Capital Corruption: Child Labour In India

By: Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Founded by Kailash Satyarthi   Hundreds of millions of children throughout the world are engaged in work that deprives them of adequate education, health, leisure and basic freedoms, violating their rights. Of these children, more than half are exposed to the worst forms of child labour such as work in hazardous environments, slavery, or other forms of forced labour, illicit activities such as drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as involvement in armed conflict. According to Census of India 2001, 12.7 million children are working in various sectors across the country, which is the largest number of child labourers in a country. According to National Commission for Enterprises in Unorganised Sector (2007), the potential child labour pool in the country remains high at 45.2 million children. The non-government organizations estimate the number of child labourers cumulate to 60 million, which is 6% of the total population of India. However, the NFHS-3 report (2005-06) claims 15% of children in India remain in employment. All work that is done be child labourers and the income goes unaccounted in a country's economy. The income generated by the child labour as a proportion/share of black money in the economy can better be understood in the following way. The product of total number. of child labourers, average cost per child and average number of working days per annum deducted from the product of number of adults to replace child labour, average national floor wages and average number of working days in a year gives a figure of monetary loss to the economy. Considering that the job is present, the child labourer has displaced the adult worker, leading to adult unemployment and creating a huge pool of black money in the country. This illicit money untaxed and not under the government lens, does not contribute to the development and creation of social infrastructure in the country for the welfare of children. The lack of adequate social infrastructure and protection mechanism, for example, the current shortfalls in the education budget means that 6 crore children are not in schools. The greed for maximisation of profit fuels the demand for child labour, with children as cheapest form of labour. Child labour, corruption and flow of black money fuel and sustain each other in an illicit nexus that only profits the employers and the middlemen, at an enormous cost to the country and the economy, and robs children of a childhood and their fundamental rights.