Inside the Delhi High Court complex children as young as ten or twelve are commonly seen working in tea stalls. This is the very same High Court that passed a landmark judgment over two years ago sanctioning the police to slap a spot fine of Rs.20,000 on anyone found to be employing child labor.
Five years have passed since the Child Labor Prohibition and Regulation Act of 1986 (CLPRA) was amended to include as child labour children working in homes, tea stalls, etc., but little, if anything, has changed for laborers below the age of 14.
For years, the excuse of poverty has been trotted out as a reason why child labour cannot be eliminated in India - even policymakers use this argument. Does poverty justify children being subjected to physical, sexual and psychological abuse? Does poverty justify children being sold into prostitution? Does poverty justify children being robbed of their childhood?
While poverty is certainly a reason for child labor, it is a fallacious argument that it is the only reason. You do not have to wait to eradicate poverty before eliminating child labor. In India, despite the Right to Education Act coming into force two years ago, millions of children are still engaged in child labor. The paradox of two contradictory laws: one regulating child labor and another mandating children to be in school, speaks volumes of the inability or even the unwillingness of the State to change the status quo.
And what about the great Indian middle class that has contributed to and benefited from the runaway growth story? It knowingly employs children in homes using the same argument of poverty. More than the inadequacy of existing legislation or the moral bankruptcy of policy makers, it is the middle class who sanction and legitimize this modern-day slavery called child labour.
Source: Save the Children
