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Observation skills are one of the most important skills for social workers to have. Social work involves imposing on peoples lives. Developing the ability to manage anxieties this creates, is essential, ensuring the child remains the focus within complex situations (Trowell and Miles 2004). Child development theories provide guidance on age-related changes in behaviours, thoughts, feelings, and social relationships (Bee and Boyd 2010). Social workers need knowledge of child development, to make an informed assessment whether a child is developing within the spectrum of ‘normal’ or if they are a child in need.

The observation model was an adjusted version of the Tavistock Model for studying infants. The original model observes a baby, an hour a week for the first one or two years of life, within the family home (Fawcett 2009). The observer does not take notes, as it allows them to notice all behaviours, movements and expressions of the child. Everything is recorded in detail after the observation. This can lead to forgetting some information within the write up. This model encourages the observer to avoid making judgements about the child’s behaviour and development until after the observation and to reflect on each observation (Fawcett 2009 and Quitak 2004).

The emphasis on reflection is strength of this model. It allows the observer to understand and separate their emotions and from the child’s emotions (Trowell and Miles 2004). This skill is essential for social workers to make informed assessment of the child.

Unlike the Tavistock Model, I completed five, one hour observations, in a nursery for three and four year olds. I did not take notes until observations 4 and 5, where I noted Sally’s language for accuracy. I completed detailed write ups straight after each observation and then took time to reflect upon my emotions and thoughts and Sally’s development.

The nursery was part of a primary school, run by the local authority. The building was separate to the rest of the primary school. It’s situated in a relatively affluent, middle class area, reflected in lower levels of free school meals compared to the general population. The nursery is open five days a week and the parent decides the days and times their child attends. Children can attend 8.30am to 11.30am, 12.30 to 3.30pm or all day from 8.30 to 3.30pm. Each session has between 15-20 children attending and the nursery has a total of forty children registered.

The two teachers have degrees in early year’s education. They work part-time, one on Monday and Tuesday and the other Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. There is a nursery manager and a nursery assistant working full-time and a volunteer supporting two days a week. The nursery manager supports children within the classroom and appears to have equal status to other staff.

The nursery is governed by Ofsted. The last report in October 2009 awarded the nursery a level of good. The report stated the overall effectiveness, outcomes, quality of provision and management of the Early Years Foundation stage was good.

The staff make home visits to all children before starting nursery, to introduce themselves to the parent and child. The nursery is well equipped for young children. There is a large outside playing area, with plenty of age appropriate toys, including plastic climbing frames, slides, bikes and drawing areas. There are windows all the way around the nursery making it light and airy, and the walls are covered with educational material and children’s work. String hangs across the nursery where children’s work is attached.

One end of classroom is the ‘free play’ area with bean bags, children’s sofas, books laid out and an interactive white board, which the children can use. The other end is for the children sit together as a class. There is a role-play area, containing a child’s kitchen, and a water tub with toys in. There are four tables in the nursery one set up for painting and art, one for writing and the other two with different activities everyday on. There are two computers each with educational games opened on them. When the weather is dry children are encouraged to play outside. All the children wear school uniform, navy jumper/cardigan, black trousers or skirt and a white t-shirt.

I observed a Muslim, British-Pakistani girl called ‘Sally’. She is aged 3 years and 5 months. She attends the nursery five days a week from 8.30am-3.30pm. She is slightly shorter than the average height, has long black hair, with big brown eyes. Her parents are married and her mum works at a local high school teaching I.T. She has an older sister and two cousins attending the primary school. She has been attending day care since about a year old, but began this nursery in September 2012.

I chose this nursery because it was a five minute walk from my house. It took a few weeks to contact the nursery manager because they were attending home visits. After speaking with this nursery manager she recommended Sally because she had ‘normal’ development, attended the nursery regularly and thought her parents would be happy to give consent.

I gave the nursery the information from the UEA and the consent letter for Sally’s mother to sign, which was returned, signed to me. I did not speak directly to Sally’s parents and was not introduced to Sally or the class. When I arrived at the observation I took a seat and started observing, which felt uncomfortable. In future observations, I would ask to be introduced to the class as someone watching how children grow, so I am not a stranger in the room. Sally was aware I was watching her but was unaware who and why I was doing this, which may be confusing for Sally. In future, I would speak to Sally, on my last observation to explain who I was and why I had been watching her.

