Working Conditions of Child Labourers
Not only working children are found throughout India, but even horrible working conditions exist everywhere. Nowhere in India are the working conditions of children found to be satisfactory. Children who pushed to the inevitable conditions of physical work in urban and industrial areas suffer from various hardships. They work under in tolerable conditions, in private houses as domestic servants; in tea-shops and restaurants as vessel-washers and waiters; in mining and industrial units as young labourers; in garages as cleaners, in shop as salesmen, and so on. Some work in dangerously polluted factories while a few others toil near furnaces which burn at a temperature of 1400 degree centigrade. These children not only work under insanitary conditions but also are made to stay in unhygienic shelters. A large number of child workers are huddled in small rooms under in human conditions. These rooms are compartments of substandard, ill-ventilated, insanitary and poorly lighted shelters. These dwelling places are virtually unfit for human habitation. Child workers who are made to toil for long hours under hazardous conditions hardly maintain good health. Many of them suffer from lung diseases, tuberculosis, chronic stomach pain, eye diseases, asthama, bronchitis, back pain, skin diseases, typhoid etc. working conditions of these children are so horrible that some get injured and even disabled in fire accidents.
Child Labour in Hazardous Occupations, 2001
SL NO. |
Hazardous Occupations/Processes |
No. of children employed ,2001 |
Percentage of children employed in 2001 |
1 |
India Total |
1219470 |
100. |
2 |
Domestic workers |
185505 |
15.21 |
3 |
Dhabas/restaurant/hotel/motels |
70934 |
5.81 |
4 |
Agarbatii/dhup/detergent making |
13583 |
1.11 |
5 |
Pan/bidi/cigareetts |
252574 |
20.71 |
6 |
Spinning/weaving |
128984 |
10.57 |
7 |
Construction |
208833 |
17.12 |
8 |
Brick/kilns/tiles |
84972 |
6.96 |
9 |
Jem/cutting/jewelery |
37489 |
3.07 |
10 |
Carpet-making |
32647 |
2.67 |
11 |
Auto-workshop/vehicle repairs |
49893 |
4.09 |
12 |
Ceramic |
18894 |
1.54 |
13 |
Others |
135162 |
11.08 |
Source: Statistics on Women In India 2010, NIPCCD Report
References
Children in India-2012, A Statistical Appraisal, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, New Delhi, 2012.
Statistics on Women in India, National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, New Delhi, 2007.