CHAPTER- X

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION &

RECOMMENDATIONS

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 Chapter-I defines about the introduction of the child labour that
deals with the definition, causes, types, aims and objectives of the
research. Child labour is a common and prominent socio-economic
issue of the society. By Law, work done by the children under the age
of 14 years is known as child labour. The consequence of child labour
is increasing and decreasing in all period of time. The various
dimension of child labour is depended upon the socio-economic and
cultural structure of the society. It also deals with the aims and
objective as well as methodology of the study.

Chapter-II deals with the review of the literatures wherein the

concept of the child labour and its related issues in various
dimensions studied by the scholars. Most of the researchers stated
that child labour is the result of the poverty, illiteracy, lack of
awareness etc. due to these reasons children are engaged in different
workforce as a supplementary of income to their family.

Chapter-III deals with the clear vision of the research area

including its demography, infrastructure, climate, economy etc. As
Sambalpur is the less industrial but agriculture as well as forest-
based city where most of the children along with their families are
engaged in different work as a paid and unpaid child labour.

Chapter- IV deals with the development and enforcement of

labour laws towards the eradication of the child labour. All these
Rules, Regulation and Acts are regulated towards the prevention and
protection of the employment of children in different sectors. The age
of child labour is varying in every Acts meant for their welfare and
safeguard. According to Factories Act1948, Beedi Cigar Act 1966 and
Child labour (P & R) Act, 1986 the age of the child labour is below 14
year and in Mines Act, 1952 and Bonded Labour Act 1976, it is below
16 years. Children below 14 are completely banned to be engaged in
65 processes and 18 occupations as prescribed under Child Labour

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(Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. The inspectors are appointed
under this labour code are the verifying authorities to visit the all the
establishment to rescue the child labourer. Records and registered are
maintained accordingly. As per Labour Statics (2015) total 392
inspection conducted, 26 child labourers are rescued, and 11
prosecutions are launched in the year 2010-11 but it is increased with
time, highest 3385 nos. of inspection conducted, 192 nos. of child
labour rescued and 135 nos. of prosecutions lunch till 2014-15.

Chapter- V deals with the Socio-economic Profile of the child

labour to understand the situatedness of child labour in social
context. It deals with the details of the child labour identified in
respect to their age, gender, caste, language etc. It also highlights the
socio-economic status of the sampled child labour. It shows that how
the family type, size and living condition influencing the child to work.
Thus, the families who are living below poverty line use their children
as an economic asset. Those children who are living with their family
are more inclined to work either by force or by self, rather than those
children who are staying with their peer groups, single parents or
guardian. Parent’s illiteracy is another factor behind it. Children of the
single parents are engaged in needful works to add their income
towards family maintenance and daily livelihood. Researcher has
observed that many a times parents are using their child as
supplementary income source despite they spend time sitting idle,
drinking alcohol, etc.

Chapter-VI defines the working status of the child labour.

Various factors are responsible in the rise of the child labour. Most of
the children are working as a paid labourer and many are treated as
unpaid child labour. As per the laws the engagement of the children in
different establishments are completely prohibited. However, children
are engaged in hazardous occupations and processes (51.31%), non-
hazardous (17.32%) and both sectors (31.33%) which affects their

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growth and development and also deprive them from their rights to
education, good health and survival. Family problem, parent’s
migration and self-interest are the major factors towards engagement
of children into the workforce.

As per RTE ACT, 2006 all the children under the age group of 6-
14 years are compulsory to attain their education, but as the children
are engaged in different sectors and also help their parents in their
works, they are not able to attend their formal school. These
vulnerable children need special care and protection for their survival.
Though children are working more than 8 hours daily with a low
wage, they are facing problems like mental harassment, orally abused,
deduction of money from their salary etc. It shows that the
involvement of parents may reduce the exploitation of the children.
Children spend their leisure time by playing games, taking rest, both
and watching TV or mobile which may give some relaxation to them.

Chapter- VII deals with the educational and health status of the
sampled child labour. These vulnerable children enter the workforce
at an early age which affects their education as well as health. They
are easily deprived from their education as they are never enrolled in
any school or either dropout of school. The proportion of school
dropout is higher among the male child labour than the female child
labour. There are various reasons behind their dropout like family
problem, parent’s migration, need to work at home, school fees are not
deposited by the parents in time, poor school environment and lack of
interest in the study. After the closure of NCLP schools the children
again return to their work. The researcher also found that some 11%
of children not attend the school in regular basis whereas 12.33% are
working and studying.

