ABSTRACT CHILD LABOUR : A CASE STUDY Dr. Tapan Kumar Shandilya P.G. Department of Economics, College of Commerce, Patna E-mail-
[email protected] Child labour is a many-faceted socio-economic problem, which needs multipronged programme embracing Acts relating to child labour, rehabilitation of child labour, strengthening primary education, improvements of parents' incomes, etc. After thorough investigation of the sample study of child labour in Patna town, the following measures are suggested for reduction in the incidence of child labour and for their betterment. We hope that these measures would bring some good
results. Child labour could not be weeded out despite several welfare legislations enacted by the government for time to time. It needs a change in our social attitude. Social awareness is also needed to discourage the practice of child labour. Besides this, the tightening of laws and activating enforcement machinery is needed badly to weed out the child labour in its true perspective. Besides the government and NGOs will have to play very effective role in implementing the government schemes for children's welfare.
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CHILD LABOUR : A CASE STUDY Dr. Tapan Kumar Shandilya P.G. Department of Economics, College of Commerce, Patna E-mail-
[email protected] Child labour is a burning issue of global concern. Child labour is a universal phenomenon and it is a by-product of socio-economic structure of the society, children are an asset for any society as well as to nation. They are the blooming flowers of the society it is therefore a duty of the society to protect these flowers so as to have a meaningful contribution through them in the future. It is a well-known fact that the future of a society or a nation or world depends upon the sound growth of the children. Due to certain forces and circumstances children are compelled to work in the early states of their childhood, which does harm to the child and society. Hence child labour is considered as an economic and social problem. The most horrifying tmth about child labour is that they have very little say in choosing their occupation. They have no right as workers and they cannot join labour unions to raise their voice against exploitation. The Supreme Court, in one of the cases related to child labour, has observed: if there be no proper growth of children today, the future of the country will be in dark. It is the obligation of every generation to bring up children who will be citizens of tomorrow in a proper way. Today's children will be leaders of tomorrow who will hold the country's banner high and maintain the prestige of the nation. If the government of India commits itself towards combating the problem of child labour, then it is sure that the children of India who at present have engaged themselves in long hours of work could be freed and enabled to breathe joy of freedom. But today, working condition of child labour is horrible children have to work more than 15 hours a day. or till their masters are satisfied, without rest which is a complete violation of the Child Labour (P & R) Act, 1986. The child labours employed by private contractors were paid meager wages and were living like animals in overcrowded slums.
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Child labour in Bihar is found to exist in different fields Thousands of children are working in Hotels and Restaurants, Tea-Stalls, etc. I visited many hotels in search of child labour in Patna town. 1 observed' that long and arduous. work had affected the children's nerves. During interview, the children betrayed extreme nervousness. In general, children are required to work beyond their physical capacity for a mere pittance. They do not get enough rest and recreation and are exposed to various pollutants and chemicals. In some cases, by the time children reach adulthood they are so debilitated that they cannot find gainful employment as adults. In hotels and restaurants they have to work from morning till the last customer leaves at night. Not only long hours of work and low wages, children also have to face many occupational problems. What are the motives with which these children have taken up work at such an early age? What factors have compelled them to go to work? In order to find solution to these questions the present study has been undertaken. OBJECTIVE OF THIS STUDY The main objectives of this study are mentioned below: (a)
To study the causes of child labour in hotel establishments in Patna.
(b)
To study the demographic characteristics of the sample population.
(c)
To study the working conditions and wage structure.
(d)
To study the consequences of child labour on the socio-economic condition of the sample population.
(e)
To assess the workload on the children and facilities provided to them and their employees.
(f)
To evaluate effectiveness of the operation of child labour welfare legislations at the hands of government agencies.
(g)
To suggest possible remedies for this social evil.
HYPOTHESIS OF THIS STUDY (a)
This is a socio-economic problem. So welfare legislations would not be sufficient to check this evil. 3
(b)
The working condition of the child labour in Hotels, Tea stalls, Sweet-shops, Dhabas are far from satisfaction when compared to the spirit of child labour welfare legislations.
(c)
That despite adequate safeguard and member of legislations the problems of child labour is increasing day-by-day for want of poor execution of these welfare legislations.