My observations took place 01/10/2012, 12/10/2012, 9/11/2012, 24/11/2012 and 27/11/2012. Originally I organised my observations for Friday mornings between 9-10am. I planned this, so I could compare Sally’s development to limit other factors influencing her behaviour, such as tiredness at the end of the day. My first observation was scheduled for 28/09/2012; however, Sally was off sick. I decided to observe Monday 01/10/2012 between 9-10am, because I was at university the following Friday.

I had arranged an observation for 26/10/2012 but this was Eid and Sally was off school and the following week was half term. This created the large gap between the second and third observation. I completed my final observation on a Tuesday afternoon, 2.30-3.30pm, because it allowed me to observe Sally being collected by her aunt. Although the observations did not occur evenly spread, I was able to observe the difference in Sally with the different teachers. Observations one and five were completed with one teacher, two three and four the other. I chose observation three to analyse because provides a general overview of all areas of Sally’s development.

Observation in full
23/11/2012 Child observation
9.00-10.00am

Three teachers and 17 children present

When I arrived Sally was sitting in the back of the classroom being read a story by a volunteer helper. She was looking at the book at she was read to and listening to it. This lasted for around 2-3 minutes until the teacher rung the bell. Sally got up and put her fingers in the air and started to move her fingers back and forth (all the class do this to show attention is on the teacher). The teacher announced it was time for the good morning song and all the children needed to be seated on the carpet area. Sally moved over towards the carpeted area. She stopped at the Playdough table and began to make small round shapes with the Playdough and out them into paper cake holders. She was cutting the Playdough with a plastic spatula, to break the Playdough up into smaller sizes to fit in the cake holders. There were other children at the table doing the same thing as Sally was there.

The teacher said everyone should be sitting on the carpet; Sally looked up and then looked down again to carry on what she was doing. As she noticed the other children leaving she left. She and another boy were the last two to leave the table. Sally sat down on the carpet and pulled her trousers up to her knees and crossed her legs, putting her hands in her lap. She sat swaying for a short period of time side to side gently bumping into the boy sitting next to her, while he done the same towards her, smiling at each other.

The teacher went round and said hello to all the children, Sally replied ‘hello’ loudly with a wave towards the teacher. Sally looked over at me after she said hello and then quickly looked away.

The teacher began singing the good morning song, Sally did not sing along except for a few words. The teacher then said she had got the song wrong and Sally, along with all other children began to laugh. Sally’s face was animated with a large smile across her face. She had got up on her knees and was kneeling, rocking back and forth. The song began again and Sally sung along. She said ‘Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday too.’ When she said the too she said this a little bit loud with her facial features becoming more prominent. Her lips pointed out further as she said too. Sally counted ‘one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven’ as the days of the week were counted.

Sally was sat rocking on her knees as she sung to the song. As the song finished a nursery assistant touched Sally’s arm to indicate to sit back on the carpet and move backwards a bit. Sally responded to this and sat back down on the carpet with her legs crossed an arms tucked in her lap.

Sally pulled up her socks. She pulled them so they were up as far as they could go, she then continued to tug at them, appearing to try make them go higher up her leg. She did this for both legs. She then began to press the bottom of her shoe as this made the lights in the sole flash red.

The teacher told the class they would be doing a Christmas play and they would be getting dressed up and singing. The children were asked to stand up in a circle to practice some nursery rhymes. The class sung ‘humpty dumpty’. Sally knew all the words to this and sung along. She temporarily held the child’s hand next to her. Sally followed actions of the class to fall down when humpty dumpty had a great fall, then got up after the teacher said they didn’t need to fall down. Sally put her hands out in front of her with clenched fists and began to pretend to ride a horse, when the rhyme said all the kings’ horses. Sally was smiling while she was saying the rhyme. The class then sung ‘Hey Diddle Diddle’. Sally smiled during this rhyme but did not say too many words. She was looking around at other children, many of the other children did not say as much as the teacher did to this rhyme.

The class was asked to sit back down and the teacher would pick the children sitting well to choose activities to play with. Sally sat with her legs crossed and her arms between her legs, so she ended up sitting on her hands, and she was rocking back and forth. Sally was chosen to pick an activity.

Sally went over to the Playdough table and along with another 5 children began to make shapes with the Playdough. My view was blocked by the other children and could not see what shapes she was making but saw her interacting with other children. Sally looked at me a few times while she was playing with her Playdough, but showed no expression on her face as she looked at me. I smiled at her and then looked away around the classroom. Sally did not smile back when I smile at her.

