Child Labor Ppt 1

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Introduction

Child Labour

Focused Areas

Who are child labourers andhow many?

What is the dilemma?What is the solution?Conclusion

IEG 7th March, 2008 , Praveen kuamr

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Child Labour

ILO :distinguishes child labour from economically active Children by asserting

that a child above the age of 12 Who does light ,part time work, that is not

hazardous may be economically active but is not to be counted as a child labourer

India:Law

Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986,

seeks to prohibit employment of children below 14 years in hazardous

occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in otheremployments. Recently, Government has also decided to include children

working as domestic servants and those working in dhabas/roadside eateries

/motels etc. in the category of hazardous occupations.

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Child labour

Child labour in figures (global estimates 2002) = knowledge

National surveys (50)

( 1998-2002)

Rapid assessments&

Baseline studies (100)

(2000-2003)

246 million child labourers

Worldwide

( age 5-17)

146 million childrenAged 6-11

Out of school

283 million children

Aged 12-17 out of school

Majority boys

Majority girls

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4NOs. industry (India) %share

1 Pan, Bidi & Cigarettes 18

2 Construction 15

3 Domestic workers* 12

4 Spinning/ weaving 11

5 Brick-kilns, tiles 9.5

6 Dhabas/ Restaurants/ Hotels/ Motels* 7.7

7 Auto-workshop, vehicle repairs 7

8 Gem-cutting, Jewellery 6.2

9 Carpet-making 5.8

10 Ceramic 4.1

11 Agarbati, Dhoop & Detergent making 2.7

12 Others 2


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The global experiences..

Britain : Roberts Peel's factories act 1802

Incidence of child labour remained very high

U.S experience: child labor control act 1837

Faster decline in child labour between 1880-1910.

What do other studies say.?

Moehling 1999: law had very little effect on the incidence of

child labour in Britain

Should the govt intervene ?

There is need for formal empirical analysis of the effect of the law on child

labour , the broad evidence suggests that the effect may not be what people take

it to be at face value . Indeed it can be shown that when it comes to the use of a

fine for employing children the effect can be the opposite of what we may expect .


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Should the firms employing child be fined?

A house hold sends its children to work in

order to escape poverty and starvation , now

There is a new law whereby firms are fined

whenever they are caught using child

clearly this will cause the wage for child labourto drop this is because children are now less

input for firms. But this in turn will mean

children will have to work even harder to be

able to earn the target income (subsistence-

level) Empirically , consider a lobour marketin which each household consists one adult and

several children in a labour market , adults and

children are perfect substitutes. The adult

always supplies labour perfectly inelastically ,

where as children work only to the extent of

subsistence.

6IPEC
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Children will work only when adult wagerate is below s. let w be the adult wage in

the economy .

if w>s no child labour evolves.

What happens when govt comes into

picture.?Govt imposes a fine =D rupees .

Let p be the probability for a firm to be

caught so every time the firm will be fined

= pD( punishment cost).

Let Wc be the child wage rate firm willemploy a child only when Wc


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Consider the case when govt tries to raise the fine .

This will mean that employing children will be more

expensive for the firms , because with each childthere is risk of being caught and having to pay the

larger fine to the govt. so as the penalty rises the

market will make sure that child wage will drop.

And once the child wage drops each household will

be forced to send more children to work to meet the

subsistence consumption target, so herein lies the

essence of Pathology ,an increased fine for employin

children could raise the child labour


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Concluding remarks:

Which agency to control ?

National government

International bodies

Or

Ordinary consumers

But again Inadequate access

Northern protectionism.

Direct or indirect approach .

Close analysis required .

Sources : ILO and Planning Commission Of India

Documents

Child Labor Ppt 1