Child Population and Working Children

While an absolute increase of 181 million in the country's population has been recorded during the decade 2001-2011, there is a reduction of 5.05 million in the population of children aged 0-6 years during this period. T he decline in male children is 2.06 million and in female children is 2.99 million. T he share of Children (0-6 years) in the total population has showed a decline of 2.8 points in 2011, compared to Census 2001 and the decline was sharper for female children than male children in the age group 0-6 years. According to Ministry of statistics and Programme Implementation, government of India (Children in India 2012- An statistical Appraisal), 2012, the 2001 Census found an increase in the number of child labourers from 11.28 million in 1991 to 12.66 million in 2001. The major occupations engaging child labour are Pan, Bidi & Cigarettes (21%), Construction (17%), Domestic workers (15%) and Spinning & weaving (11%). As per census 2001, Uttar Pradesh (15.22%) recorded the highest share of child labour in the country, followed by Andra Pradesh (10.76%), Rajasthan (9.97%), Bihar (8.82%), Madhya Pradesh (8.41%), and West Bengal (6.77%). There is considerable increase in the absolute number of child labour between 1991 and 2001 in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, and Delhi, whereas the States of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Orissa, Gujarat and Kerala have shown significant decline in the number of child labour. Sikkim had the highest Work Participation Rate (WPR) in the country with 12.04 % child labourers among total children in the age group of 5-14 years, followed by Rajasthan 8.25 % and Himachal Pradesh (8.14%) during 2001. The other states having higher than the national average of 5 percent WPR for children are Andhra Pradesh (7.7%), Chattisgarh (6.96%), Karnataka (6.91%), Madhya Pradesh (6.71%), J&K (6.62%), Arunachal Pradesh (6.06%), Jharkhand and Assam (5.07%). The National Sample Survey (NSSO) estimates suggests that the child labour in the country is around 8.9 million in 2004/2005 with a workforce participation rate of 3.4 per cent (NSSO 2004/05).

As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) -3 (2005-06), nearly one in every eight (11.8%) children aged 5-14 years works either for their own household or for somebody else. Among the children who work for others, 2.2% children are engaged in paid work and 2.9% are engaged in unpaid work. 3.1% children are engaged in household chores for 28 or more hours in a week, and 4.8% are engaged in work in a family business. Since children are involved in multiple activities, the total work participation rate of 12 percent is less than the sum of the percentages of children engaged in each type of work. The work participation rate as revealed by NFHS 3 is the same for girls (12 percent) as it is for boys (12 percent). The very young children (age 5-7 years), both boys and girls, are mainly doing unpaid work for someone who is not a member of their household. The older boys age 12-14 are mainly engaged in paid work or family work, whereas girls in this age group are involved mainly in household chores or family work. Notably, at all ages, girls are more likely than boys to be doing chores and boys are more likely than girls to be working for someone who is not a member of the household or doing other family work. Rural children age 5-14 years (12.9%) are more likely to be engaged in work than their urban counterparts (8.6%). The percentage of children engaged in work activities decreases steadily with mother's increasing education, father's increasing education, and increasing wealth quintile. With parents' higher education and greater household wealth, there is a substantial reduction in the extent of paid work, involvement in household chores, and other family work, but involvement in unpaid work for someone who is not a member of the household remains more or less the same.