Study on Working Conditions of Children in both Organised and Unorganised Industries

INTRODUCTION

Child Labour in India: A Retrospective Despite major achievements in most of the post-independence sectors, India still faces many social barriers to national growth. One such concern is child labour. As far as India is concerned, it is not a new phenomenon. Since it has been connected since time immemorial to the socio-economic growth of Indian society and became more important after the economic revolution. In India, the issue of child labour has lately assumed the proportion of a societal hazard that threatens the very fabric of the social milieu. Since it was taken up by many Western countries under the fabric of labour welfare, child labour has become a well-explained common issue, targeting developing countries such as India and China as the two countries have a very poor record in the field of child labour. In spite of progressive laws and policies, the problem of child labour in India is rising more and more. For a long time, it has remained both an economic and a social issue. More than 100 million children are toiling in different corners of India, according to the latest ILO (2004) survey. Every fourth of the world's working children are Indian children. India ranks first in the world for having the largest number of child workers, amid industrialization , urbanisation, privatisation and its many achievements. Child labour in various forms in India was prevalent also in ancient times. But as of now, it has not been so exploitative. The key motivation and concern among the parents and teachers was successful socialisation. Their work was favourably linked to the children's overall development. The condition changed later on. There was a huge growth in the coffee , tea, indigo and jute industries in the northern and central parts of India during 1860-1870. Colonel rulers belonged to many European countries to these industries. In many farm and plantation workers, children accounted for 17 percent of the labour force during 1940. Following independence, Mukherjee (1991) writes, "In many parts of India, it was so popular that children were found in coal mines to help parents drive or fill carts." "Kids were also find working in mica mines". "Furthermore, Lieten (2005) writes" the very specific figures we find in the official accounts of many industries- tea gardens, coal mines, mica industries, bidi industries and regulated and unregulated factories have been carefully modified and offer an image of the reality at that time. It is a well-known fact that, since ancient times, children have been found working in many household occupations. The main intent was that the children were expected to continue the family occupation after the elder's life time. These kinds of practises were also so prevalent in rural India during mediaeval times, since small and marginal economic units eventually characterised a largely rural society. Kids have increasingly become an important part of the household economy. While still young, they were educated and eventually started to

Except in family-run units, where the child is normally best looked after by his parents and does not suffer from any physical hardship, experts say "he goes through comprehensive mental stress due to problems and anxieties about the company he shares with his parents" (Pathak, 1991). (Pathak, 1991).). India has the highest population of child labourers, contributing nearly 7% of the workforce, which contributes significantly to GDP. The estimates of the child labour population in India given by different agencies do not reflect a standardised picture. There were 10.74 million child workers, comprising 4.68 percent of the total population of children and 5.81 percent of the total labour force, according to the 1971 Indian census. However, the 1981 Census found that 13.57 million children served in organised and unorganised industries. Roughly 92.23% of all child labour is employed in rural India. According to the latest official survey, more than 29.34 million children are employed in various parts of India, of which 6.45 million are child labourers According to the ILO, India has the dubious distinction of probably having the largest child labour force in the world. In various corners of India, approximately 45 million children are found working in both organised and unorganised sectors. Small-scale surveys over the past decade have recorded the extent of home-based jobs, despite the scarcity and low estimates of official data. 250 million home-based workers are estimated to exist, including 200 million from the poorest families (WIEGO 2000; HomeNet 1999). An example of the rising awareness of this issue was a national survey conducted in India in 1999 that tried to record home-based work. The 55th round of the National Sample Survey (July 1999-June 2000) showed that the total number of informal workers in non-agricultural firms was 79.7 million, 30 million from home (Sudarshan et al 2001; NSSO 2000). The first ever national survey on informal sector non-agricultural enterprises showed that the total number of informal workers in non-agricultural enterprises was 79.7 million. This number has increased marginally and the share of female employees has increased (Nceus 2007; Unni, Jhabvala and Sinha 2007), according to data from 2004/05. Indeed, a feature of this labour force is that women are the vast majority of these homeworkers. Companies use hwers to externalise production in order to reduce costs and mitigate risk in response to growing national and international competition (Gereffi 1994; Kaplinsky et al 2001; Carr et al 2000. The consequence is the simultaneously increasing informalization and feminization of labour in developing countries (Carr and Chen 1999; Charmes 2001; UNIFEM 2000). In most countries, data on the reach and magnitude of labour, while growing,2 is very small, and knowledge on the scale of hw is even scarcer. This of. Five country studies of subcontracted HW in manufacturing (India , Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines) were conceived, planned and commissioned in Asia. They included surveys to analyse the job and status of women and children in informal manufacturing's hw economic activities. On the one hand, we discuss hw children, how these behaviours impact their well-being in terms of education and health (capability deprivation, see Sen 1999; UNDP 2003) and whether they are more likely to function more than other children; on the other hand, we outline policy implications. The purpose of this paper is twofold. This paper is focused on the study of data and information obtained in five countries between 2000 and 2001 through household surveys, household focus group discussions, and case studies. We are focusing our attention on India for this article, where the degree of exploitation and deprivation of capability is very widespread. Mehrotra and Biggeri (2007) for the cross-country study for five countries as well as the individual country studies). In Section 2, the key characteristics of hW practises and the theoretical context for economic analysis are presented in order to explain whether these behaviours in the home have an impact on the involvement of children at work. The study design and sample design, some characteristics of the sectors chosen and characteristics of hwer households are briefly described in Section 3. The key results related to household employment, education, the reasons why children work and their working conditions are discussed in section 4. These data are contrasted with households not-in-hw. The determinants of child labour status in hw households are investigated in section 5 via a multinomial logit analysis. In the last section, policy implications are drawn for human development of hwer households and to reduce child labour and increase children‘s capabilities.