Sally then moved over towards the back area where the teacher had gone. She sat down in the back corner on the children’s sofa with a book. She looked through the book quickly looking at each page quickly before turning the page. She sat there for a few minutes doing this, another girl came and sat next to her and looked at the book. My view was partly blocked by the children in front of her dancing. Another girl went over and stood in front of her, they exchanged words. I could not hear what was being said because of the children in front of her.

Sally moved over to the table and began to look at the nursery rhyme sheets which were lying on the table. She looked at each one and then moved onto the next sheet. The teacher came over and said to Sally ‘do you want me to read one to you? Which one would you like?’ Sally replied ‘that one’ and pointed to a blue sheet. The teacher began to read this. The teacher was then distracted by another child and left after reading the rhyme. Sally got up and moved slightly away from the chair she was sitting on.

Sally got up and began to dance alongside the teacher to a train song. The song has a video which is shown on the interactive white board. Sally was put her hands out in front of her slightly bent and made them go round in circles, like a trains wheels. The teacher said ‘I like your dancing Sally, have you been practicing?’ Sally looked up and smiled at the teacher and carried on dancing. She began to become more animated in her moves, moving around the carpet with her arms going up and down.

Sally said ‘my foot’ and the teacher looked down and said ‘sorry Sally, are you ok?’ Sally continued to dance to the song. The next song was a song about stars and Sally moved her arms out the side and her spread her legs (like a star) and then began jumping up and down. Sally danced for the whole song. She then danced to the football song, and pretended to kick a football with her leg.

The teacher said ‘Sally come here’ and Sally went over towards the teacher. She stood next to her and she explained the order for the children to choose the song on the interactive whiteboard. Joanne would be before Sally. The teacher told another child this and as she said and then Joanne, Sally said ‘and then meaˆ¦and then me’. Smiling and looking in the direction of the teacher. As the song finished she said out loud ‘your turn!’ To the child who was next to choose the song.

A boy went up to Sally as she was dancing and she showed her a toy butterfly. Sally looked at him and smiled and said ‘that’s not mine’. She briefly took it off him and looked at it and then handed it back to the boy.

The boy walked away and as he did another boy came up to Sally and started to push her. Sally’s face went from smiling to frowning. The boy stopped as they both got closer to the bookcase, and sally moved away from him, still frowning. The teacher said ‘are you pushing sally Harry?’ As Sally saw the teacher approach her bottom lip dropped and started to wobble, Sally walked towards the teacher and looked up towards her. She made a few sounds like she would begin to cry. This quickly stopped as the teacher spoke to the boy, Sally now had her back to me but I could see she was rubbing her face as the teacher spoke to Harry. The boy apologised to Sally after the teacher had asked him to – ‘sorry Sally’.

The teacher moved away to a different area of the classroom, Sally followed her. I could not hear what was said, but appeared to ask the teacher a question and tell her a short story. The teacher knelt down to Sally’s height and listened and responded to her. The teacher asked Sally whether she wanted to paint a picture for her mum or to do some writing. Sally said ‘writing Mrs (teachers name). Sally followed the teacher to the writing table. She stood at the table for a few seconds then looked at the drawing table. She walked over to get an apron and stood beside the table. She looked at the girl standing next to her, who had just sat on the chair in front of her and then stood up. She went to sit on the chair, but then got up again. They both stood next to the chair.

Sally stood looking at the table and the other children sitting at it, clutching her apron. The teacher said to another child the shape was a diamond, Sally said ‘diamond’ as she stood there. The teacher replied ‘yes’. Sally began to draw a shape in the air with her fingers. She made the shape of a diamond. She moved her arm down and outwards, then down and inwards. She then moved her arm back up. The teacher said ‘yes that’s a diamond shape’.

The teacher said to Sally ‘you have to wait until there’s a space for you to do itaˆ¦.oh there is a space now James has just finished’. Sally walked over to the teacher and looked at her. I could see if she asked for her help to put the apron on. The teacher said ‘I want to see if you can put your apron on, can you do it?’ The teacher then showed Sally how to put her apron on, putting it over her head and arms through the wholes.

