• Violence against children knows no boundaries. Violence cuts across race, class, religion and culture. In every country of the world there are children who continue to fear and experience violence. No country or region is immune.

• Violence against children is never justifiable or acceptable. States are obligated to protect all children from all forms of violence. International human rights law is based on respect for every person’s human dignity. Children, as people, should receive no less protection than adults.

• In over 100 countries, children still suffer the threat or reality of corporal punishment with canes, belts or other implements in schools.

• In at least 30 countries, sentences of whipping or caning are still being imposed on children in penal systems.

• Children are most frequently sexually abused by someone they know, often a member of their own family. Harmful traditional practices are generally imposed on children at an early age by family or community leaders. Much of this violence is hidden behind closed doors or because of shame or fear.

• Frequently, children experience physical, cruel or humiliating punishment in the context of discipline. Insults, name-calling, isolation, rejection, threats, emotional indifference and belittling are all forms of violence that can damage a child's well-being.

• Fighting and bullying are also examples of violence against children in schools. Often bullying is associated with discrimination against students from poor families or marginalized groups, or those with particular personal characteristics such as appearance or a disability.

• Hope this helps! bye

what is child labour

child is generally speaking work by children that harm them or exploists them in some ways physically,mentally,morally are by blocking their access to education

Over the past two decades India has put in place a range of laws and programmes to address the problem of child labour. UNICEF and its India partners are working together to ensure that children are protected from work and exploitation which is harmful to their development They are working to ensure that children remain in economically stable family homes and get the opportunity to go to school and be educated. Child labour cannot be dealt with in isolation. It is intrinsically linked to socio-economic factors. More specifically, UNICEF has also initiated work with employers and the private sector to assess and address the impact of their supply chain and business practices on children. 

The causes and nature of child labour

The factors that contribute to child labour – including “hazardous” child labour  –include the poverty and illiteracy of a child’s parents, the family’s social and economic circumstances, a lack of awareness about the harmful effects of child labour, lack of access to basic and meaningful quality education and skills training, high rates of adult unemployment and under-employment, and the cultural values of the family and surrounding society.

Often children are also bonded to labour due to a family indebtedness. Out of school children (OOSC) or those children at risk of dropping out can easily be drawn into work and a more vulnerable to exploitation. Girls, especially those from socially disadvantaged groups, tend to be at a higher risk of being forced into work.

Other reasons for children being forced into work:

·         Poverty and a lack of livelihood options lead to a child’s “need” to contribute to the family income,

·         Due to conflicts, droughts and other natural disasters, and family indebtedness,

·         Rural poverty and urban migration also often exposes children to being trafficked for work.

Children are employed because they are cheap and pliable to the demands of the employer and not aware of their rights. The risks that these children face can have an irreversible physical, psychological and moral impact on their development, health and wellbeing.

Types of child labour: A recent change

The types of child labour have changed in recent years due to enforcement of legislation, awareness amongst buyers about child exploitation, and international pressure. Child labour is now more invisible because the location of the work has changed from the more formal setting of factories, to business owners’ homes. There has also been an increasing involvement of children in the home-based and informal sectors.

Children are engaged in manual work, in domestic work in family homes, in rural labour in the agricultural sector including cotton growing, at glass, match box and brass and lock-making factories, in embroidery, rag-picking, beedi-rolling, in the carpet-making industry, in mining and stone quarrying, brick kilns and tea gardens amongst others.

Work is often gender-specific, with girls performing more domestic and home-based work, while boys are more often employed in wage labour. In general, the workload and duration of the working hours increases as children grow older. Getting accurate, detailed information about children working in different sectors is a major challenge because, in many cases, children work in informal sectors such as agriculture, and in urban settings in restaurants, motor repair workshops and in home-based industries.

Challenges to ending child labour

Child labour is not uniform. It takes many forms depending upon the type of work that children are made to do, the age and sex of the child and whether they work independently or with families. Due to this complex nature of child labour, there is no one strategy that can be used to eliminate it.

Combatting child labour requires long term co-ordinated action which involves many stakeholders and the government. This includes educational institutions, mass media, NGOs and community-based organizations as well as trade unions and employers. It is important that the attitudes and mindsets of people are changed to instead employ adults and allow all children to go to school and have the chance to learn, play and socialize as they should.

Education is a key to preventing child labour and has been one of the most successful methods to reduce child workers in India. This includes expanding education access to schooling, improving the quality and relevance of education, addressing violence in schools, providing relevant vocational training and using existing systems to ensure child workers return to school.

Big Picture

India’s 2011 census showed that:

·         There were more than 10.2 million “economically active” children in the age group of five to 14 years – 5.6 million boys and 4.5 million girls,

·         Eight million children were working in rural areas, and 2 million in urban areas,

·         Although in rural settings the number of child workers reduced from 11 million to 8 million between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, over the same period, the number of children working in urban settings rose from 1.3 million to 2 million,

THE POLICY FRAMEWORK SURROUNDING CHILD LABOUR

The key international laws dealing with child labour include the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment of 1973 (ILO Convention138) and on the Worst Forms of Child Labour of 1999 (ILO Convention182).

India has not ratified either of the two ILO conventions and also made a reservation to article 32 of the CRC at the time of ratification stating that it would apply the article in a progressive manner, according to its national legislation and international commitments, especially in relation to the minimum age.

Related national legislations:

·         Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (1986), “to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employments” (preamble of the CLPR Act). It excludes a section of toiling children in the unorganized sectors including agriculture, as well as household work.

·         National Policy on Child Labour (1987), with a focus more on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes, rather than on prevention.

·         Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 (the JJ Act) and amendment of the JJ Act in 2006: includes the working child in the category of children in need of care and protection, without any limitation of age or type of occupation. Section 23 (cruelty to Juvenile) and Section 26 (exploitation of juvenile employee) specifically deal with child labour under children in need of care and protection.

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