OUTWORK AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

How the micro-level provides many benefits to families. Above all, it provides jobs and also an opportunity to boost and diversify their income; it also saves the commuting time of employees and, in addition to hw, they may undertake other tasks. Such other activities typically include other economic activities for men (e.g. farming in rural areas or occasional salary work), and for women they usually mean the fulfilment of their reproductive and domestic roles, while at the same time contributing to family income by hw. In manufacturing products at home, HOwers may learn specialised skills, growing the human resources available at household and local level. advance into subcontracting, at least among men, and may probably contribute to the start-up of a small business (Prugl and Tinker 1997). This can enhance the production system at the local level through cluster growth (Mehrotra and Biggeri 2005). Such benefits can mask severe drawbacks for the hwer. Piece prices (the standard form of payment in hw) may be poor in conditions of excess labour supply, and therefore the share of horses in the value chain will be extremely low. Despite the fact that hwers, in some cases, are very highly qualified workers, in many instances piecerates are low (Mehrotra and Biggeri 2006). In particular, if there are few alternative income earning opportunities in the region, or if work is only available as bonded labour, working conditions may be very exploitative. Only a first step in exploitation across the global value chain can be the exploitation of the hwers by local employers (Carr et al 2000; Mehrotra and Biggeri 2007). In addition, some manufacturing expenses and related risks have to be met by the hw household, including purchasing or renting and maintaining equipment; providing workspace and paying for energy costs; and purchasing some inputs, even without their employer's assistance. Since the operation is performed in the home, these practises are often often hazardous in terms of health in the first place for hwers, and in the second instance for other members of the household. We suggest a clear theoretical approach in which the household determines the division of children's time between work and school in order to clarify the specificity of hw households. We believe that in sending their children to work and to school, households incur fixed costs. Some of the fixed costs , for example, are connected to the travel costs (both direct and indirect) that the child must bear to reach a position where she / he could be working or attend school (plus the normal fixed costs such as books, food, stationery, uniforms). The transaction costs in which parents are involved (traveling to find a job or queuing for regular work as 'casual labour') are other important fixed costs. In the case of jobs, these fixed costs are linked to the availability (or not) of employment in the city, to the social networks (or, if you will, 'social capital') of the parents in the group that employs them and the children. Fixed costs also occur because of the indivisibility of external work contracts due to time management and constraints of duties, I e, home-based work should be shared among household members, which is not feasible because it is done outside the home in an external work contract. The cost of working outside the home may also be solely psychological, in the sense that parents may fear that the work outside the home. In the case of girls, parents are especially concerned about their protection, especially as they grow older (as decision whether to send a child only to school, to work and study, only to work, or to be "idle"4. We argue that if a household is engaged in a small family business (especially if it resides in a region where the labour market is very slack), the fixed costs of seeking a job for the children are dramatically reduced.5 In addition, for a low-income household engaged in a conventional home-based operation and in a situation where there is a lack of other opportunities, lower risk is perceived Children in hw households are also more likely to be in the "only working" or "working-and-studying" groups than other children, under the same conditions. This is because there are fixed costs associated with sending a child to work outside the house, as we saw above, which would outweigh the returns to that career. In seeking an outside job for children, home employment decreases fixed costs, shifting parental opportunity costs and therefore the choice to send children to school and/or employment. It has been noted that the return to work is affected by the child's age and sex. As age increases, returns to (manual) work often increase, and the returns of male children appear to be higher in general than for female children. Returns and fixed labour costs are also impacted by the labour market and the structural structure. Since attending school becomes more costly as the child progresses past primary education, the child's age often affects the fixed (and variable) costs of schooling. The standard of the school and its importance to the growth of the local economic system affect the return to education and the fixed costs of attending school. An rise in return to work (or a decline in fixed labour costs) would also make it more likely that a child would work and less likely that he will attend school. Similarly, an improvement in the return to education (or a decline in the cost of school access) makes it less likely that a child is in the "idle" group. Children are future citizens of the nation and the country's utmost priority is their proper growth. Child labour, sadly, engulfs children all over the world. The planet is home to 1.2 billion people aged 10-19 years of age. Despite its danger in various forms, however, the data shows variance in the prevalence of child labour across the globe and the statistical figures are very worrying regarding child labour. Worldwide, there are an estimated 186 million child labourers. India's 2001 national census reported that the total number of children working between the ages of 5 and 14 was 12.6 million. The approximate incidence of 12.6 million children involved in risky professions has been found in small-scale and community-based research. Many children work in homes or in the underground economy as "hidden jobs." Although the Indian Constitution provides free and compulsory education for children between the