Sally sat down at the table and picked up different sponge shapes to print them onto the paper. She printed the amount of shapes she wanted on the paper and then put the sponges back; each sponge had different colour paint. She put each sponge in the correct pot it had come from. She said to another girl ‘can I put that back?’ she was standing up leaning across the table with her arm pushed out, trying to put the sponge back in the correct pot, which the girl was holding. The girl handed the pot to her.

After she had finished her painting she took her paper over to the teacher and stood next to her, showing her. The teacher said ‘let’s have a look at your painting, that’s lovely. Can you name the shapes for me?’ sally pointed to each shape saying ‘diamond’ at the diamond shapes, ‘circles’ at the circles and ‘squares’ at the squares. Sally got stuck on one diamond shape as she had printed it in a different direction to the others. The teacher said ‘that’s a diamond as well; look if we turn the page you can see it’s a diamond’.

She tried to walk behind the teacher’s chair, between a small gap and a set of drawers. The teacher said ‘what do you say..excuse me please’. Sally replied ‘excuse me please’. The teacher moved her chair and the stack of drawers and Sally walked through the gap.

Sally came and sat next to me at the table I was sitting at, where the teacher was also sitting. Sally was kneeling on the chair. The teacher was talking to another child about the hedgehogs they had previously made. Sally lent across the table and said ‘I did one, I did one’. She began to feel the clay hedgehogs she had made previously. They had uncooked spaghetti sticking out of the for the hedgehogs spikes. As she touched them she said ‘ow ow’. She turned to look at me and said ‘I just touched a hedgehog’ holding her hand out in front of her, to show me her hand. I replied ‘are you ok’ She smiled and turned away. She then turned back to me and said ‘what’s your name?’ I smiled and said ‘Lisa’. She turned away again. Sally asked the teacher ‘where’s my hedgehog aˆ¦ I don’t want to touch the spikes’

She had small whiteboards in front of her to write on. She was using her fingers to clear the pen which had been left on it. A nursery helper came over with some tissue for her to use to wipe it off.

She looked over to the girl sitting on the other side of the teacher. The teacher was holding a laminated name card with Sarah written on it. ‘Is that how you spell Sarah?’ Sally asked the teacher. The teacher said ‘yes’ it’s similar to your name ‘sss, s for Sally’. Sally asked the teacher ‘where’s my name?’ The teacher found Sally’s name out of the stack of name cards and showed her, her name.

Sally was still leaning forward towards the table and had not sat back properly on her seat. Her bum was on the front edge of the chair and she was leaning forward, towards the table. The teacher told her she was worried she would fall off her chair and onto the floor and pulled her seat closer to the table. Sally told the teacher ‘you just, just pushed me!’ the teacher responded saying she meant to push the chair in. Are you ok?’ Sally said ‘yes’ and the teacher said ‘sorry’.

Sally said she was trying to write all the names of the children in the nursery. She was saying ‘James, John, Ellie, Rob’ drawing small black circles, about three or four in row, resembling a word. The teacher asked her if she was writing the names of all the children in the class. Sally said she was as. Sally wrote a letter resembling a ‘P’ and the teacher said if you draw a line down from there (pointing to where the circle of the p meets the line down) you can create an R. ‘R for Rob’

Sally looked at the teacher and asked her ‘how do you spell my name on the board?’ The teacher wrote Sally on the white board and said ‘can you copy and write your name?’ Sally used the black whiteboard to attempt to write her name. Sally was writing small black blobs and circles which appeared to be drawing instead of writing. Sally was concentrated and focused on attempting to write her name. She said ‘rub my name out and no one can see’; Sally was rubbing the board with her hand to remove the marker pen. The teacher said to her ‘good thing can start again.’

Observation ended

Analysis of one observation
Cognitive development

Piaget suggested children have an active part in developing knowledge and understanding (Bee and Boyd 2010). He suggests cognitive development progresses through stages, relating to changes in brain structure and intelligence. The stages are sensori-motor stage (0-2 years), pre-operational stage (2-7years), concrete operational stage (7-12years) and formal operational stage (12+ years) (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005).

Sally is 3.5 years, therefore at the preoperational stage of development. During this stage children develop symbolic thought, the ability to think of one thing but representation it in a different form, enabling language development and imaginative play (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). The preoperational child has egocentric thinking, focusing only on their view and believing everyone has the same view. They struggle to understand conservation – small changes in appearance do not change the object or its quantity (Bee and Boyd 2006).

