A case study on the total accounts of child labor and how it affects society. The causes that led to work of those poor kids and the measures taken by government to prevent it.

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“CHILD LABOUR
-A Curse to Soul”
PROJECT REPORT

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The success and the final outcome of this project required a lot of guidance
and assistance from many people and we are extremely fortunate to have got this all
along the completion of our project work. Whatever we have done is only due
to such guidance and assistance and we would not forget to thank them. I
respect and thank Dr.M SEN THIL K UMAR sir for giving us an
opportunit y to do this project and Suresh sir for providing us all the
support and guidance which made us complete the project on time. We are
extremely grateful to them for providing such nice support and guidance. We are really
grateful because we managed to complete this project within the time given by Dr. M
Senthil Kumar sir. We would also not forget to thank VIT University Chennai for
giving us this approval of do this project. This project cannot be complete without the
effort and cooperation from our group members. Last but not least we would like to
express our gratitude to our friends who help us a lot in fina lis i ng
this project within the limited time frame.

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ABSTRACT
• “Child is your heart not born to push your cart”
As a part of the world’s most luckiest souls we all are here enjoying world’s most
irresistible flavors and all shades of luxury. Have you ever wondered how you ever
got all these? Is it because of your money? Fame? Power? The answer is NEVER any
if these, it is only because of the fragrance of love our parents have showered upon
us.
What is then the situation of those who don’t have any..
Or those who lack the beautiful fragrance we get….
• The life of a child worker is a definite nightmare. Though measures and laws are
being framed, never are they activated. Factories still enjoy the horrible freedom to
kill the childhood of a child and pull out the essence of his entire life.

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1. INTRODUCTION:
• Rosy cheeks pinched away can be tolerated, how come can it be torn away….
• Same is the situation of millions and millions of children all over the world.
Parents send their children to work to quench their thirst, forgetting to feed them.
Children are introduced into the world of horror soon before they learn to react.
India is sadly a home to the largest number of child laborers in the world. Despite
the sad state of working, the child’s treatment in factories are more cruel and their
safety is usually neglected. Being too young they are made to assist in
machineries and are subject to severe punishments.
2. WHAT IS CHILD LABOR?
 Child labor” as defined, is employing children below 15 yrs of age that harms them
or exploits them in someway (physically, mentally, morally or by blocking access
to education).
 It is the work that exceeds a minimum number of hours depending on the age of a
child and on the type of work
3. THE STATISTICS…
 One in every six children aged 5 to 17 worldwide is exploited by child labor.
 There are approximately 9million children involved in unconditional worst forms
of child labor.
 In sub-Saharan Africa around one in three children are engaged in child labor,
representing 69million children.
 According to certain experts approximately 10 million bonded child laborers are
working as dome in south Asia.
 Beyond this there are almost 55 million bonded child laborers hired across various
other industries.
 Less than 5% of child laborers make products for export to other countries.
 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US, Canada, Europe
and other wealthy nations.

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 In Asia, 22% of the workforce is children. In Latin America, 17% of the workforce
is children.
 Africa accounts for the highest number of children employed and exploited.
 246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor.
 Out of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is hazardous
4. STATUS OF INDIA..
 INDIA accounts for the second highest number where child labor in the world.
 According to certain experts approximately 10 million bonded children laborers
are working as domestic servants in India.
 246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor.
 Beyond this there are almost 55 million bonded child laborers hired across various
other industries.
5. COMMON FIELDS OF CHILD LABOR:
 Agricultural Areas
 Industrial and factory sites
 Construction work
 Mine industry
 Scrape businesses
 Home maids in India like 3rd world countries
 Road side hotels
 Mills
 Workshop purposes
6. LIFE STORIES….
Story as told by a child minor in Africa:
My dad loves to chill his grandchildren with stories of his summer working in an
African gold mine. He had grown up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and was helping pay
for his upcoming university education.
My boys love hearing how he was lowered down narrow shafts in cage elevators hung
from a cable. The heat was so oppressive that his clothes were immediately soaked with
sweat. At the bottom, my dad sometimes had to traverse tunnels flooded with water up to
his neck.

