A study on the causes and consequences of child labour in Bhopal.

"

Index
1. Introduction
2. Review of literature
3. Methodology of this study
4. Data analysis and interpretation
5. Findings
6. Suggestions
7. Conclusions
8. Reference

Page 1

INTRODUCTION
Child labour is a burning issue of global concern. Child labour is a universal phenomenon
and it is a by-product of socio-economic structure of the society, Children are an asset for
the society as well as to the nation. They are the blooming flowers of the society. It is
therefore the duty of the society to protect these flowers so as to have a meaningful
contribution through them in the future. It is a well-known fact that the future of a society
or a nation or world depends upon the sound growth of the children. Due to certain forces
and circumstances children are compelled to work in the early stages of their childhood,
which does harm to the child and society. Hence child labour is considered as a major
social problem. They have no right as workers and they cannot join labour unions to
raise their voice against exploitation.
The Supreme Court, in one of the cases related to child labour, has observed: if there is
no proper growth of children today, the future of the country will be in dark. It is the
obligation of every generation to bring up children who will be citizens of tomorrow in a
proper way. Today's children will be leaders of tomorrow who will hold the country's
banner high and maintain the prestige of the nation. If the government of India commits
itself towards combating the problem of child labour, then it is sure that the children of
India who at present have engaged themselves in long hours of work could be freed and
enabled to breathe joy of freedom. But today, working condition of child labour are
horrible children enclosing to work more than 15 hours a day, or till their masters are
satisfied, without rest which is a complete violation of the Child Labour Act, 1986. The
child labours employed by private contractors were paid poor wages and were forced to
live like animals in overcrowded slums. Child labour in Bhopal is found to exist in
different fields Thousands of children are working in different areas, like in Hotels,
Restaurants, Tea-Stalls, glass factory, house servants and hazardous situation etc. In
hotels and restaurants they have to work from morning till the last customer leaves at
night. Not only long hours of work and low wages, children also have to face many
problems like beaten, exploited and misused. There are many questions unanswered like
what are the motives with which these children have taken up work at such an early age?
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What are the major causes of child labour? Why are they kept out of education? To find
solution to these questions the present study has been undertaken.
In recent years there has been a refinement in basic concepts and approach in
response to a changing environment in the 1990s. First, the adoption by the United
Nations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989 has encouraged
viewing child labour as a human rights as well as a development issue. The CRC has, in
particular, influenced the approach taken on child labour by UNICEF and many within
the NGO community who have tended to be guided by the best interests principle
articulated in the Convention. This led in turn to a more child-centred approach in parts
of the NGO community that questioned the utility of blanket minimum age laws and saw
child work in more positive terms.

Child labour is found in every part of the world, particularly in developing countries.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention, child labour is
defined as all children below 18 in harmful occupations or work activities in the labour
market or their own household; all children undertaking work in the labour market or
household interfering with their primary education; all children under 15 in full time
employment; and all children under 13 in part time work. Child labour is defined not by
the activity but by the effect this activity has on the child. In brief, the work or activities
undertaken by children should not interfere with their education or pose any health
threats
The use of child labour in the early phases of industrialization in many countries has
attracted special attention. It is to be understood that child labour hampers the growth of
human resources. It not only reduces the individuals education achievements but also
reduces the effect and quality of the education system. Further, child labour has
redistribution effects on the labour market. Child labour is common in households where
poverty is inherited from one generation to another. Hence, the fight against child labour
has gained an international momentum during the last decade and became a major
Page 3

challenge for the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). This momentum and
information should be utilized to help underpin the work towards the fulfillment of the
MDGs. As this study is exploratory and uses the systematic literature review to identify
the vulnerable children and point out the problems in relation to the MDGs particularly in
poverty eradication, education for all. The research on child labour represents in this
respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of
education program and poverty reduction program.
Keeping in view the above facts an attempt is made in this article to demonstrate how
increased opportunities and increased welfare reduces child labour. An attempt is made in
this article to demonstrate how increased education opportunities and increased welfare
reduces child labour. Organization of the remaining article is as under: in section second
literature review of the Millennium Development Goals, Why Children Work? Poverty
and Child Labour, Child Labour and Education, and Child Labour in Developing World
are discussed. And finally third section presents the conclusion and recommendations of
the study to the policy makers.

Child labour is a concrete manifestation of violations of a range of rights of Children and

is recognised as a serious and enormously complex social problem in India. Working
children are denied their right to survival and Development, education, leisure and play,
and adequate standard of living, opportunity for developing personality, talents, mental
and physical abilities, and protection from abuse and neglect. Notwithstanding the
increase in the enrolment of children in elementary schools and increase in literacy rates
since 1980s, child labour continues to be a significant phenomenon in India. Irrespective
of what is shown in the official statistics, we say that the phenomenon of child labour is
significant because, the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 is a
legislation to address hazardous industrial child labour in a limited way as the purview of
the Act covers only the organized sectors of production. As it is inbuilt in the law, this Act
has excluded a vast section of toiling children in the unorganized sectors, as over 90
percent of the labour force in India is accounted for by the unorganised sectors of
production. The political weight behind the initiatives towards government legal
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intervention has been very dissimilar across states of India. Generally under the era of
globalization and liberalization policies, the underlying attitude of the government is not
to strictly impose labour laws that will disturb the production process. With regard to
other forms of intervention, the flag ship programme of the Government of India is the
National Child Labour Project (NCLP). The NCLP Scheme started in 1988, has so far
covered 400,200 working children. About 3.08 lakh children have been mainstreamed
into formal education system so far. The Scheme is running in 250 districts in 14 states.
Even after discounting for the inherent problems in the NCLP scheme the coverage is
very low compared to the magnitude of the problem (12 million according to 2001
population census) even by the official statistics.