However, Vygotsky suggested Piaget did not acknowledge the impact the social environment has on cognitive development. Vygotsky believed social interaction is vital for cognitive development, he believed children maximise their potential working with more capable others (Schaffer 2004). Vygotsky described the ‘zone of proximal development’ (ZPD), the difference between the child’s knowledge and, with support, what they are capable of learning. A more capable person offers guidance and support, to the child during the task. Demonstrating how to complete a task and giving feedback on what’s right or wrong. The guidance provided a level above the child’s current level of understanding, but not above what they are capable of learning, it’s within their ZPD. This guidance is called scaffolding (Schaffer 2004).

These are examples, demonstrate Sally’s preoperational stage of cognitive development, this is expected for Sally’s age. Sally demonstrates symbolic thought through her use of language and through her actions. Sally sung ‘Humpty Dumpty’, clenching ‘her fists and began pretend to ride a horse’. Sally’s ability to use symbolic thought was shown through her action of pretending to ride a horse her thought was represented in her actions. This was also shown when Sally’s dancing to a football song. She ‘pretended to kick a football with her leg’. Showing Sally’s ability to hold the thought of a pretend ball and express kicking it in actions.

Sally had difficulty understanding conservation. After painting she struggled to name a diamond because it was a different position. ‘The teacher said, “That’s a diamond as well; look if we turn the page you can see it’s a diamond”. This shows Sally struggling to understand shape remains unchanged even if its position on the paper is different.

Scaffolding examples are shown between Sally and the teacher. ‘Sally wrote a letter resembling a ‘P’, the teacher said if you draw a line down from there (pointing to where the circle of the p meets the line down) you can create an R. ‘R for Rob’. Before this Sally attempted to write the names of children in the class, one called Rob. This was within Sally’s ZPD because she had created a ‘P’; the teacher recognised this and guided her to write an ‘R’, from the ‘P’. Sally asked ‘how do you spell my name on the board?’ The teacher wrote Sally on the white board and asked ‘can you copy and write your name?’ Sally attempted to copy this. This demonstrates the teacher giving examples and guidance to complete an action.

Language development

Social Learning Theory (SLT) suggests language is learnt through imitation and reinforcement (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). Skinner suggested children imitate adult’s speech, developing language. Noises resembling words are reinforced, and therefore repeated, overtime developing into words. Children use adults for guidance on what sounds and words to make, correct meaningful words are responded to positively, incorrect words are corrected, until speech becomes adult like (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). This is supported by children having higher language abilities when spoken to more often and developing the same language and accent as adults they spend time with (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). However language is learnt to quickly for this to fully explain language development (Passer and Smith 2003).

Chomsky argues language has an innate, biological basis. The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) allows language to be learnt (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). LAD identifies regularities in language, tests new words against these, either accepting or rejecting them (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005). Children appear to develop language through the same stages, understanding certain grammar before others, making similar errors in production and comprehension at each stage (Whitaker 2010) supporting LAD theory.

Sheridan (2008) suggests certain speech patterns are evident at ages three and four. At three children ask lots of ‘wh’ questions (what, when, why), identify objects by function, count up to ten (learnt by repetition) and listen to stories, wanting favourites repeated. At four children know nursery rhymes, use understandable, grammatically correct speech, begin counting objects and can count up to twenty (Sheridan 2008).

SLT is evidenced when Sally needs to walk past the teacher. The teacher said ‘what do you sayaˆ¦excuse me please’. Sally replied ‘excuse me please’. Sally imitated the teachers’ words; this was reinforced by the teacher letting Sally past. She’s learnt saying this, means other people move out of her way.

As Sheridan (2008) suggested for three years, Sally listened whilst being read to, ‘She was looking at the book as she was read to and listening to it. This lasted for around 2-3 minutes’ until interrupted. In addition ‘Sally counted ‘one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven’.

Sally sung nursery rhymes, ‘Humpty Dumpty’, and ‘Hey Diddle, Diddle’ and used complex, grammatically correct sentences; ‘Is that how you spell Sarah?’ and ‘how do you spell my name on the board?’ Suggesting Sally’s language is slightly above what’s expected for her age, showing signs of a four year old level (Sheridan 2008). Teachers at the nursery commented her language is above what they would expect for her age.