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But nothing stuns the kids more than Grandad’s near-drop off a huge subterranean cliff.
Shining his flashlight on the floor of the tunnel, there was suddenly nothing but black.
Had dad fallen, the team would have come to find him. But he would almost certainly
have died. Life with useless arms or legs would have been the best-case scenario.
These stories are strangely exciting when told over hot chocolate at a kitchen table in
Canada, to two children who will likely never face such dangers. My boys can shudder to
think about life in a mine, without having to work in a mine themselves.
“I would hate any of my kids or grandkids to work in a place like that,” says my dad.
“The danger was immense – and very, very real.”
Immense and real danger
But far too many children do work in mines in developing countries around the world.
I’m not talking about adult children, as my father was, but girls and boys as young as six.
In a report released today, World Vision explores the harsh reality of child labour
and children mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Child Miners Speak takes
readers to a place in which adults like my dad would shudder to think of their own loved
ones working.
7. WHY NO TO CHILD LABOR
1) Children are miners, too. An estimated 1 million are working in mines worldwide.
Most of the time they work as “artisanal miners”, meaning there are no powerful
machines to help them along. They use sharp tools and even their bare hands to chip
away at the rough ore.
2) It’s dirty. This kind of mining can endanger a child’s health. In World Vision’s
study, 67 per cent of the children experienced frequent or persistent coughing. Girls who
were working waist-deep in acidic water reported experiencing genital infections. Cobalt,
mined in the DRC, can damage a child’s heart, thyroid and lungs.
3) It’s dangerous. Mine sites often have deep holes into which children can fall.
Because children are small, they are often chosen to dig in tight tunnels and underground
areas where cave-ins can happen. Children can slip down steep slopes at mine sites while
carrying heavy loads. They can even drown in bodies of water around the mine sites.
4) It’s degrading. Children as young as six years old are forced to work in mines. Their
families’ survival often depends on it. They are usually paid less than adult workers.
Since most artisanal mining is illegal, most have no rights. They work long hours, with
few breaks or time to rest and play.
5) It hurts. In addition to the back-breaking work, 19 per cent of the children in our

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study said they had seen another child die on an artisanal mining site.
6) It’s wrong. Poverty, not parents, is forcing children to work in mines. Children
should be playing, learning to read and write, and experiencing happy, healthy
childhoods. But when there’s not enough money to put a meal on the table, children have
no choice but to earn their keep. It’s a growing problem, particularly in countries like the
DRC that don’t have strong governments, laws and regulations to make sure children are
going to school, not down mine shafts.
8. BASED ON SURVEY:…..
Recent ILO report says that about 80 per cent of child laborers in India are
employed in the agriculture sector. Generally, the children are sold to the rich
moneylenders to whom borrowed money cannot be returned. 'Street children' is another
type of child labor where children work on the streets as beggars, flower sellers, etc,
instead of going to school. Sometimes they are made to go hungry for days together so
that people feel sorry for them and give alms.
Among the industries, glass and bangle industry is estimated to employ around 60,000
children who are made to work under extreme conditions of excessive heat. An equal
number are estimated to be employed in matchbox factories, where they are made to
work over twelve hours a day, beginning work at around 4 a.m., everyday. The brass and
the lock industries also employ an estimated 50,000 children each. However, it is the
carpet industry in India which employs the largest number of children estimated to be
more than four lakhs.
9. PRIMARY CAUSES:
 International Labor Organization (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single
cause behind child labour.For impoverished households, income from a child's
work is usually crucial for his or her own survival or for that of the household.
Income from working children, even if small, may be between 25 and 40% of the
household income. Other scholars such as Harsch on African child labour, and
Edmonds and Pavcnik on global child labour have reached the same conclusion.
 Lack of meaningful alternatives, such as affordable schools and quality education,
according to ILO,is another major factor driving children to harmful labour.
Children work because they have nothing better to do. Many communities,
particularly rural areas where between 60–70% of child labour is prevalent, do not
possess adequate school facilities. Even when schools are sometimes available,
they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of education is
so poor that parents wonder if going to school is really worth it.

