Activists urge PM to hold public consultation over Child Labour law amendments

Various rights groups have urged the government to hold a public consultation on the proposed amendments to the Child Labour Bill, which they warned will end up legitimising economic exploitation of children and rob them of their childhood. They have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a public consultation on the amendments and called for the removal of the provision seeking to legitimise use of children under 14 years as labour in family enterprises out of their school hours and during vacation.

'The Campaign For Child Protection' today held a discussion here on the Bill and its proposed amendments which was organised by Apne Aap Women Worldwide and the Indian School for Women's Studies and Development. 

Explaining the concerns, Ruchira Gupta, Founder, Apne Aap Women Worldwide, said, "We work with children of de-notified tribes and other caste communities suffering from intergenerational prostitution, some of whom are traditional entertainers. They are trafficked for nautanki, nautch and cabaret in travelling cattle fairs in northern and eastern India as well as sexually exploited in home-based brothels. This amendment will give impunity to their traffickers, who will claim 'dancing' is a family enterprise."

The Cabinet on May 13 had approved an amendment in the 1986 Child Labour Act for allowing children under 14 years to work in non-hazardous industries run by family, including agriculture and home-based work, forest gathering, etc. The amendment also allows children to work in audio-visual and entertainment industry, including advertisements, films, television serials or any other entertainment, which can include traumatic and hazardous situations, without specifying the regulation required for this.

"The amendments will depress the wages of adults, who will be substituted for children and decrease labour standards for both, leading to new forms of slavery," said Kiran Moghe, member of Indian School for Women's Studies and Development.

According to UNICEF, out of 200 million children enrolled, 80 million are likely to drop out before the completion of elementary education. Over 40% of these dropouts are from the minority communities, backward classes and scheduled castes of India, says the National Sample Survey Organisation.

"The Right to Education of all marginalised children will be diluted as these children will be pressured to work at home or perform in the entertainment industry to increase income for their families," added Malini Bhattacharya, President of All India Democratic Women's Association.

The 2011 Census says that 4.35 million children between 5 to 14 years are working as child labourers. The rights groups claimed that the Bill, along with the Land Acquisition Act, will increase bonded labour, something that will impact children. 

Shabnam, a member of the National Alliance of People's Movements, reiterated that the Bill, "along with Land Acquisition Act, will increase bonded labour as displaced people will work for less than minimum wages and supplement their subsistence with the work of the children".

Bharti Ali, founder and Co-Director of Haq Centre for Child Rights, said "The amendments violate the UN's Convention on Rights of the Child (UNCRC), to which India is a signatory, as well as articles of the Indian Constitution." Another round-table consultation today chaired by Swami Agnivesh opined that the proposed amendment attempts to legitimise the economic exploitation of children and rob them of their childhood and their rights.

"These changes are against all of our efforts in past 20 years to ban all forms of child labour up to 18 years, and not in the best interest of children," said P Joseph Victor Raj, National Convener of Campaign Against Child Labour (CACL).

AV Swamy, Independent MP, BJD MP Baishnab Parida and Oscar Fernades, a former Union Minister for Labour, also joined the consultation and expressed their solidarity with the stand against the proposed amendments.

KC Tyagi, JD-U MP and Jawaharullah, an MLA of TMMK in Tamil Nadu, also took part in the consultation. "Let me assure you, I am against this proposed amendment.
I also support your demand to raise the cut-off age for child labour to 18 years in line with UNCRC, which was ratified by the Government of India", Parida said.
Gautam Mody of the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), extended their support to child rights and demanded that the government should have a relook at the proposed amendments.

"We are already seeing labour laws being diluted and being opened up for misuse. This is yet another example of legitimising child labour under the guise of 'family enterprise' in order to informalise labour and provide cheap labour for industries. Everyone knows that it will expose children of the poor to more abuse," said Mody.
Ossie Fernandes of the Human Rights Advocacy Foundation said that all form of work or labour is hazardous for children.

"Why is the government so scared to increase the age limit to 18 years for child labour legislation when India has ratified the UNCRC?" he asked.

The activists called for the removal of Section 5 of the CLPRA Amendment Bill, 2012, and sought avoidance of the insertion of any equivalent section or clause in the amendment.

They called for formulation of regulatory laws to govern the employment of children between 5 to 14 years and between 15 to 18 years in the entertainment and audio-visual industry with particular emphasis on prohibiting employment in hazardous tasks and traumatic situations.

Reinstating the original longer list of hazardous occupations with regard to the 15 to 18 year-old children and including more hazardous occupations based on assessment of the newly-emerging occupations were the other recommendations.