Abstract

Worldwide millions of children are affected as they work hard in the early age itself, by working as child labour, which deprives them of their childhood , exposes them to physical and mental problems and affects their future. The main reason behind child labour is poverty. As poverty leads to child labour as a result child labour suffer from poor wages and meagre education which detoriates labour standard and it further leads to poverty which forms a vicious circle. Child labourers are unreported and underreported.A child labour is engaged in various fields of work including agriculture, mines, factories, house keeping,etc. 71 percent of child labourers work in the agricultural sector. 12 percent work in mines and factories and the rest 17 percent work in hotels and houses, says an International Labour Organization's report. In India 1.2 million girl children are used in prostitution. The children are being used as cheap labour. It is very difficult to analyse and give an exact report on child labourers in India as it is often underreported. 18 million children in India are found in torpid lists which means they are not reported either in schools or employment. They would be engaged in some sort of hard labour.This situation is to be considered seriously and proper steps should be taken by enforcing strict laws and bringing welfare schemes and rehabilitation for the affected children. In this article let us examine the causes of child labour and its effect on children and also the legal provisions in India which protects child labour and recommendations to overcome this problem of child labour.

Keywords