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10. CULTURAL CAUSES:
 In European history when child labour was common, as well as in contemporary
child labour of modern world, certain cultural beliefs have rationalized child
labour and thereby encouraged it. Some view that work is good for the character-
building and skill development of children.
 In many cultures, particular where the informal economy and small household
businesses thrive, the cultural tradition is that children follow in their parents'
footsteps; child labour then is a means to learn and practice that trade from a very
early age. Similarly, in many cultures the education of girls is less valued or girls
are simply not expected to need formal schooling, and these girls pushed into
child labour such as providing domestic services.
11. MACROECONOMIC CAUSES:
 Biggeri and Mehrotra have studied the macroeconomic factors that encourage
child labour. They focus their study on five Asian nations including India,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. They suggest that child labour is a
serious problem in all five, but it is not a new problem.
 Macroeconomic causes encouraged widespread child labour across the world,
over most of human history. They suggest that the causes for child labour include
both the demand and the supply side. While poverty and unavailability of good
schools explain the child labour supply side, they suggest that the growth of low-
paying informal economy rather than higher paying formal economy is amongst
the causes of the demand side.
 Other scholars too suggest that inflexible labour market, size of informal
economy, inability of industries to scale up and lack of modern manufacturing
technologies are major macroeconomic factors affecting demand and acceptability
of child labour.
12. REGULATION AND PROHIBITION ACT:
 This was declared by the parliament on 23rd December, 1986.
 It includes Prohibition of employment of children in certain occupations and
processes.
 No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the occupations which
are hazardous by its nature.
 The UN published the children’s rights in the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which was adopted in 1989.
 Article 32 stated that government need to recognise: the right of the child to be
protected from economic exploitation, likely to interfere with the child’s
education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual,
moral or social development.
 Article 28 Every child’s right to education

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 Article 34 Governments must protect children from sexual exploitation and abuse.
 European Union (EU) also decided in the meeting of council of Europe that the
children rights should be protected in the EU policy and action.
 EU emphasises that Child Labour is a legal obligation based in international
treaties and conventions like convention on the Rights of the Child and ILO
convention 138 and 182.
13. ACHIEVEMENTS:
• The enforcement of Laws on child labour has been increased, for example, in UK
Fast food giants McDonald’s have been fined £12,400 for allowing children to
work there.
• Even third world country like Bangladesh had also enacted the Labour Act in
2006 which prohibits employment of children under 14 years of age
• Garment manufacturers of Bangladesh also put an end to the employment of
children under 14 years in their 200 factories because there was a threat of boycott
from the consumer countries.
14. WHETHER THESE REGULATIONS ARE SUCCESSFUL?
• Drawbacks
• The Laws on child labour may seem inadequate because even though more
than130 country signed in the international conventions for not allowing children
to work under 14 or 15 but to some countries these laws are still confusing or
vague and not enforced.
• The laws to regulate child’s health and safety at work are rarely enforced.
• Poor infrastructure like systematic birth registration in the developing countries
fails to recognise the actual age of the children and employers take advantage of
such loopholes.
• According to ILO Director general Juan Somavia reduction rate of child labour is
not satisfactory i.e. From 2004 to 2008 only 3% reduction of child labour.
15. CONCLUSION:
 The social malady of child labor can be brought under control, if each individual
takes responsibility of reporting about anyone employing a child below the age of
14years.
 Thus, instead of ignoring on should find out about reporting child labor and how
such children can actually be saved.
 Child labor can be controlled if the government functions effectively with the
support of the public.