Sally’s language development being slightly above expectations could relate to attending a high quality nursery, since an early age. The National Institute of Child and Human Development (NICHD) Early Child Care Research Network (2000) suggested high quality day care is associated with better cognitive and language development although quantity of time in day care had neither positive nor negative effects on these developmental areas. Language development was measured on parental feedback, not standardized testing. Possibly biasing results, parents may not want to think their child is underachieving so exaggerate ability.

Social development and play

Piaget suggested children’s play goes through stages. Constructive play is the first to be achieved (before 2 years), pretend play (2-3 years), socio-dramatic play (3-5 years) and rule governed play (by 5 or 6 years) (Bee and Boyd 2006). Sally is at the socio-dramatic stage of play. Two or more children take roles to act in a pretend scenario. Dunn and Cutting (1999) found children who pretend play with friends, maintain friendlier play for longer. This helped children develop ‘Theory of Mind’ understanding others thoughts and feelings. Socio-dramatic play is evidenced in later observations.

Parten (1932) suggested different types of play, solitary independent play (alone), parallel play (alongside each other, little interaction), occurs between 2.5 and 3.5 years, associative play (activities completed with others, without organization or direction) occurs between 3.5 and 4.5 years and cooperative or organised supplementary play (organised activities, aiming towards a goal). Evidence is discussed in the next section.

There’s limited evidence of Sally playing in this observation. She displays associative play at the table, playing with Playdough and interacting with five other children. Play is not organised, they are completing similar activities without a specific goal.

Howes, Phillips and Whitebook (1992) suggest lower quality care can result in children wandering, not being involved in social activities or play with peers and teachers. This can have a negative impact on children’s social and cognitive development. However higher quality care with developmentally appropriate activities, encourage children to socialise and interact with teachers and peers have more socially competent children.

Moral development

Kohlberg refined Piaget’s theory of moral development, suggesting three levels of development, each containing two stages (Kohlberg and Hersh 1977). Preconventional Level is level one, containing stage one – ‘The punishment and obedience orientation’ and stage two – ‘The Individualism, instrumental purpose and exchange’. Level two is ‘Conventional Level’, containing stage three – ‘Mutual interpersonal expectations, relationships and interpersonal conformity’ and stage four – ‘Social system and conscience’. Level three is Postconventional or Principled Level, containing stage five – ‘The social-contract orientation’ and stage six – ‘the universal ethical principle orientation’ (Kohlberg and Hersh 1977). Kohlberg suggested people move up through stages, but few reach the Postconventional level. People understand reasoning one stage above theirs but struggle understanding above this. Being in a social group is important to learn what is morally right and wrong (Kohlberg and Hersh 1977). Therefore children in day care have the opportunity to learn from others about right and wrong.

Children below nine are usually at the Preconventional level, including Sally. Reasoning and judgements are based on what authority says is right or wrong (Bee and Boyd 2010), for Sally this is teachers or parents. Right or wrong is understood as what’s punished, children follow rules to avoid punishment. Stage two; rules are followed when in their immediate interest. Good, is what has pleasant results (Bee and Boyd 2010). Kohlberg suggests, despite gender or culture moral development happens this way (Passer and Smith 2003). Although, Sally is British-Pakistani she will progress through these stages.

Kohlberg is criticised for having a male bias theory and basing his theory on clinical research using scenarios, not based on real life (Smith, Cowie and Blades 2005).

Sally displays moral development resembling stage one. She’s well behaved, following rules during the observation. The class have been told when the bell rings, stop, put their hands up and look at the teacher. When the bell rung ‘Sally go

The topic of this research is looking into child obesity and whether it gives cause to come under child neglect laws. This will be done in a literature review format incorporating interviews to look at fact and opinions on the matter. The results provide a complex over view and debate the topic thoroughly, taking into consideration affecting factors. Yes, child obesity can be neglect if a parent’s have persistently ignored guidance and failed to seek needed help. It can also be no as not every child obese case gives cause to be considered neglect and it is extremely rare.

“Obesity is a condition in which weight gain has reached the point of seriously endangering health. While some people are genetically more susceptible than others, the direct cause of obesity in any individual is always an excess of energy intake over energy expenditure” (Chambers and Wakely, 2002: X).

The issues arisen from criminalising child obesity being under the law of child neglect will be critically discussed in this dissertation.

