CHILD LABOR IN YOUR AREA

For Management programme – MP (MBA)

Submitted By

NAME: …………………..

ENROLLMENT NO.: ……………..

STUDY CENTRE (0757) : -……………………

E-MAIL ID:

SEPTEMBER .., 2018

 SYNOPSIS

1) Introduction

Children in Indian society has always been a topic less spoken or discussed. The reasons of the

same can be traced back to the socio-cultural background of the country. In the world children

are taken as the greatest gift to humanity. Childhood is an important stage of human

development as it holds the potential to the future of any society. Children who are brought up

in an environment which is helpful to their intellectual, physical and social development will

go on to be responsible and productive part of the society. Thus every society links its future

to the present status of its children.

Today child has been defined differently by different agencies as per their view and there is a

very large gap and contradiction in these definitions.

This paper attempts to summaries the different meaning to the word child and also give a brief

overview of the magnitude of the issue from an Indian perspective.

An attempt has been made to study the government policy documents and list down the actions

as proposed and implemented by Indian government in the 11th 5 year plan which has just

ended in 2012.

Some suggestions collected by the author, from academicians and also from the policy and plan

documents about the way of eradicating the problems, are summerised in the paper.

In the end the outline of the plan and strategies as identified are also given with author’s

suggestions. The paper identifies that a lot of policy plans have been worked but there is an

urgent need for a social movement for this issue to really get addressed and resolved.

1|Page
2) Literature Review (1 to 2 pages)

In spite of all the development and legislative measures taken to prevent and regulate, the
incidence of child labour has been increasing in the country, including in the hazardous
occupations. It is difficult to estimate how many children are actually working because many
work without pay in assisting their parents or are working for employers that do not report it to
the census. Studies indicate that the burden of household duties fall largely upon the female
child. There are jobs that may jeopardise a child’s psychological and social growth more than
physical growth. In rural areas girls are responsible for looking after younger siblings, cooking,
cleaning, fetching, and carrying, which releases adults for productive work. Though a domestic
job can involve relatively ‘light’ work. However, long hours of work, and the physical,
psychological and sexual abuse to which the child domestic labourers are exposed make the
work hazardous. Studies show that several domestic servants in India on average work for
twenty hours a day with small intervals (Nazir Ahmad Shah).

These children are engaged in the unorganised sector where the legislative measures are not
implemented. Because of the wide coverage and informal nature of the unorganised sector,
monitoring the same becomes an obstacle. Varandani estimated that there were nearly 55
million children in India working as bonded labourers in agriculture, mining, brick-kilns,
construction work, fishing activities, carpet weaving, fireworks, matches, glass moulding, bidi-
making (cigarettes), gem-cutting and polishing work, electroplating, dyeing, washing and
domestic work. About 20 percent of these bonded child labourers were sold to cover some
small debts obtained by their parents, usually for some social celebration like a wedding in the
family. (Varandani,G. p .42.)

The study of Varanasi carpet industry corroborates it. The manufacturers, weavers and
other involved in the industry said that children had nimble fingers and keen eyesight which
are essential for accuracy. They will sit in same posture for hours at a time and, all they have
very little bargaining power. (Kanbargi, 1988).

There are thousands of children who live and work in the city streets of India. According to a
study conducted among the street children in the city of Chennai (Madras), about 90% of them
live with their parents in the streets. The same study also revealed that the largest group of
street children in Chennai work as coolies (22%). About 10.4% of them work in hotels (small

2|Page
restaurants and snack bars), 9.6% do rag picking, 8% pull rickshaws, and 7.1% sell flowers. A
smaller percentage of children are employed in other areas of work, including prostitution
(0.3%). They work for 10-12 hours a day and at the end of the day what they earn is barely
enough for their survival. About 32% of them receive less than 100 rupees (about 2.5 U.S.
dollars) per month as wages. (Joe Arimpoor, 1992)

A recent ILO report, in India about 80 percent of child labourers are employed in agriculture
and allied occupations. Studies also reveal that about 86 percent of bonded labour is found in
India’s agricultural sector. They are also mostly the children of parents who belong to
scheduled castes and tribes. According to one study, there are about 10 million bonded child
labourers working as house servants in Indian families. (UNICEF, 1999)

Among some of the major factor responsible for the institution of child labour in India, poverty
ranks first. Most of the child workers belong to poor, landless and semilandless families whose
income is otherwise insufficient to keep the family alive. The children are, therefore, made to
work to supplement the meager income of the family.

Large private entrepreneurs with automatic machines render a large number of workers jobless.
There is major expansion of the unprotected, unorganised labour force. Unemployment among
men, together with increased migration or desertion and alcoholism among men, has led to an
increasing number of women and children joining the labour force (World Bank, 1991). The
disruption of food supplies, the destruction of crops and agricultural infrastructures, the
disintegration of families and communities, the displacement of populations and the destruction
of educational and health services and of water and sanitation systems, all lead to further
exploitation of the vulnerable children.

3) Problem Statement

The phenomenon of child labour is one of the most visible, rampant and complex problems
of our society in contemporary times and it will continue to be more acute in future also
till its total elimination. The causes for this malady are discussed, at length, in the later
chapters by presenting a detailed review of literature. However, to name a few, they are

3|Page
 poverty, restricted job opportunities, adequate availability of cheap child labour, family
traditions, illiteracy of parents, etc. These children, who are working as child labourers
exhibit several characters like frustration, aggression, etc., as per the various studies
conducted on them. Working with low wages and for longer hours, in dehumanizing
conditions at the work spot, these children are susceptible to exploitation, harassment and
abuses of all sorts. The cumulative effects of all these factors not only adversely affect the
personality of the children, but also convert them sometimes into delinquents.

