The Lokpal and Lokayukta (Amendment) Bill, 2016, doing away with the time period for public servants to furnish details of their assets and liabilities, was passed by the Lok Sabha on Wednesday without a discussion.
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Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi today termed as “a missed opportunity” for the country’s children the passage of Child Labour Bill in Lok Sabha, saying he had hoped that the leaders would have valued the freedom and childhood much greater than their votes.
The amendment was pushed despite objections from UNICEF’s chief of education in India, Euphrates Gobina, who said, the Bill would allow “more invisible forms of child labour and exploitation”, which “may go unseen”.
This provision raises serious concerns as it not only legitimises family work but it also could further disadvantage the most vulnerable children from poor families, it said. Family or home-based work for children in India is often hazardous and includes; working in cotton fields, making bangles and bidis, rolling tobacco, carpet weaving and metal work.
The new amendments brought in this bill were “essential”, the minister said, adding that the bill in no way discourages children from going to school.
It, however, does not call children as labourers if they are employed by their own family members in family enterprises. Similarly they were highly critical on bringing down the number of hazardous occupations and processes where children aged between 15 and 18 years must not be engaged. The child rights’ activists were of the strong opinion that the bill must have removed the provision to employ children up to 14 years in family occupations and processes. “This amendment will affect the retention rate of children in schools and increase drop outs of marginalized especially girl children”, Rai says, adding, “Goal 4 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) declared by United Nations is also pushing for the universalization of education till the secondary level”. Although the government’s data claims there is a significant decrease A coalition of NGOs, academic institutions, child rights organizations and individuals working for children in India in the number of child labour in the country, in reality the number of children already working in the unorganized are multiplying (for example Census 2011 shows that child labour in urban settings has actually increased- and that is where the unorganized sector is).Besides, every day newer “occupations” are coming up which are hazardous and risky.
India has tightened its child labor law in light of the increasing number of young children who have joined the labor force.
In both groups, children in rural areas are more likely to work than children from cities and many children are forced to leave school to work.
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It urged India to include an “exhaustive list” of hazardous occupations and exclude family work from the proposed law.
