India will need 100 years to end child labour

A report by a children rights group has revealed that with child labour decreasing in India at a dismal rate ‎of ‎only 2.2 per cent per year it would take more than a century to end the scourge in the nation.    ‎An ‎analysis of census data by the India-based non-governmental organization, Child Rights and ‎You ‎‎(CRY), noted that over 10 million children continue to be a part of the country’s workforce, ‎indicating ‎at this pace it would take more than a century to end the menace. The report also pointed to ‎a ‎dangerous trend – that child labour in urban areas has increased by 53 per cent during 2001-2011.  ‎This ‎is of utmost concern especially since enforcement machinery is primarily based in urban regions ‎and the ‎implementation of child protection structures is stronger in urban India.  According to Komal ‎Ganotra, ‎Director, Policy & Research at CRY, this trend could be attributed to increased migration to ‎cities for ‎employment as well as trafficking of unaccompanied minors.   ‎

Overall, 80 per cent of the working children are based in rural areas and 3 out 4 of them work ‎in ‎agriculture as cultivators or in household industries, most of which are home-based employments, ‎the ‎report said.  Interestingly, more than half of working children in India are concentrated in five ‎states ‎namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These states account ‎for ‎more than 5.5 million child workers.  Out of these five states, only Uttar Pradesh has witnessed ‎a ‎growth in child labour by 13 per cent with one out of five child labourers in India belonging to the ‎state, ‎the report said.  (Source: PTI)‎