Obesity is a major concern in the UK, proven to potentially shorten lives by up to 9 years, health professionals are starting to express their worries of parents outliving their children as a consequence of the health problems that accompany obesity (Kellow, 2011). Some of the possible health implications of child obesity are: diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and osteoarthritis (Sullivan, 2004 and Heaton-Harris, 2009). In 2010 20% of boys and 17% of girls aged 11-15 could be described as clinically obese, with 14% and 15% aged between 2-10 being obese. From 1995 child obesity has risen 6% for boys and 3% for girls (reference). This would make nearly 1 in 5 of all children not just overweight, but a t the point of serious health issues (Health Survey for England, 2010). It is already said to be costing the UK ?2 billion annually (Kellow, 2011) and estimated to increase to ?50 billion annually by 2050 if trends continue (Butland et al. 2007). The increase in child obesity has sparked a moral panic about the concern for children’s health driving the government to do more to protect children from becoming obese. Obesity is defined by BMI which stands for body mass index. BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight (in kg) by their height (in meters). To be classed as obese a person’s BMI would need to be over 30, and to be classed as morbidly obese, which is extreme cases of obesity the BMI would need to be 40 or above (Chambers and Wakely, 2002).

This is not what you expect to be talking about when discussing children, as the stereotypical image of a child is healthy and happy, getting plenty of exercise and being fed properly. However, Heaton-Harris (2009:14) provides an opposite portrayal, saying “Obese children are less active than the average pensioner”. She then goes onto explain that overweight children will get out of breath after 5 minutes due to the additional strain on the heart to pump excessively around the body, which is too large and demanding oxygen rich blood. It is clear from the statement that Heaton-Harris (2009) argues that obese children are very disadvantaged and unfit. Children are vulnerable and dependant on parents and guardians and it is their duty is to make sure their children are healthy and happy. Ford-Martin (2005) says that children learn by example and that as a parent or guardian you are their primary role model. The parents or guardians of children struggling with obesity are therefore failing their children as the child is severely unhealthy and is at risk of severe health problems. It currently can become a child protection issue if children are allowed to eat excessive amounts of food, or have a seriously unbalanced diet (Grady, 2012). In extreme cases children can be removed from parental or guardian care by the court due to the affecting factor, children being obese. The fact that children sometimes need protection from parents if they are obese is interesting and leads onto the discussion whether this should also be a punishable offence.

As it stands the definition of child neglect is, “a persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and/or developmental needs. Neglect includes failing to provide for a child’s health, education, emotional development, nutrition, clothing, shelter, safety and safe living conditions, and includes exclusion of the child from the home and abandonment. It is different from poverty, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), because it happens when there is failure to provide the resources to meet a child’s needs if those resources exist or should be available” (Bovarnick online, 2007).

This definition explains under current statute what would be classed as child neglect and as you can see this covers a very wide spectrum. Although it does say “failing to provide for a child’s health” (Bovarnick online, 2007).This could allow child obesity to fit into this category. Although generally the main focus of child neglect is failure to provide a child with something not allowing children excessive amounts of something.

The question this dissertation sets out to answer is whether or not child obesity presents the scope to be punishable by law under child neglect statute. The aims are to establish how much blame is on the media, technology and parents to establish whether or not it is justifiable to hold them responsible for the obesity state their child/children are in. This question will be looked at through current literature and interviews to see what people think about the issue also.

The first chapter discussing the role media and technology play on the obesity state of the youth in the UK. The second chapter puts forward the debate on whether or not parents should take the main responsibility of their children’s obesity state. The third and final chapter deliberates the on-going debate on the issues of child obesity being a form of child neglect taking into consideration both of the discussed issues presented in the previous chapters. The impending investigation takes the format of a literature review, which incorporates interviews also. There is extensive literature on the topic of child obesity in the UK which is taken advantage of in the format being used to answering the question set out. As well as gathering qualitative data from interviews to get opinions and see if they back up the literature found.

Chapter 2: Methodology

“The methods section is the most important aspect of a research paper because it provides the information by which the validity of a study is ultimately judged” (Kallet, 2004:1129).

2.1: Research design and rationale

Child neglect and child obesity are both current issues and can both impose health problems to children. It is an on-going debate whether child obesity should come under child neglect laws which can hold parents or guardians responsible and therefore punish them for the obesity state their child/children are in. These two topics for investigation are strongly linked and consequently showing a need to investigate them together and answer the question whether child obesity should be criminalised. The methodology used to conduct this investigation into child neglect and child obesity is mainly library based research but incorporated into the research investigation is a short interview to compare with the literature based findings.

