SOCIAL AND GOVERMENT PROBLEMS:

Today's one of the major social and Goveremsent problems is Child Labour:
                                  
INTRODUCTION:
                                    There are more children under the age of fourteen in India than the
entire population of the United States. The great challenge of India, as a developing
country, is to provide nutrition, education and health care to these children.
Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6% of the total
labor force in India. Of these children, nine out of every ten work in their own rural family
settings. Nearly 85% are engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9% work in
manufacturing, services and repairs. Only about 0.8% work in factories.
While child labor is a complex problem that is basically rooted
in poverty.India has all along followed a proactive policy with respect to the problem of
child labor, and has stood for constitutional, statutory and developmental measures to
combat child labor.The first Act in India relating to child labor was the Enactment of
Children (Pledging of Labor) Act of February 1933.

CHILD LABOUR STUDY:

According to the Indian census of 1991, there are 11.28 million
working children under the age of fourteen years in India. Over 85% of this child labor is in
the country's rural areas, working in agricultural activities such as fanning, livestock
rearing, forestry and fisheries.
The Child Labor (Prohibition & Regulation) Act 1986 of India was
the culmination of efforts and ideas that emerged from the deliberations and
recommendations of various committees on child labor.
The Act aims to prohibit the entry of children into hazardous occupations and to
regulate the services of children in non-hazardous occupations. The Act,, in particular, 
• bans the employment of children, i.e. those who have not completed their
14th year, in specified occupations and processes .
• lays down a procedure to make additions to the schedule of banned
occupations or processes; 
• regulates the working conditions of children in occupations where they
are not prohibited from working; 
• lays down penalties for employment of children in violation of the
provisions of this Act,, and other Acts which forbid the employment of
children; 
• brings uniformity in the definition of the "Child" in related laws. 

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA'S POLICIES AND ACT:

They Are:

The National Child Labor Policy

Central Advisory Board on Child Labor

Child labour Technical Advisory Committe

National child labour projects(NCLP)

Rehabilitation of Children Working in Hazardous Occupations

 Present Coverage Under National Child Labor Project:

Assistance to Voluntary Organizations:

Budgetary Support to Child Labor Program

Status of Free and Compulsory Education

IPEC: ILO'S INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE

ELIMINATION OF CHILD LABOR

CAUSES OF CHILD LABOUR:

Some common causes of child labor are poverty, parental
illiteracy, social apathy, ignorance, lack of education and exposure, exploitation of
cheap and unorganized labor.
The family practice to inculcate traditional skills in children also
pulls little ones inexorably in the trap of child labor, as they never get the opportunity
to learn anything else. Absence of compulsory education at the primary level,Poverty
and over population have been identified as the two main causes of child labor.
Illiterate and ignorant parents do not understand the need
for wholesome proper physical, cognitive and emotional development of their child.
They are themselves uneducated and unexposed, so they don’t realize the
importance of education for their children.

CHILD LABOUR THE REAL SITUATION:

The term ‘child labor’ means ‘working child’ or
‘employed child’. ‘Child labor’ is any work done by child for profit. ‘Child labor’ is a
derogatory term which translates into child exploitation and inhumanity according to
sociologists, development workers, medical professionals and educationists. They
have identified child labor as harmful and hazardous to the child’s development
needs, both mental and physical.
STOP CHILD LABOR:
The future of a community is in the well being of its children.
The above fact is beautifully expressed by Wordsworth in his famous lines “child is
father of the man”. So it becomes imperative for the health of a nation to protect its
children from premature labor which is hazardous to their mental, physical,
educational and spiritual development needs. It is urgently required to save children
from the murderous clutches of social injustice and educational deprivation, and
ensure that they are given opportunities for healthy, normal and happy growth.