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

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Indian regulations and initiatives related to child labour: Government and NGO
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are to be regulated will be put into effect only when the central and state government(s) decide to
do so 38 . Thus, the largest obstacle to the implementation of the act is that no state government,
except the state government of Rajasthan, has formulated the rules for the implementation of the
act. The most often heard proposed amendments are that children should be paid the same wage
as adults and that the ban on child labour should be extended to more occupations.
In 1987, The National Child Labour Policy was launched because it was perceived that legislation
alone can not solve the complex problem of child labour. The Policy, therefore, puts emphasis on
general development programmes for the benefit of child labour and a project-based plan of
action in ten selected areas where there is a high incidence of child labour. Next to its objective to
speed up the implementation of the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, the Policy aims
to tackle the problem of child labour through non-formal education, employment- and incomegenerating
schemes for poor parents of working children and through general awareness
generation to educate the public in the undesirable effects of child labour. The Special Schools
are the core of the action plan to provide the ex-child labourers with education, vocational
training, supplementary nutrition, health care and a stipend of Rs 75 to Rs 100 per month. The
gem polishing industry in Jaipur, one of the industries investigated in this report, is one of the selected
areas where the aim was to wean child labourers from the industry through the intervention
of the Government's action plan.
In addition, the Child Labour Cell of the former Ministry of Labour has mobilized international
assistance for funding projects which concern child labour. For instance, the Child Labour Action
and Support Programme (CLASP), which has the objective to strengthen the capabilities of
central and state governments in implementing the National Policy, and the International Program
on Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) are implemented under the supervision of the technical
cooperation programme of the ILO. IPEC intends to progressively eliminate child labour by
involving NGOs and trade unions, and in close cooperation with state governments.
In 1992, the former Central Government signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of
the Child. India commits itself, through the Convention, to protect children from economic exploitation,
hazardous and unsafe work and from performing any work that is likely to interfere
with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental or social
development. By signing the Convention, India commits itself also to provide free and compulsory
primary education for all children, though India does not say when it is planning to do so.
The excerpts of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are enclosed in appendix 3.
In spite of India's constitution, legislation, the Government's action plan and international
assistance and India's accession to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child labour is still
increasing in India, while the working conditions have remained the same, if they have not got
worse. The factors 39 that are responsible for this situation are the following:
Firstly, lack of enforcement of labour laws, like the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act
38 Source: Dr. Babu Mathew, 'Legislation on Child Labour'. Report submitted to a meeting with trade unions, organised by CACL,
Feb 19-20, 1994, New Delhi. In: Dossier on Eradication of Child Labour and Role of Trade Unions, CACL and CSED, Tamil Nadu,
1995, p. 68.
39 Source: Confederation of Indian Industry: Seminar on Economic Implications of Abolition of Child Labour in India, 1995.