Question

what is child labour? what are it's causes? short.....

Answer 1

Literally,child labour can be defined as the employment of children in an industry or business, especially when illegal or considered exploitative.

Over population, illiteracy, poverty, debt trap are some of the common causes which are instrumental in this issue.

Due to poverty, parents cannot afford the studies of their children and make them earn their wages from a tender age.

Administrative laxity is also responsible for child labour. The worst sufferers are the poor families for whom getting their children educated is a dream.

Social and economic backwardness is also the main reason for child labour. Socially backward parents do not send their children to receive education. Consequently, their children are trapped in child labour.

Due to illiteracy, many times parents are not aware of various information and schemes for child education.

Answer 2

What is Child Labour

Child labour typically means the employment of children in any manual work with or without payment. Child labour is not only limited to India, it happens to be a global phenomenon.

Causes of Child Labour

The curse of poverty

The main reason for child labour is poverty. Most of the country’s population suffers from poverty. Due to poverty, parents cannot afford the studies of their children and make them earn their wages from a tender age. They send their small children to work in factories, homes and shops. They are made to work to increase the income of their poor families at the earliest. These decisions are taken only for the purpose of eking out a living for their family. But such decisions shatter children’s physical and mental state as they lose their childhood at an early age.

Lack of educational resources

Even after so many years of our country’s independence, there are instances where children are deprived of their fundamental right to education. There are thousands of villages in our country where there are no proper facilities of education. And if there is any, it is miles away. Such administrative laxity is also responsible for child labour. The worst sufferers are the poor families for whom getting their children educated is a dream.

Sometimes the lack of affordable school for the education of poor children leaves them illiterate and helpless. Children are forced to live without studying. And sometimes such compulsions push them into the trap of child labour.

Social and economic backwardness

Social and economic backwardness is also the main reason for child labour. Socially backward parents do not send their children to receive education. Consequently, their children are trapped in child labour. Due to illiteracy, many times parents are not aware of various information and schemes for child education. Lack of education, illiteracy and consequently the lack of awareness of their rights among them have encouraged child labour. Also, uneducated parents do not know about the impact of child labour on their children. The conditions of poverty and unemployment give rural families a compulsive basis for engaging children in various tasks.

Addiction, disease or disability

In many families, due to addiction, disease or disability, there is no earning, and the child’s wages are the sole means of family’s sustenance. Population growth is also increasing unemployment, which has adverse impact on child labour prevention. So, parents, instead of sending their children to school, are willing to send them to work to increase family income.

Poor compliance of laws

In modern society, laws stipulate that citizens have the right to receive good education, avail good health services and take care of their health. Every citizen has the right to play the game he enjoys, and enjoy all the means of entertainment, and when he grows, to obtain employment where he can earn well and contribute to society and nation. But in the absence of proper compliance of the laws, child labour is continuing. It can be prohibited only by strict adherence to the related laws.

Lure of cheap labour

In the greed of cheap labour, some shopkeepers, companies and factory owners employ children so that they have to pay less to them and it amounts to employing cheap labour. Shopkeepers and small businessmen make children work as much as they do to the elder ones, but pay half the wages.

With the development of globalization, privatization, and consumerist culture, the need for cheap labour and its linkage with economic needs of poor families have encouraged child labour.

Family tradition

The culture and traditional family values play their role in increasing the problem of child labour at the voluntary level. Many families believe that a good life is not their destiny, and the age-old tradition of labour is the only source of their earning and livelihood.

Small businessmen also waste the lives of their children in the greediness of perpetuating their family trade with lower production costs. Some families also believe that working from childhood onwards will make their children more diligent and worldly-wise in terms of future life. They believe that early employment will give rise to their children’s personal development, which will make it easier for them to plan their life ahead.

Discrimination between boys and girls

We have been conditioned into believing that girls are weaker and there is no equal comparison between boys and girls. Considering girls weaker than boys deprives them of school and education. In labourer families, girls are found to be engaged in labour along with their parents.