Labour is an oppressive form of forced labour where, due to a debt or other obligation (customary, caste-based, economic consideration), the labourer forfeits certain basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. Physical violence, verbal insults, brute force and sexual abuse are often common elements in bonded labour making it a serious human rights crime.
The most common form of bonded
labour usually entails an advance. Victims accept a petty cash advance
from the employer, agreeing to repay the amount through their services.
Often, the labourer moves into the worksite with his/her entire family.
Once at the worksite, labourers are curtailed from moving around freely,
denied the chance to supplement their wages through alternate
employment or by selling their goods and also refused the right to be
paid the State-recommended wages.
They are told that their freedom
will be restored only upon repayment of the advance. However, as the
labourer soon realises, the entire system has been designed to make
repayment impossible. Abysmally low wages, exorbitant interest rates and
falsified account-keeping ensure that the illiterate labourer is
trapped for years, sometimes generations.
The Ministry of Home
Affairs (MHA) lists bonded labour as one of the various forms of Human
Trafficking in India. Human trafficking is the acquisition of people by
improper means such as force, fraud or deception, with the aim of
exploiting them. Most times, people are exploited for sex, labour or
organs. Human trafficking is a serious offence and can be tried under
Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In most cases where people have been trafficked for labour, the conditions are very similar to bonded labour. Most times, bonded labour offenders can be tried both under the Bonded Labour Act as well as under Section 370.
‘All work done by children under the age of 15 and dangerous work done by children under the age of 18 is illegal. Child labor is prohibited under international treaties and agreements.
Child labour in numbers
According
to estimates by the International Labour Organisation (2017), there are
152 million children, aged between 5 and 17, subject to child labour.
Almost 1 in 10 children between the age of 5 and 17 years old have to work
About 4.3 million children aged below 18 years are in forced labour
70.9% works in agriculture
17.2% in the service sector
11.9% in heavy industry
Most child labour takes place in the informal sector
Nearly 70% of the children does unpaid work supporting their family
Causes & Consequences
Poverty
is often cited as the main cause of child labour. It is widely believed
that families will not be able to cope if their children do not work.
In practice, however, the poverty argument does not hold water.
Precisely the opposite is true: child labour maintains poverty.
Experience
shows that deeprooted social norms, the violation of workers’ rights,
discrimination against certain groups, and a poorly-functioning
education system are the main reasons why children aren’t attending
school.
Because children are easy to exploit and are cheap labourers,
they are hired in preference to adults. Child labour thus leads to
lower wages and higher unemployment among adults. Children who work and
do not go to school will end up in low paid jobs later, and so will
their children – and so the vicious cycle of poverty is perpetuated.
Child labour exists because:
people accept it and invent excuses for it;
children’s rights are not respected;
governments do not provide compulsory, free and accessible education;
international agreements and conventions are not observed;
the education system excludes poor and vulnerable children;
consumers worldwide demand cheap products;
employers can benefit from cheap labour;
there is no decent work for adults;
we have not done enough to stop it.
Together we can stop child labour
By
no longer accepting it, not in mines, not on fields, not in factories,
not in domestic settings and not in the products we buy…Child labour
is a global problem that requires a global solution. In India, Africa
and Latin America, local authorities, teachers, employers, parents and
children in child labour free zones work together to get children out of
work and into school. They are all convinced that no child should be
working: every child should be in school. These child labour free zones
are successful and are continuing to spread to other areas and
countries.
And work together towards a child labour free world.
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