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Page 6

Page 7

The study was carried out at Bhopal

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUE

Researcher was also collected the information from secondary sources books, reports,
journals and newspapers etc.
Interview was considered as the most appropriate technique for collecting data
considering the drop outs and working children.
An interview schedule was prepared for getting information from the child labours. The
researcher was visited the working places, family of respondent in Bhopal.

PROCEDURE
Before the commencement of data collection, short pilot study was conducted for for
selecting the participants. The researcher was interacting with working children built
rapport with them. The researcher was explaining the purpose of visit, study and its
importance. The interview schedule was administered. After the data collection, it was pit
forth to statistical analysis.
SAMPLE DESIGN:In the process of study in order to collect data from respondents the method of sampling
is used. The researcher has used a purposive sampling method and the sample size has
been used 50.

Page 8

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The researcher has tried his best to do study well in spite of the difficulties he had
following are the limitations:
Due to lack of time researcher got very limited time to study the problems.
Lack of proper response from the respondent is another limitation of research
work. They were not able to give enough information because of their illiteracy,
unawareness and misunderstanding the questions.
Since the research has to be completed within a short time, it made a bit of
difficult to collect the data in time.
One of the major limitations is that the researcher selected only 50 children from
Bhopal which is a vast area so it cant give a complete data about the magnitude
of the problem.

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DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

In social research, analysis of a raw data plays an important role and in fact it is a
basic step towards the achievement of accurate and correct results. Analysis of raw
information is the best method of summarization of data, which has been collected for a
research problem. It will be appreciated that without any proper analysis,

there can be

no social use of data.

Analysis helps in placement of each characteristic and thus makes the whole study
feasible and easy. In other words, we can say that analysis helps in scientific, study of the
whole data. It also becomes possible to know which data possess which characteristics
and thus considerable clarity comes in the processing of data. When there is clarity in
data, it can be presumed that the conclusions drawn will also be fairly clearer.

Page 10

Table-1

Sex Ration
S.No
1
2.

Alternative
Male
Female

Respondent
40
10

Out of
50
50

Percentage
80%
20%

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Survey on 50 children of Bhopal working as child-labour show that among them 80%
of the children are boys and 20% of them are girls. Most of the girls are working as
maid servants but boys are doing different types of work. It shows the increasing
number of child labour workers.

Table-2

Age Group of the Respondents

S.No
1
2.

Alternative
5 to 9 years
10 to 14 years

Respondent
11
39

Out of
50
50

Percentage
22%
78%

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Above table shows that of 50 respondents 22% of children are in the age group of (5 to
9) .the other 78% belong to the age group of (10 to 14), by this group. We conclude that
more children in the age group 10-14 are working and they are illiterate and dropouts.

Table-3

Occupational head of family

S.No
1
2
3
4
5
6

Alternative
Labour
Hotel
Carpenter
Mechanical
No working
Any other

Respondent
18
15
7
3
6
1

Out of
50
50
50
50
50
50

Percentage
36%
30%
14%
6%
12%
2%

The following table shows that main occupation of the head of the family out of 50
respondents 36 % are having labour work, 30% are hotel(daba).work, 14% are having
Page 13

carpenter, 6% are having mechanical work, 12% are having no working and 2% of
them having same other work.
Table-4
Monthly income of the family

S.No
a
b
c
d

Alternative
0-2000
2000-3000
3000-4000
Above 4000

Respondent
30
15
04
01

Out of
50
50
50
50

Percentage
60%
30%
8%
2%

This table shows that income of the family per month, 60% of the child worker family
are having a low income of belong Rs.2000 and 30% are coming to an income group
of Rs.2000-3000 per month and 8% of family having an income of Rs.3000-4000 and
2% of family an income of above Rs.4000.we can conclude that family of child labour
having very low income that why number of child labour increasing day by day in
Bhopal.

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Table-5

Where are you indulged in working?

S.No
a
b
c
d

Alternative
Hotel Shop
House Hold
Mechanical Work
Any other

Respondent
18
14
13
5

Out of
50
50
50
50

Percentage
36%
28%
26%
10%

The above table clearly indicates that 36% of child labours are hotel shop workers,
28% of children are working as house hold, 26% of children are working in
mechanical work and 10% of children do other works. It can be said that they are
mostly boys and most of girls are working as house hold.
Table-6

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In a day how many hours you spend in working?

