National Human Development Report: 2001 - Indira Gandhi Institute ...

NATIONAL HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2001 SOME OTHER ASPECTS OF WELL-BEING 99through measures such as minimumwage legislation that permit higherhousehold incomes, thus, easingpressures on pushing children intothe labour market. Though most ofthese measures have also beenadopted universally across theStates, the success in implementationvaries from State to State.In addressing the issue of childlabour, the policy framework, publicinterventions and civil societyinitiative has to necessarily focus onbring about a decline in theproportion of time spent by childrenin providing labour in activities thatare captured in the system ofnational accounting, such as thosePolicies and Strategies — The FrameworkSNA Activitiesinvolving production, trade, business or services and those activities thatbroadly come under the category of household chores. It is all the moreimportant to bring about such a shift, if the deployment of children in theseactivities is at the expense of their enrolment and attendance in schools. Atthe same time, the time spent by an average child on education andbecoming literate as also participation in cultural, social and communityservices has to increase.Despite the Constitutional provisions and the Acts that emanate fromit, there are obvious problems both in the reach and operation of thepreventive framework of laws and regulations that regulate the market forchild labour in the country. A major factor behind the limitation of theregulatory regime in India in preventing entry and participation of childrenin labour markets is the structure of the economy, in general, and the distinctsegmentation of labour market, in particular. More than 90 per cent of labourmarket is unorganised or informal, engaged mainly in household andmarginal/tiny segments of the agricultural and industrial sector respectively.This makes it difficult to administer, monitor and implement provisionsunder various Acts covering labour market.There is no doubt that some minimal restrictions such as prevention ofchildren from being engaged in hazardous occupations or under difficultworking environments, or even for that matter as bonded labourers, areimplementable and should definitely be enforced by strengthening thenecessary administrative machinery. For instance, in more recent times,there has been considerable reduction in the reported cases of bonded childlabour. While the sceptics may well argue that this is a case of informationgap the preventive, rescue and punitive operations of public agencies andsome voluntary organisations, have most certainly played a part in bringabout this decline. However, a stringent implementation of the laws is,perhaps, not possible or even entirely desirable. An across-the-board ban onall kinds of child labour, even if feasible, could in fact, push the workingchildren into a far worse state of hunger, destitution and starvation. Moreimportantly, if some work is not at the expense of acquiring education andskills for enhancing capabilities and productivity, it may in fact be a desirablepart of child hood training.SNA ActivitiesNon-SNA ActivitiesProduction, Trade,Business and ServicesCultural, Social andCommunity ActivitiesNon-SNA ActivitiesHousehold Chores, Care ofYounger, Sick and ElderlyEducation, Learningand Personal Care