METHODOLOGY OF THIS STUDY The data for the study have been collected through a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions relating to personal details of the child labourers, income and educational level of the parents and reasons for taking up job. Convenience sampling method has been followed in choosing a sample of 184 child labourers working in hotels situated in Patna town. Chi-square test has been used to find out the factors significantly associated with the level of child labour. UNIVERSE OF STUDY The area of the present study is Patna town, which is capital of Bihar State. The town is spread over 99.45 sq kms. The town has various trades preferred by people in unorganized sector including Transport, Hotels, Construction work, Dairy farming, Poultry, Motor servicing, Bakeries and other many small manufacturing units which have employed a considerable chunk of population as labourers in them. A sizable population of the town mostly depends upon trade commerce, various service occupations and manufacturing units. The present study is confined to the Tea Stalls, Sweet Shops, Hotels and Line-Hotels located at the Patna town. We have selected a few pockets of these establishments to analyze the working conditions of child labourers. We have selected 70 establishments because it is not possible for us to conduct a comprehensive study of the entire Tea-stalls. Sweet shops and Hotels located in the town. Therefore, a few pockets have been chosen for the study. All there are mainly located in Rajendra Nagar, Kankar Bagh, Kadam Kuan, Railway Station, Bus Stand, Gandhi Maidan, Boaring Road, Mushallapur Hat, Patna city, Raja Bazar, Mahendru, Sultanganj. We have tried to cover almost all the workers of this establishment with a view to knowing the real number of child labourers in this 4
establishment. Much attempt has been made to highlight all aspects of the child labour of the town.
PROFILE OF PATNA TOWN Patna, the headquarters of the district as well as the capital of the state, is the largest city in Bihar, having a population of million plus (more than 10 lakhs) as per the provisional population figures of 2001 Census. The position of Patna among the cities of India, so far as population is concerned, is quite low. The city has glorious past and can boast of a very rich cultural heritage. In the early nineteenth century Buchanan Hamilton (1807-14) estimated its population at 3,12,000. As per the census of 1872, however, the population actually returned was 158,900 only. It seems that there were large omissions at this census and the actual number was perhaps more. As per the next census (]881) also, the population returned was 170,654 only. Between 1881 and 1921 the population of Patna was almost continuously on the decline mainly due to decrease in the river borne trade and, perhaps, due to repeated epidemics of plague. The population recorded during the census of 1911 was 136,153 which marked a slight increase over the 1901 population of 134,785. But the 1901 figure was admittedly low because of the virulent plague, which was raging at the time of census. A recount made six months later disclosed the population of this town at 153,739. In 1921 the population of Patna was 'at its lowest (119,976). It continued to fall in the decade 1911-21 inspite of the fact that the New Capital area had been set-up consequent upon designation of the city as the capital of the newly created Bihar Province. Perhaps the figures of 1921 were, to some extent, affected by the Non-Co-operation Movement also. Since 1921, however, the city has witnessed a steady growth. In 1931 its population stood at 159,690, an increase of over 33 percent, attributable mainly to the rapid development of the New Capital area and Bankipur area, extension of the University and large influx of immigrants. In the following decade (1931-41) also, the increase continued uninterrupted but at a slower pace (23 percent). High decadal increase occurred in 1941-51 when the population increased by 44.33 percent. This naturally reflected the rapid expansion of several Government departments and semi-Government agencies no less than the beginnings 5
of a developing urban economy and persons from West Punjab and East Bengal must have contributed substantially to the high rate of increase. In the decade 1951-61, the trend had been maintained though the rate of percentage increase had gone down to 28.61. In absolute number, however, the increase in the decade 1951-61 was not much less than in 1941-51 (Source: General Report, Bihar, 1961 Census). However, the decade 1971-81 had shown highest decadal increasE in the 20th Century when population of Patna City increased by 64.14 percent. This reflected the rapid extension of the Municipal jurisdiction as many rural areas got merged in the city area. The percentage decadal variation during 1981-91 was significantly low. That the rate WitS not higher is presumably due to the fact that Patna owed it importance mainly to its being an administrative and educational town. It can hardly boast of any significant development in industrial or commercial sector during the decade. During the present decade, i.e. in 1991-2001, the city of Patna has again shown comparatively higher decadal growth rate (50.12%). In 1911, the geographical area of Patna was mentioned as only 23.04 km while it has increased to 99.45 km in 2001 Census. FINDINGS OF THIS STUDY Child labour is a widespread phenomenon. There are several factors, which are responsible for the early entry of children in the labour force, but all of them cannot be quantified. The consequences of child labour are innumerable; some of them leave their impact on the child alone, whereas, others influence the society as a while. There exists a certain relationship between the causes and effects of child labour, which is responsible for the continuance of this social evil. This section is aimed at finding the likely determinants and consequences of child labour and establishing a relationship between them. Background Characteristics of Children As mentioned earlier, the study surveyed 184 children who are currently working. All these children were males. Some background characteristics collected included their religion, age and level of education. Religion/Caste 6
