The World Day Against Child labour is organised worldwide to spread knowledge about the evils of child labour. It is spearheaded by the International Labour Organisation and United Nations Children’s Fund. Here are a few child labour laws and legislation to prevent children from being misused.
The Constitution of India is the guardian of all Indian citizens. And the Indian Penal Code defines the illegal activities and their punishments. So here are a a few provisions as well as other legislation to tackle the problem of child labour.
Child Labour Laws and Legislation in India
- Constitution of India : The Indian Constitution has given certain provisions for the protection of rights of child. Some of them are as follows.
- Article 15(3) provides ‘Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children’.
- Article 21-A provides for free and compulsory education for all children in 6 to 14 years age group.
- Article 24 provides protection from engaging in any hazardous employment up to the age of 14 years.
- Article 39(e) provides right to be protected from being abused and forced by economic necessity to enter occupations unsuited to their age or strength.
- Article 39(f) provides right to equal opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and guaranteed protection of childhood and youth against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
- Indian Penal Code: The Indian Penal Code also provides stringent punishment for the culprits related to child trafficking and exploitation. The following are the sections of IPC dealing with child labour laws.
- Section 370. Trafficking of person- Whoever, for the purpose of exploitation, recruits, transports, harbors, transfers, or receives, a person or persons, by using threats, or using force, or any other form of coercion, or by abduction, or by practicing fraud or deception, or by abuse of power, or by inducement, including the giving or receiving of payments or benefits, in order to achieve the consent of any person having control over the person recruited, transported, harbored, transferred or received, commits the offence of trafficking.
Punishment for trafficking of a minor– Imprisonment of not less than 10 years but may extend to imprisonment for life and with fine.
Trafficking of more than one minor– Imprisonment of not less than 14 years but may extend to imprisonment for life and with fine.
- B. Section 370-A. Exploitation of a trafficked person- Whoever, knowingly or having reason to believe that a minor has been trafficked, engages such minor for sexual exploitation in any manner, shall be punished with imprisonment of not less than 5 years but may extend to 7 years and with fine.
- Section 372 & 373. Selling or buying minor for purpose of prostitution – Whoever, sells, lets to hire, or otherwise disposes of or buys, hires or otherwise obtains possession of any person under the age of 18 years with intent to be employed for prostitution or illicit intercourse with any person or for any unlawful and immoral purpose, shall be punished with imprisonment for terms which may extend to 10 years and with fine.
- Section 374. Unlawful compulsory labour- Whoever unlawfully compelled any person to labour against the will of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 1 year or with fine or with both.
- The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986:
The main objective of the Act is to ban the employment of children in specific occupations who have not completed the age of 14 years. Regulate the conditions of work of children in employments where they are not prohibited to work, to impose penalties to those who violates the provisions of this Act. Under Section 3 of the Act, there is a list of occupations and processes provided in the Part A and Part B of the Schedule in which the children are prohibited to work, the violation of this provision will lead to imposition of penalty under Section 14:
(a) 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 3 months but which may extend to 1 year or with fine which may extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both.
(b) Whoever, having been convicted of an offence under Section 3, commits alike offence afterwards, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 6 months but which may extend to 2 years. - Apart from all these provisions, there are some other legislation like Factories Act, 1948; Mines Act, 1952; Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 etc. which also encourages the protection of the rights of children.
These were the legal provisions to prevent child labour in India. Read more about World Day Against Child Labour here.
Subhalaxmi Chakravarty contributed this article to Discover East. She is a Guwahati based lawyer and has a knack for traveling.
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