Over 900 Anganwadis and 80 schools have been made child and learner friendly across 8 districts of Gujrat and Maharashtra
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