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Study reveals 33% of child workers in the age group of 7-14 years are illiterate
Approximately 1.4 million child labourers in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names. The clause in the new rules that allows children to continue working for family business main be the crucial leakage that will allow child labour to continue unchecked.
"Close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names. This means 1 in 3 child labourers in the said age group is illiterate," an analysis of Census data by CRY- Child Rights and You said in a statement.
This bleak statistic applies to children who work for more than 6 months in a year. Unescaped from the irons jaws of illiteracy are those children too who support their families by working for less than 6 months in a year.
The statement went to reveal the shocking figure that 2 million of these marginal workers have compromised their education as well. A similar situation is reflected in the state figures as well. Leading the table of shame is Bihar with almost 45% illiterate child labourers, followed closely by Rajasthan and Jharkhand with 40% each.
The cycle begins when a child drops out of school, the parents force the child into some kind of an employment from where a child seldom returns to formal education and in turn the formal employment sector. These children thus remain trapped in the intergenerational cycle of poverty and deprivation.
It is noteworthy that as long back as 1992, India ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and a reservation was made in article 32, wherein the Government of India articulated that it would progressively ban all forms of child labour.
Now, after 3 decades since the Child Labour Law came into force, India has the opportunity to amend the law in favour of these children. However, it is very surprising that the proposed amendment in the Child Labour law is quiet on the prohibition of labour for children under the age of 14, CRY said.
The new law is willing to allow children in this age group to work in family occupations after school hours. The Census 2011 data for children in labour, states that 6.5 million children in India in the age group of 5 to 14 work in agriculture and household industries. This translates to roughly 64.1%of child labourers in this age group, an eye-widening figure by any stretch of imagination.
However, years of CRY’s on ground experience dictates that a large number of children working in these occupations are working with their families, thus unaffected by the proposed ban.
Ideally, children shouldn’t be exempt from working in family enterprises as it tantamount to child labour under a different guise affecting not only their education and learning outcomes but also their health and overall development.
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