economy, child labour is still prevalent. Child labour is a violation of human rights and is in breach of the International Labor Organization (Article 32 of the Children's Rights Convention). Approximately one third of children in the developing world do not complete four years of schooling. There are more than 17.5 million working children in various industries in the Indian population, and incidentally, maximum are in the agricultural sector, leather industry, mining and matchmaking industries, etc. The word "child labour" is often described as work that deprives children of their childhood, their capacity and integrity, and that is detrimental to physical-mental growth. It refers to work that is risky and detrimental to children emotionally, physically, socially or morally, and interferes with their education by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school, causing them to leave school early or requiring them to try to balance school attendance with overly long and heavy work. Owing to variations in the concept of age group groups and the presence of children in the formal and informal industries, the statistical data on child workers in the world vary. In many parts of the world, child labour continues to be a great concern. About 60% of the 215 million boys and girls were reported to be child labourers globally in 2008. The agriculture field, followed by fisheries, aquaculture, livestock and forestry, was the focus of significant engagement. Many of these kids work in risky jobs or behaviours that are unsafe, in addition to work that interferes with education and is unsafe to personal growth. By the way, 96 percent of child labour is in Africa, Asia and South America's developing countries. With regard to child workers between the ages of 5 and 14, Asia accounts for 61% of child workers in developing countries, while Africa accounts for 32% and 7% in Latin America. In addition, while Asia has the largest number of child employees, Africa has the highest prevalence (40 percent) of child labour.

There is a strategy to curb child labour, but child labour is perpetuated by a lack of enforcement of labour restrictions. In various forms of jobs, this is expressed in variance in the minimum age restriction. Children work the longest hours and are the lowest paid of all employees, the International Labor Office says. The Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and the Rules of India state that no child shall be employed or allowed to work in any of the professions referred to in Part A of the Schedule or in any workshop in which any of the processes referred to in Part B of the Schedule are carried out. "Baby" means a person who has not completed his 14th year of age for this reason. In some defined unsafe occupations and procedures, Advisory Committee appointed under the Act, the list of hazardous occupations and processes is steadily being expanded.

In both formal and informal industries, children are working. Construction work, domestic work and small-scale enterprises are among the sectors where children are engaged in work. Agriculture, interestingly, is not only the oldest, but also the most common occupation of children worldwide. Bangle-making, beedi-making, power looms and processing procedures are some of the industries that rely on child labour. Toxic metals and chemicals such as lead, arsenic, manganese, chromium, cadmium, benzene, pesticides and asbestos are used in these industries. Child labour is very negative and this should be prevented through wholehearted efforts.

