Combating Child labour through education

The complicated issue of child labour is a developmental issue that needs to be thoroughly researched. World Vision India believes that children are being exploited and forced into labour, if they are not attending any school regularly and there is a need to develop a strong strategy to address this issue.

India continues to host the largest number of child labourers in the world today. According to the Census 2001, there were 12.7 million economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years. The number was 11. 3 million during 1991 (Population Census) thus showing an increase in the number of child labourers.

Education is one of the critical element of any effective attempt to purge child labour. There are a number of factors that leads to a particular child to become a child labourer.

The child labour and education is strongly inter-linked. According to National Human Rights Commission of India, child labour can never be eradicated unless compulsory primary education up to the age of 14 is implemented.

In this paper, the author attempts to deal with the causes of child labour in India? How do governmental policies affect it? What role does education play in regard to child labour in India? The current state of education in India has been examined and how it is contributing to child labour. A critical analysis of the answers to these questions may lead in the direction of a possible solution.

Definition of child labour

There is no single universally accepted definition of ‘child labor.' Concepts and definitions are varied and sometimes vague. Some authors argue that child labor is such a complex phenomenon that a single definition that captures all its facets is simply not possible. Child labor is regarded as a social construct which differs by actors, history, context and purpose (Weston 2005).

Basically, the child laborers are the child workers involved in the odd jobs that are harmful to their overall development. These children are economically active and play a role in contributing to the family income.

World Bank describes child labor as a ‘serious threat' from the point of view of the harm it can do to long term national investment (Weston 2005). The ILO relates the phenomenon to the harm done to children by their current engagement in certain types of economic activity. UNICEF emphasizes that the issue goes way beyond the concerns of investment or its relation to economic activity, and includes several aspects of domestic work which conflicts with the best interest of the child (Huebler 2006).

Poverty as the reason for low school participation?

Child labour is closely associated with poverty. Many poor families are unable to afford school fees or other school costs. The family may depend on the contribution that a working child makes to the household's income, and place more importance on that than on education. And when a family has to make a choice between sending either a boy or girl to school, it is often the girl who loses out.

"Most child labour is rooted in poverty. The way to tackle the problem is clear. We must ensure that all children have the chance of going to school, we need social protection systems that support vulnerable families – particularly at times of crisis – and we need to ensure that adults have a chance of decent work. These measures, combined with effective enforcement of laws that protect children, provide the way forward", Ms Thomas, Director of the ILO's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) said.

It is commonly believed that the demand for school education is low because of the large scale poverty in our country. This notion has been discussed in various forums that the poor parents cannot afford to send their children to school because they cannot miss the income of their children as wage workers or household help.

It is widely agreed that the main forces driving child labour are poverty and lack of education (Basu et al., 2009; Ravallion and Wodon, 2000). Children are a financially viable source of labour for poor parents, so it is no surprise when one finds children involved in some level of domestic labour in rural economies (Ravallion and Wodon, 2000). With the assumption that child labour and schooling are substitutes, greater labour opportunities may be drawing children out of school at an early age. As a result, this may be further contributing to intergenerational poverty (Ravallion and Wodon, 2000).
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