Asj’a Thompson
Dr. Manley
28 September 2017
Demography of Child Labor in India Currently, 10.1 million children are involved in child labour in India. It is most prevalent in the city of Uttar Pradesh with 2.1 million child labourers and Bihar with 1 million child labourers. The current entry on the wikipedia page concerning the demography of child labor in India is relatively skimpy, therefore, I plan to add more factually based information. For example, according to UNICEF, 4.5 million girls and 5.6 million boys ages 5-14 are involved in child labor in India as reported by the 2011 Census. Furthermore, 13% of the workforce in India consists of child labor. Lastly, approximately 8 million children were working in rural areas and 2 million in urban areas. Information such as this is vital to the content of the page.
The most compelling aspects of this topic is that it is so ubiquitous throughout the country of India but it is also not talk about often. Challenges involved in ending child labor include the fact that it is not uniform, as reported by UNICEF. Child labor takes many forms. For example, it can be family-based work or independent/ industrial work and because of the complex nature of child labor in India there aren’t any strategies in place to dismantle the system. However, education has been proven in helping reduce the number of child laborers. Child labor is a human rights issue because it, essentially, deprives children of rights guaranteed by states. As reported by the journal, “Human Rights and Child Labour”, “in the case of India, specific provisions are laid down in the Constitution to protect children from economic exploitation and education, viz, right to free and compulsory education to all children of the age of 6 to 14 years, prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour, and prohibition of employment of children in factories, mines or other hazardous employment.” The prevalence of child labor in this country is a direct violation of those constitutional rights. Child labor is basically equivalent to slavery and it changes the way we understand human rights history because, to the knowledge of most, slavery has reduced significantly since the 1700s but these statistics prove otherwise. As evinced by the information provided by the website UNICEF and the journal, “Human Rights and Child Labour,” there is sufficient research and information provided to conduct this project.
Bibliography
"CHILD Protection & Child Rights » Vulnerable Children » Children's Issues » Child Labour in India." Child Labour in India - Issues and Concerns. Accessed September 28, 2017. http://childlineindia.org.in/child-labour-india.htm.
"Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor - India." United States Department of Labor. September 28, 2017. Accessed September 28, 2017. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/india.
"Indian legislation protects children from exploitation:." Child Labour | UNICEF. Accessed September 28, 2017. http://unicef.in/Whatwedo/21/Child-Labour.
Satyarthi, Kailash.”Human Rights and Child Labour, Global March Against Child Labour.” GlobalMarch.org. Accessed September 28, 2017. http://globalmarch.org/images/HumanRightsandChildLabour_MexicoEvent2013.pdf
Asj'a Thompson (talk) 19:32, 28 September 2017 (UTC)Asja Thompson