Updates on Child Labor Amendment Bill

Any society’s future will be only as good as the way it treats and nurtures its children today. This is a much talked about issue. Sociologists & economists as well as our prime minister have emphasized this repeatedly. Today the number of child laborers in India varies from 50 lack to 5 crore in different estimate. 

The biggest tragedy is the fact that there are almost equal numbers of adults who are unemployed. Child labors are deprived of their fundamental rights; many of them being victims of trafficking, prostitution, forced beggary, illiteracy and subjected the worst form of exploitation. In their formative years they missed out on education and then they drift into various circles of illiteracy and poverty.

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I would like to point out two very important concerns first one is there has been an inordinate delay in passing pending legislations(bill) that will make a huge difference to the lives of crores of children and teenagers, and secondly a perpetual neglect in appropriate budgetary allocations for the welfare of our children. It is nothing short of political apathy on the part of our lawmakers that the child labor amendment bill has been waiting to taken up in parliament since 2012.

When we all know that a child trapped in a labor is in need of care and protection, and cannot afford to wait for a single day. Why this bill gathering dust for over three years. No government could find time to table this bill on the floor. According to census 2011, 41% of India’s population is under 18. Yet only 4.5% of the total budget is earmarked for children. Expenditure on education was just 3.3% of GDP in 2013-14. With 1.4 million children between the age of 6to 11 still out of school in India.

Children health is another area which needs attention. Half of the children in India are chronically malnourished and around 43% children under 5 years are under weight for their age. In spite of this the national nutrition mission saw no changes in allocation. India still has a large number of working children, yet the only national scheme for addressing child labor ‘national child labor project scheme’ witnessed a decrease of 12% in allocation. Now it’s our moral duty and utmost responsibility to give children in need of care and protection a safe life by ensuring adequate fiscal investment.

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It is high time India should pass the Child labor amendment bill (prohibition and regulation) and it must also increase budgetary allocation for the development and protection of our children in the New Year. This will be the best investment towards a better today and a promising tomorrow for our country. We as the youth of the country have the power to bring the change in our society and what prevails is the reflection of our thought process, so just gather the courage to speak and your voice would be heard. What you feel could be done to speeding this up. Share your views on this. If you like our efforts to help aspirants motivated and updated for SSB, share this with your friends. Join our facebook group to be updated and follow us here. Subscribe for email notification to get instant updates on mail.

About the Author: Prakashmaan Singh is working with department of posts under ministry of communication, India. He is a fitness freak and bodybuilding is his passion. Through his articles he wants to spread awareness and present his views on the topic so that exchange of thoughts can take place.