Inspite of the improved legislations like implementation of child labour Act, 1986 and
National Policy on Child Labour and other action programmes for welfare of child
workers, the incidence of child labour in the country has not come down significantly, and
their living conditions continue to be appalling.

The child labour statistics globally and within the country is furnished in chapter-Ill which
shows that as many as 248 million children globally continue to be child labourers
constituting to around 16% of total work force. Therefore, there is a need to attack this
problem through proper planning and strategy, duly adopting a integrated and
multipronged approach. The present study is therefore taken up to not only study the
prevailing problem of child labour but also suggest appropriate remedial measures.

4) Objectives of the Study \

 The present study has the following specific objectives

o To project the magnitude of the child labour problem and to understand the
gravity by reviewing existing studies on the subject.
o To generate in-depth data on micro aspects of child labour such as (a)
Working conditions, (b) Weekly earnings, (c) Area and sector specific data.
o To present opinion of child respondents on certain aspects such as, the reasons
for taking up employment, willingness to go back to education, their concern
/ outlook for education, treatment meted out by the employer, etc.
o To critically assess the impact of various measures taken up so far on this
subject, including the efforts of the United nations and its
4|Page
  System of Organizations and
o To suggest policy measures for combating child labour

5) Research Methodology
Research Design

Population

Sr. no. Respondent Number of respondents

1. Users 100

Sampling Method/Technique /Sample size, sampling frame/unit ,

Different types of data analysis techniques used in the research project

should be specifically mentioned. Such as:
 Basic analytical tools, which include Tabular Analysis, Graphical
Analysis, Percentage Analysis.
Sample procedure:-

I have prepared this project as descriptive type, as the objective of the study.

Sources of data

It involves use of secondary and primary sources such as web and other research articles
printed by various companies and other journals and magazine.

Methods of data collection

Primary data:
It is original data, first hand and for the specific purpose of the research
project. For this project, I have used the following common research instrument:-
 Questionnaire:

5|Page
 Questionnaire development is the critical part of primary data collection job.
For this I have prepared a questionnaire in such away that it is able to collect all relevant
information regarding the project.
In this questionnaire, I have used mostly close-ended questions that are
easier to be answered by respondents (consumers) and also easier for interpretation and
tabulation & one open-ended question to take the opinion of the respondents in their
own words. The questions were asked to the consumers covering perception towards
their purchase, price of the product, purpose for using the product, characteristic of the
product, brand image, effectiveness of the advertisements, sales promotional activities,
overall opinion about the product, etc.
For collecting the answers from the above questionnaire, I have used the
following common method:-
 Interview:
It is the most common method for contacting consumers & collecting
primary data. For this project I have used following type of interview:-
 Personal interview:
It is the most extensively used method. It enables better control of the
sample and ensures answers from the respondents. It also provides for a tactful
approach to the respondent since it is based on a person-to-person talk. But this method
is generally more expensive and time consuming.
For this project each interview was taking 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
Interview was also delayed due to un-availability of respondent in house.

Secondary data.
It was collected to add the value to the primary data. Data regarding IMRB,
International (Indian Marketing Research Bureau) history, its profile and other
necessary records and information was collected by referring to website, magazines,
annual reports, reference books, daily newspapers, etc.

5.1 Tools and techniques of analysis E.g Ratio Analysis

Basic analytical tools, which include Tabular Analysis, Graphical Analysis, Percentage
Analysis.
6|Page
 Statistical/ Instrument used E.g Ms. Excel, SPSS etc

 Excel
 SPSS

6) Scope of the Proposed Study

In this study, a comprehensive coverage has been made on the magnitude of the child labour
problem, the legislative, administrative and constitutional/judicial safeguards provided to
India's children, the efforts made by UN and its system of Organizations at global level to
mitigate/eradicate this problem. A field study has also been conducted to arrive at the root
causes of this problem with a view to arrive at certain solutions for tackling this problem. The
researcher strongly believes that the exploitation of children will go on with impunity, unless
deterrents with enough teeth are positioned into the entire system, apart from ensuring
compulsory, free, universal education to all children and providing economic support measures
to the parents of the child labour. It is worth mentioning here that this thesis, by covering both
national efforts and the contribution of United Nation system of Organizations suggested for
an integrated approach in mitigating this much vexed problem

7) Proposed Chapterization
Executive Summary
1: Introduction
2: Literature Review
3: Objective of the Study
4: Research Methodology
5: Data Interpretation and Findings
6: Recommendations of the Study
7: Summary of the Study
8: Conclusion
9: Direction for further research

8) Bibliography

• Baland, Jean-Marie and James A. Robinson (2000) 'Is child labour inefficient?

7|Page
 • Basu, Kaushik, and Homa Zarghamee (2009) 'Is product boycott a good idea for

controlling child labour? A theoretical investigation'

• Bhukuth, Augendra. "Defining child labour: a controversial debate"

• Emerson, Patrick M., and André Portela Souza. "Is Child Labour Harmful

Questionnaire (10 to 15 questions)

CONTACT AMBRISH-09582940966

8|Page