As observed from Table I, data on religion-wise distribution shows that majority (95 percent) of the children are Hindus. Remaining 5 percent belong to Muslim religion. Further, caste wise distribution of the same indicates that two-thirds (66 percent) of the children belong to other backward caste, whereas around a quarter of them (24 percent) are scheduled caste. Children belonging to scheduled tribe constituted 7 percent and 4 percent belonged to general caste. Data clearly indicates that it is generally the children of the low social group who usually are economically poor, are the ones who are working as child labourers. Age Data on age-wise distribution indicates that the age of the surveyed children ranged between six years to 14 years. The number of children in each year varied and there is no particular pattern as such. Maximum (38 percent) number of children are reported in the age group of 12 to 13 years, followed by 28 percent in 8 to 9 years. Thirteen and fourteen TABLE-1 Background Characteristics of the Children Particulars
Percent
Religion Hindu Muslim Caste Scheduled caste Scheduled tribe Other backward castes General castes Age (in years) 6-7 8-9 10-11 12-13 14 and above Mean age of child (in yrs) Number of children
94.6 5.4 23.9 6.5 66.1 3.5 14.3 28.2 13 38 6.5 10.4 184
Source: Primary Data Collection. Thirteen and fourteen percent of the children are aged 6 to 7 years and 10 to 11 years respectively. Only 7 percent of the total children reported aged 14 years. Thus the overall mean age of the children interviewed is reported to be around 10 years. 7
Education Level Children were further asked if they had either taken any formal education or could at least read and write. As seen from the analyses, almost three out of four (78 percent) children could not even read and write. Only 22 percent of them could read and write. Further probing was done from these children to understand the class upto which they had studied. Apparently the percentage of children decreases with the increase in the level of schooling. Little more than half of the children (55 percent) had studied upto class 2, 30 percent had reporting of class 3 to 4th, while only 10 and 5 percent had studied upto class 5 to 6 and 7th and above level of education respectively (Fig. 1). Currently none of the children are attending any formal or informal type of schooling. Hence, reasons for both discontinuing and/or never attending school is collected from the surveyed children. The most common reason cited by the children includes 'financial constrain' of the family (63 percent) that prevented them from attending school. Thirty two percent of the children reported that they 'dislike studies' and hence they did not go to any school. Some of the other reasons mentioned for never attending/discontinuing the studies include 'teacher is very rude' (16 percent), 'due to household chores' (8 percent) and 'school is far away' (5 percent) (Fig. 2). Thus, to a large extent it is the family background which inhibits the child from attending school, but at the same time the school also plays an important role in building environment. The attitude of the teachers towards these children can be made more cordial, as a result children could also be drained into studies and continue studying. Given the fact that all these children are now working, attempt is made to assess their sensibility to attending school if given an opportunity for the same. Data indicates that more than half (59 percent) of the respondents did respond favorably, that is they would go back to school if they got the chance for the same. At the same time these children were further asked if their employer would allow them to do so. But only around three out of ten children mentioned that their employer would encourage them to do so, while the remaining were of the reverse opinion.
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Background Characteristics of the Children's Family Along with the child's characteristics some basic information about the child's family was also collected, namely, in terms of the number of family members staying in the household, level of education of the parents and their working status. Monthly income of the family was also collected as all this could have an implication on the work in status of the child. As Table 2 shows that the average number of family members in the child's family is on the higher side at 7 members as compared to a general household size, which has 6.1 members in the state of Bihar(NFHS-2, 2001). Only 10 percent of the child's family had less than four members in their family. In yet another 12 percent, the number of members in the family was more than 11. Level of literacy of the children's parents was also looked into, as this has a bearing on children's education and their care. Data shows that both mother and father of almost seven out of ten children cannot read and write. Only in case of one percent of the children both mother and father could read and write. In the case of 22 percent children only father could read and write and in case of 7 percent children only mother could read and write. TABLE 2 Characteristics of Parents Particulars
Percent
Number of family members
