Child-and-adult-labour-in-the-export-oriented-garment-and-gem-polishing-industry-of-India

Child and adult labour in the gem polishing export industry of Jaipur
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The objective of the National Child Labour Policy of 1987 was to eliminate the children from the
gem polishing units by means of non-formal education, employment and income-generating schemes
for poor parents of working children and to create awareness of the negative aspects of child
labour. Another objective was to step up the enforcement of the Child Labour (Prohibition &
Regulation) Act of 1986, The Factories Act of 1984, and the Commercial Shop & Establishment
Act of Jaipur, which prohibits children younger than 12 years of age from working in any shop or
establishment. Twenty special schools were established in Jaipur in 1988 to provide the ex-working
children, weaned from the gem polishing industry, with education, vocational training, supplementary
nutrition, health care etc. A stipend was given to the parents as a compensation for the
removed child worker and to promote school enrolment. Also, another 50 non-formal education
centres were set up with the aim to provide around 1,500 child workers with some education next
to their work in the industry. The Policy envisaged the provision of free and compulsory education
to all the children up to the age of 14 by 1995.
The bench mark of 15,000 working children, as mentioned above, was supposed to be covered by
the Action Programme. The Special Schools were the core of the programme. The beneficiaries
of the Special Schools were the children under 12 and those under 14 years of age who worked in
factories under hazardous conditions. Since the establishment of twenty special schools was
planned, and only 50 children could be admitted per school, 1,000 children were supposed to be
reached by the intervention of the Special Schools. These children had to be removed from the industry
immediately. Though only 1,000 child workers under 12 years of age (and the children
under 14 years of age who work in factories) could be admitted to the total of twenty special
schools, 9,000 out of the '10,000 child workers with ages who may be aged younger than 12
years, who were found in a sample survey by the Department of Labour in Jaipur' 166 , could not be
covered by the Programme of the Special Schools. Only the 1,500 child workers, together with
the 1,000 ex-child labourers, received non-formal education. The 50 non-formal education
centres, however, were not compulsory for the children who attended them.
The work of the children aged between 12 and 14 (in reality that means the other 14,000 working
children younger than 14 years of age) was supposed to be regulated (for example, 6 hours work
per day as stated in the Child Labour (P&R) Act) and the children themselves were supposed to
be protected better. (The group of 12 to 14 years old child workers is legally allowed to work fulltime
in shops and establishments according to the Rajasthan Shop & Establishment Act and can
be exploited endlessly. For this age group this act is not in harmony with the regulations of their
labour as mentioned in the Child Labour (P&R) Act). Families which were involved in the
Action Programme, were supposed to be direct recipients of subsidies and other types of economic
support through improved coverage or intensification of on-going anti-poverty and income-generating
schemes. Moreover, a thousand families in Jaipur were said to benefit indirectly
from the stipends paid to their children.
What were the effects of the Government Action Plan on the elimination of child labour in the
gem polishing industry in Jaipur since its implementation in 1988?
115
166 ILO, Geneva, 1988, ibid., p. 4.