Arun C MehtaFormerly Professor & Head of the EMIS DepartmentNIEPA, New Delhi
It is come known that the Government has recently informed the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PAC) that it has no data on Child Labour in the Country. We may or may not have data on child labour but definitely, we do have child labour across the Country which can be seen in most of the metros and large cities selling Chinese products in the busy crossing throughout the day irrespective of weather whether it is cold, summer or rainy season.
But it is a different matter that with the changing weather and festivals and from Republic to Independence Day, the items these children selling used to change and after a gap of few days, usually they come out with new products. So it does not matter whether we have data on child labour or not but yes we do have child labour workers across the country which was well reflected in the 2011 Census. Take your vehicle and move on to any highway along with the roadside Dhaba you would observe that helper Chhotu (child helper) serves in each of the eating jaunts, mopping tables, serving food and cleaning the used utensils.
Hope you too have observed this not far from your residence in your neighbourhood that the child is working in most of the auto repairing shops which are routine and has become part of our day-to-day life. Even in sabzi-mandis, Chhotus can be seen carrying a vegetable basket on their head full of goods weight of which is often more than he could manage. Even, school-age children can be seen performing their art to earn money on most of the road crossings which is more true for metros. Dishearten to know that many of the street children do live under the flyovers and near underpasses a few of whom are told to have been born there only.
With all these activities one gets the impression that yes, we do not have formal data on child workers but it has been observed that we do have child workers around us. These children are termed as having never been to school or dropped out or out-of-school children. But such children whether or not considered child workers/labours? For this purpose let us have a glance at the accepted definition of a child worker/labour/working children.
As per the International Labour organisation, “The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development”. Further, it refers to work that: – “is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children; and/or – interferes with a child’s ability to attend and participate in school fully by obliging them to leave school prematurely, or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work.” Are the children selling or begging on roads and other locations terms as child workers? As per ILO definition, the answer is certainly yes.
Apart from the Census of India managed by the Office of the Registrar General of India which collects and disseminates extensive data both all-India and state-specific on child workers once a decade, the Child Labour Project which was being managed by the V. V. Giri National Labour Institute under the Ministry of Labour used to collect extensive data on child labour once in a year but the same was discontinued at the time of launching one of the mega centrally sponsored programmes of the Department of School Education and Literacy of the Ministry of Education, namely the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan in 2018 but hardly any attempt is visible to made on data collection on child worker.
As a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, the NCLP was initiated in 1988 initially in 12 districts of the Country having a large number of working children to rehabilitate them and the project could reach as high as 271 such projects by the 11th Five Year Plan. During the 10th FYP, as many as 150 NCLPs were sanctioned which is incidentally the highest number since its inception in the year 1988. The NCLPs was entirely funded by the Government of India through the Ministry of Labour & Employment and like other Centrally Sponsored Schemes, such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan were released to the State Implementation Society.
The aim was to identify children in the age group of 5-8 years working in hazardous occupations and to mainstream them to the formal educational system through SSA and of 9 to 14 years age group to be rehabilitated through the NCLP schools established under the project by the State Project Society. It is said that as many as six thousand special schools were opened under the NCLP through which around one million children were mainstreamed which is not a mean achievement by any standard. The Media reports (See Delhi Edition of The Hindu of 12th July 2022) suggests that because of a lack of budgetary provisions, the NLCP was abandoned abruptly and supposed to have been merged with the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and as such the Government has informed the PAC that it does not have records on the child labour in the Country.
It is unfortunate that when the Country strives to attain a 100 per cent GER at school education by the year 2030 which is reemphasised in both the NEP 2020 and SDG 4.0 Education in the absence of data on working children it is not known the basis on which the planners while planning for universal enrolment use which set of data. It is generally believed that those who are out of the education system are out-of-school children many of whom may be working children.
No effort has been made in the recent past to know the quantum of working children in the Country. What is their percentage of the total out-of-school children? Why do children work at the cost of education? Is it because of poverty or because children are not interested in education or simply it is because children drop out of the system because of repetitive failures and also because they need to take care of their siblings all of which are reflected in the NSSO 75th Round?
One of the other reasons for children not attending schools found in the NSSO 75th Round is because children are engaged in economic activities. Despite reasons for non-enrolment known (such as poverty, engagement in economic activities, not being interested in education etc.) no special efforts have been initiated to check, despite a good number of research studies being conducted on dropouts and still being conducted. The point is not to know the quantum of the dropout but to initiate activities to check the dropout. It is heartening to know that the dropout rate in the recent past has declined significantly from a high of 5.62 per cent in 2012-13 at the primary level to 0.08 per cent in 2020-21; the year for which the latest UDISE+ data is available. Many states have reported zero or almost negligible dropout rates at this level of education which needs further scrutiny.
Media reports suggest that NCLP was discontinued at the time of launching Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan and it was envisaged that the same would henceforth be tackled through the SSA but the Data Capture Format of UDISE+ based on which district annual plan and budget is supposed to be based upon do not have any provision to collect information on working children rather it is not possible to collect the same from the administrative surveys for which information need to be collected from the households. In the absence of information even from the Ministry of Child and Women Development, the Census of India is the only source which provides information about working children which would next be available when the data of the 2021 Census is available.
It is also a matter of concern that the total population and its sex composition are generally available at the lightning speed but other details required for the education sector are released after a gap of 4 to 5 years and the intermediary years’ indicators are computed based on the projected population which in the past found to be quite off the track. In recent years, not only has the child population been projected but the time lag in enrolment data is slowly but surely been on the increase; at one point of the time school education plans were been formulated based on the same year data but now there is at least a lag of at least two years.
For example, the latest 2022-23 school education plans under the aegis of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan were formulated based on the 2020-21 year data and in a few states were even based on 2019-20 UDISE+ data. Why has suddenly the time lag in educational statistics started to increase and why no one is bothered about the same in the absence of which even indices computed by the NITI Aayog such as SEQI, PGI, SDG etc. all are based on outdated data and the outcome of such exercises are of little use while formulating the plan for the current year?
A glance at the percentage of child workers in the total 6 to 13 years population reveals that as many as 3.48 per cent of the total population in this age group was classed as child workers which includes both the main and the marginal workers. Though the percentage looks low in absolute terms the number of child workers in 2011 was as high as 208.32 million of which the male constitute 52.24 per cent and the girls, 47.76 per cent. Even if the percentage of the child population in 2021 remains at the 2011 level i.e. 3.48 per cent, in absolute terms the country may see a decline in the number of child workers because of the decline in the child population which is based on the Report of the Expert Committee on population projections. Continue ......
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