Specific questions about child labour and its effects on mental wellbeing include the detrimental impact on the physiological and psychological levels of children. It should be remembered that one third of children in the developing world do not complete even four years of schooling. Socioeconomic factors were elucidated as one of the significant determinants by the study of factors contributing to the involvement of children in dangerous factors. Poverty is considered one of the factors leading to child labour. In child labour, mental well-being is examined less regularly. In a retrospective cohort study in Morocco, 200 children working in the craft field were randomly examined and found to have a high prevalence of respiratory, digestive and skin disorders, as well as presentations on mental wellbeing such as migraines, insomnia , irritability, enuresis and asthenia. Urban Lebanese children aged 10–17, employed full-time in small industrial shops, were compared with non-working matched school children in a cross-sectional sample. Most of them had poor physical health, often characterised by skin lesions or ear problems and criteria for social care. Similarly, the authors sought to describe the effects for children exposed to solvents in Lebanon and found significantly higher rates of lightheadedness, exhaustion, memory impairment and depression relative to those in the non-exposed population. Diagnostic interviews were used in a cross-sectional study in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to determine the prevalence of mental disorders in 528 child labourers and street prevalence of mental illnesses was noted to be as high as 20.1 percent. A further research was conducted in the Gaza Strip to determine the correlation between labor-related variables and mental health problems among 780 children engaged in labour (aged 9-18 years). Children's mental health issues at work is likely to be correlated with social determinants as well as factors related to their jobs as minors. Researchers deliberate on the physical and social consequences; however, there has not been so much analysis of the mental health region. Even in the Indian case, research regarding the effect of child labour on mental health is missing.

A very important part of growth is education. Children who are attracted to child labour are ultimately motivated by economic hardship, lack of education, and family dedication to everyday needs. With increased rates of child employment, studies have found low enrollment. Schools are the forum for early intervention against child labour, as their involvement in menial jobs is limited. Economic reasons are obstacles to this strategy. Children will not be able to attend school unless economic change is brought about. Child labour can be regulated by growing understanding of economic growth and making education accessible at all levels, and by implementing anti-child labour laws. In order to regulate child labour, the Government of India has taken several steps. In 9 districts in the country with high child labour endemicity, the National Child Labor Project (NCLP) Scheme was introduced. Under the programme, funds for running special schools for child labour are given to the District Collectors. The NGOs in the district operate most of these schools. These children are given formal / informal education along with vocational training and a stipend of Rs . 100 per month under the scheme. There is also a dental check-up for them.

1. Finding out about the socio-economic history of the families of child laborers. 2. To investigate, in both organised and unorganised industries, the causes and working conditions of children.

Poverty is one of the main reasons behind this crisis. Regulation alone, therefore, cannot help fix it. The government has put a great deal of focus on the Many NGOs have been working to eliminate child labour in India, such as CARE India, Child Rights and You, Global March against Child Labor, and so on. Child labour can be prevented by turning information into law and action, pushing positive intentions and proposals to protect the children's wellbeing. Young children's stamina is greater, and they may not argue against prejudice. To break the cycle of child labour, concentrating on grassroots campaigns to unite communities against child labour and the reintegration of child workers into their homes and schools has proven crucial. To curb this bad, a multidisciplinary approach involving medical, psychological and socio-anthropological specialists is required. In this sense, we have to look at the landmark passage of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009, which is a historic moment for India‘s children. For the first time in Indian history, with the aid of families and communities, children would be guaranteed their right to a standard elementary education by the state. The world will not achieve its objective of making every child complete primary school without India by 2015. While substantial changes have been made in the proportion of children in school from economically deprived communities, disparities remain. Girls are also less likely than boys to enrol in school; in 2005, girls' enrollment was also 8.8 points lower than boys for upper primary school (Grades 6-8), the gender difference for Scheduled Tribes (ST) was 12.6 points and for Scheduled Castes (SC) it was 16 points. RTE offers a ripe forum for reaching the unreached, with unique provisions for vulnerable groups such as child workers, migrant children, children with special needs, or those with a "disadvantage due to social, cultural, economic, geographical, linguistic, gender or other factors." In order to eradicate inequalities and guarantee quality with equality, significant efforts are necessary. In eradicating child labour in India, effective enforcement of the Act will definitely go a long way.

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Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Government Women Post-Graduate College, Kandhla, Shamli, Uttar Pradesh skgdckota@gmail.com