Page 16

S.No
a
b
c
d

Alternative
6 Hours
8 Hours
More than 8 Hours
No limit

Respondent
02
10
25
13

Out of
50
50
50
50

Percentage
4%
20%
50%
26%

This table show that working time of the children out of 50 respondents 4% of the
children are working 6 hours.20% of respondents are working exact 8 hours, and 50%
of the children have the working time more than 8 hours, but 26% of the children are
working, but there is no limit. From this table it is clear that children are made to work
more than 8 hours which legally band and it affects their health, education and
personal development.
Table-7

Do you work at night?

S.No
a

Alternative
Yes

Respondent
27

Out of
50

Percentage
54%
Page 17

No

23

50

46%

The above table shows that out of 50 respondents 54% of them are working at night
and 46% of are not working hotel and shops are the force to work even at night. It can
be concluded that majority of working children are working in day and rest of children
are working at night.

Table-8

How do you get the salary?

S.No
a
b

Alternative
Daily
Weekly

Respondent
5
10

Out of
50
50

Percentage
10%
20%
Page 18

c
d

Monthly
Cant say

30
5

50
50

60%
10%

This chart shows that working of the children out of 50 respondents, 10% of the
children are getting salary daily, 20% are getting weekly, 60% are getting salary
monthly and 10% are unable to getting salary. It can be said that most of children are
getting salary monthly.
Table-9

Do you get any allowance or bonus your boss?

S.No
a
b

Alternative
Yes
No

Respondent
5
45

Out of
50
50

Percentage
10%
90%

Page 19

The above chart and table clearly indicate that the 90% working children are not
getting any allowance or bonus from their boss and 10% are getting bonus or
allowance. Here we can say that child work is not good because they do not get money
according to their work.

Table-10

Have your ever been punished by your boss?

S.No
a
b

Alternative
Yes
No

Respondent
29
21

Out of
50
50

Percentage
58%
42%

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This table shows that working time of the children out of 50 respondents, 58 % of the
children are punished by their boss and 42% of children are not punished by their
boss. It can be said that children are not save in their hazardous work.

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REFERENCE

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10) BEQUELE, Assefa And BOYDEN, Jo Ed : Combating child labour.

(International Labour Office, Geneva 1988)
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Delhi 2006)
16) BURRU, Neera : Born to work (Oxford Univ Press, New Delhi 1995)
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will you work for them? (Campaign Against Child Labour, New Delhi 1995)
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labour in India: Legal provision. (Center Board For Workers Education, New
Delhi 1996)
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REPORT (INDIA): Working group on the convention on the rights of child.
(Rainbow Pub, 1998)

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and Cultural Foundation, New Delhi 2001

A STUDY ON THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF CHILD

LABOUR
Interview schedule for child labour age group (5 to 14 years) indulged in various jobs.
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1. Name____________________

2. Sex______________________
a Male

b Female

3. Age______________________

4. Native place_______________

5. Religion____________________

6. Education___________________
a. Primary
c. Drop out

b. Middle
d. Illiterate

7. Family background
S.No

Name

Age

Relation to
interviewee

Occupation

Education

Income
(P/M)

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Page 29

8. Where are you indulged in working?

a) Hotel shop
b) House hold
c) Mechanical work
d) Any other
9. In a day how many hours you spend in working?
a) 6 hours
b) 8 hours
c) More than 8 hours
d) No limit
10. Do you work at night?
a) Yes
b) No
If yes how many hours______________________
11. Since how long have you been doing this job?
a) years
b) 1-2 years
c) 2-3 years
d) More than 3 years

12. How do you get the salary?

a) Daily
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b) Weekly
c) Monty
d) Cant say
13. Do you get any allowance or bonus from your boss?
a) Yes
b) No
If yes how much____________________________
14. Have your ever been punish by your boss?
a. Yes
b. No
If yes what was reason________________________
15. How do you spend your leisure time?
a) Playing cricket
b) Watching movies
c) Visiting historical place
d) Going relative home
16. Are you member of trade any welfare society or NGOs?
a) Yes
b) No

17. Are you satisfied with your work?

a) Yes
b) No
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If yes what is prime reason_____________________

18. Do you have any idea about child labour laws?
a) Yes
b) No
19. Who compelled you to go to work?
a) Parents
b) Friends
c) Poverty
d) Self
20. How much money do you give to your family?
a) Whole money
b) According to need
c) Does not give at all
d) Gives some times
21. Do you save some money?
a) Yes
b) No
If yes where_______________________

22. Why did you drop your study?

a) Financial difficulty
b) Family problems
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c) No interest to study
d) Any others

23. Are you a bounded labour?

a) Yes
b) No
24. If you get the chance to go to school will you go?
a) Yes
b) No
25. What type of education are interests?
a) School education
b) Vocational training
c) Mechanical training
d) Any other
26. Are you in the habit of taking drugs in any forms?
a) Gutkha
b) Smoking
c) Drinking
d) Whitener liquid
If yes which are in above ( )

27. If yes how much money you spend on it in a day

a) Rs.10
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b) Rs.20
c) Rs.30
d) More than 30

28. Are you suffering from any diseases?

a) Yes
b) No
If yes which kind of disease_____________________
29. What is your personal attitude toward your job?
a) Good
b) Bad
c) Pathetic
d) Cant say

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