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Child labor in India is a very grave issue. Since Independence, various organizations and government agencies have come forward to take the initiative in their hand and work for the betterment of children, but little has been done so far. Right from small regions like Bellary district in Andhra Pradesh to metropolitan cities like Mumbai and Delhi, the cases of child labor are rising every day. From 11.28 million child laborers in the year 1991 to 12.59 million in 2001, India has surely not learnt from its past mistakes or so it seems from the current statistics. Repeatedly India has surpassed various other developing and under-developed countries to have the largest number of child laborers. Although the root cause of child labor may be extreme poverty or lack of an initiative on the part of parents to educate children. It can also be due to lack of governmental financial schemes, high unemployment rates among parents and population explosion, a menacing problem already lying in the Indian social strata. Homeless children, without any kind of socials security are predominantly employed as domestic workers in metropolitan cities and other urban areas and are having to go through a great deal of mental and physical trauma, often due to physical and mental abuse, sexual harassment or emotional turbulence. Often due to the inefficiency of the administration system, these children have to pass through a lot of trauma and turmoil in their early life that might leave a permanent mark in their personality. There are still cases of bonded labor that can be seen in various sections of the Indian society. In case if a family has taken loan and is unable to repay it, it employs a child as a bonded labor to serve the lender until the time the money is repaid. There are various families who cannot afford to raise their children and so send them to employment agencies, which again sends the child to urban areas to work as a domestic servant in residential homes or work as peons and servants in offices and hotels. The government of India has tried to constitute various rights for the betterment of these children. In 1974, the Constitution of India drafted a National Policy on Children Rights that clearly stated that a child has the right to educate that paves the way for children education up to class eight, get informed, express, receive basic health care, nutrition, get protection from abuse and exploitation and survive. Various initiatives are being taken by the government, but only time can say whether they are getting any positive results or not. Since the issue of child labor is very complex, there has not been any stringent measure taken from the side of the government so far. Even though there has been a complete ban of domestic child labor work since 2006, little has been done in the area so far and the other laws have also suffered the same fate. Many NGOs are working together to fight in consensus against the law for child rights since only making the law is not enough, there should be enough measures, rules, regulations, fines and penalties involved to make people follow them seriously.
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child abuse, charity india, child labor, charities for children,
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