Elimination of child labour

While we can take comfort from the fact that we have been able to reduce the number of child workers by two million in the last 10 years, a large number of children are still employed in hazardous work. These include glass factories, welding shops, garbage collection points, tanneries and ship breaking yards. A large number of children also work in households as domestic help with little or no pay. To make it even more grievous, these children do not enjoy any free time. Many face torture and abuse.  

It is now evident that it will take a few more years to completely eliminate child labour. There are some social and economic conditions that are resisting the removal of such practice. Most of the children employed in economic activities come from poor backgrounds, because of which their families have to send them to work to earn a living. As a result, when the children should be enjoying the pleasurable ambiance of the schoolroom and playground, some children have to grind hard just for a morsel of food.  

It is indeed incumbent upon us to remove the causative factors that allow the prevalence of child labour in our workforce. Parents should be encouraged to send their children to school. Also, the strategy to eliminate child labour needs be realigned to incorporate the ground realities. The curricula at the secondary level should have technical and vocational training so that the poor families see the reason for investing in the education of their children. We also suggest a strict enforcement of laws against child labour.