Know about Child Labour- Prohibition and Regulation Act, 1986, Causes, Penalties
Employment of children below 14 and 15 years in certain prohibited employments have been prohibited by various Acts but there is no procedure laid down in any law for deciding in which employments, occupations or processes the employment of children should be banned. There is also no law to regulate the working conditions of children in most of the employments where they are not prohibited from working and are working under exploitative conditions. Accordingly it was decided to enact a comprehensive law on the subject. To achieve this objective the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill was introduced in the Parliament.
Major causes of child employment that can be understood keeping in mind the Indian scenario, are:
In developing countries it is impossible to control child labour as children have been considered as helping hand to feed their families, to support their families and to feed themselves. Due to poverty, illiteracy and unemployment parents are unable to bear the burden of feeding their children and to run their families. So, poor parents send their children for work in inhuman conditions at lower wages.
The poor economic conditions of people in india force them to borrow money. The Illiterate populations go to money lenders and sometimes mortgage their belongings in turn of the debt taken by them. But, due to insufficiency of income, debtors find it very difficult to pay back the debt and the interest. This vicious circle of poverty drags them towards working day and night for the creditor and then the debtors drag their children too in assisting them so that the debts could be paid off.
There are some industries such as the ‘bangle making’ industry, where delicate hands and little fingers are needed to do very minute work with extreme excellence and precision. An adult’s hands are usually not so delicate and small, so they require children to work for them and do such a dangerous work with glass. This often resulted in major eye accidents of the children.
(1) Whoever employs any child or permits any child to work in
contravention of the provisions of section 3 shall be punishable with imprisonment
for a term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend to one
year or with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees but which may
extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both.
(2) Whoever, having been convicted of an offence under section 3, commits
a like offence afterwards, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term
which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years.
(a) fails to give notice as required by section 9; or
(b) fails to maintain a register as required by section 11 or makes any false
entry in any such register; or
(c) fails to display a notice containing an abstract of section 3 and this
section as required by section 12; or
(d) fails to comply with or contravenes any other provisions of this Act or
the rules made thereunder. shall be punishable with simple imprisonment
which may extend to one month or with fine which may extend to ten
thousand rupees or with both. Modified application of certain laws in
If awareness about the cons of child labour is spread across the nation and strict policing of implementation of existing laws are done, India can combat the issue of Child Labour. Every individual must understand how important it is for the children to grow and study, as they are the ones who will shape the future of the nation.
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