By observing the health condition of these children, the

researcher found that they are suffering from malnutrition and other

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diseases like cold and fever, malaria, typhoid, dehydration as well as
skin diseases are also prevalent. It only happens due to lack of proper
care and protection of the children. 83% of the child labour have lower
BMI due to the lack of proper attention of parents towards their
health, low diet etc.

Chapter-VIII deals with various Govt. initiatives implemented to

rescue and rehabilitated the child labour from various hazardous and
non-hazardous sectors and protected them from all form of
exploitation. NCLP, Operation Muskan, Operation Smile are some of
the schemes launched by the Govt. towards the welfare and safeguard
of the children from trafficked, abused and labour force. Despite all
these laws child labour still exists in the society in different forms as
paid and unpaid child labour.

The impact of the NCLP project seems to have favourable as well

as non-favourable to the children and parents as well as the teachers
also. Majority (82%) of children, parents and teachers felt that it gives
benefit to the child labour whereas 18% of them (parents and
children) felt that it deprived them from their earning as child labour.

Chapter -IX made a comparative study on educational and

health of child labour and formal school children. Irregularities are
the common factors found among child labour and formal school
children due to various family problems, the need to work at
home, parent's migration, separation or death of a family member
or both, etc. The school attendance ratio is found to be higher
among the male than female children of both categories.
Researcher found that child labourers are more interested
in maths and Hindi subjects than other subjects as they are
used for calculation and interaction with people in their daily
schedule.

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 The researcher discovered that children are suffering from
various diseases such as fever and cold cough, fever and
headache, malaria, typhoid, dehydration and vomiting, and other
skin diseases by observing the health conditions of child labourers
and children in formal school. But fever/ cold cough, and malaria
are more prevalent among child labour than other diseases. The
BMI of the children is not good as they are not getting sufficient
nutrition in their regular diet.

Conclusion:

Despite of several rules and regulation and schemes are

implemented by the Govt. child labour do exist in many forms in the
society. Now-a-days, during this pandemic situation majority of the
people are unemployed, jobless and also suffering from financial
crisis. They are pushing their children into the labour work. In such
cases the proportion of child labour may increase and children are
engaged in different hazardous and non-hazardous sector along with
some criminal activities like theft, pick pocketing and other heinous
crime etc.

The socio-economic and cultural structure of the society also

reenforce the induction of the children in the workforce. Some of the
reasons like child self-interest, death of the family members,
separation, migration and poor awareness etc. Working in different
sectors by the children not only hampers the physical and mental
status of the child but also deprived them from mainstreamed to
education and poor health status. They dropout early from the school
and struggle to meet the challenge of life of stress and the robbed of
their childhood.

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Recommendations:

As per the above circumstances the present study recommends

the following steps for the elimination of the child labour.

 The Govt. should conduct complete enumeration to identify the

working children basing on their age and gender.

 The Govt. should ensure to conduct and regular health check-

up and food security of children in both formal and non-formal
sectors.

 The Govt. should strongly enforce the compulsory education

(RTE) Act in everywhere of the society and also lunch vocational
training in both formal and non-formal schools so that the
dropout ratio may reduce.

 The Govt. should make specials provisions to facilitate better

education and health of those vulnerable children whose
parents migrate for work.

 The Govt. should take strong action to operate the schemes like
Operation Muskan, Operational Smile and NCLP (Special
Training Center) by providing necessary funds within the
stipulate time and also conduct time to time review for better
performance.

 The Co-ordination of both the Central and State Government

with the other concern departments are strictly require for the
welfare and safeguard of the vulnerable children.

 Effort should be made to stop child labour and exploitation of

children with co-ordination of District Labour Machinery in
cases of violation of Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition
and Regulation) Act 1986.

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 Strong action must be taken towards those employers who have
employed the children through F.I.R and initial working.

 The Govt. should take strong legal action should be initiated

against private Labour recruiters and placement agencies
operating without any license or authority.

 Though the rescued children need timely counselling, it should

be taken in priority basis.

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