The methodological approach needs to fit the purpose and the question being researched. Therefore justification for the methods used in any research being conducted needs to be established (Kumar, 2011). This is also backed up by Robson (2002), who articulates the data collected by the researcher in any topic is dependent on the particular research question and aims.

Winstanley (2009) and Saunders et al., (2007) state there are two categories research can be separated into; primary research and secondary research. According to Sorenson (2010) the difference between the two is how the research is gathered: primary research is collected by the researcher whereas secondary research is carried out using already existing data.

Secondary data according to Bryman and Bell (2007) and Zikmund (2003) is when, documents by other researchers are analysed by people most commonly not involved in the collection process. This allows experience and knowledge to be drawn from other academics which may be vital to the subject area being discussed. This paper is at an under-graduate level making expert knowledge and expertise crucial in making the paper of value in the academic world. Zikmund (2003) also draws attention to the lower cost, which is also a main advantage over primary data which can be expensive. Saunders et al. (2007) comment that secondary research allows a wide range of information to be gathered such as: quantitative, qualitative, descriptive and explanatory data. However every form of data collection comes with weaknesses. Secondary data may provide a lot of good quality information but may not link entirely with the given research questions and aims providing no value towards further research; this is something researchers need to consider. In a lot of instances it can be near impossible to find sufficient information (Zikmund, 2003). Also if pre-existing data is relevant, credible and specifically what the researcher needs to discuss time and effort designing and collating new research maybe a waste of the researcher’s time.

Secondary research was the main data collection method chosen as it seemed the best choice to answer the question on whether child obesity should or is criminalised. When talking about a debate that already exists it is paramount to include current literature, especially when this issue is a current governmental and political matter. With an abundance of existing research in this area, secondary data collection was the easiest method and the most appropriate main form of data collection. However the weaknesses pointed out do need to be noted as secondary data can provide such a wide scope of data and most of it may be irrelevant and only relevant data needs to be discussed, this will be discussed in more detail under the inclusion/exclusion of data. The debate on criminalising child obesity is a current one in the academic world however this dissertation took a new direction, by adding interviews as there would have been no point carrying out something that had been done before.

The secondary data gathered was in the form of a library based dissertation also known as a literature review. This is the main source of information being used to discuss the issues of child obesity and whether criminalising it is appropriate and considers: journals, newspapers, reports, textbooks, abstracts, media sources both electronically and in hard copy format (Hart, 1998). Hart says that a literature review is

” The selection of available documents on the topic, which contain ideas, data and evidence written from a particular standpoint to fulfil certain aims or express certain views on the nature of the topic and how it is to be investigated and the effective evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed (1998: 13).”

Literature reviews are seen as very important and as Aveyard (2010: 6) explains them to be like “jigsaw puzzles” as you piece each part of the puzzle (piece of literature) together to give the reader the overall picture. Therefore playing an important part allowing all relevant information on a given topic to be in one place at the same time, this brings to light conflicting academic works to be seen together which may have gone unnoticed before. This type of research can also incur new insights to be drawn as a result of re-analysing previous sources. However Aveyard (2010) notices they are useful but in order to be reliable they need rigour and structure. The idea is not to find literature to back up the desired answer but to open-mindedly collate information to reach and answer on a predefined question. This is very important as literature reviews permits the overall picture to be seen and therefore hopefully eliminating bias so the researcher needs to adhere to this and this why it is vital that a systematic approach is taken. Hart (1998) establishes that literature reviews need to present all available documents on the chosen topic not just selected few to give the reader everything to make up their mind. This poses a difficulty as the resources available to an under graduate student will not allow a team of researchers and there are time constraints. This is why a systematic approach will be adhered to but may not reach the exact same criteria a fully funded and resourced literature review will.

To present information to allow a reader to reach his/her own conclusions on the predefined question, whether childhood obesity should be criminalised, it will be thoroughly researched selecting only relevant information. The systematic approach used key terms (Appendix 2: 54) to search the library data base at Buckinghamshire New University and the internet. This was systematic do uncover any relevant literature which ensured everything relating to the topic was read and if found useful was then included in the discussion.

However this is not the only form of data collection being used as primary research is also being used in the form of interviews which shapes the literature already in circuit to cater directly to the needs of the question and objectives giving and already existing topic area a new direction. The dissertation aims to uncover not only current issues and debates but people’s attitudes and thoughts which are only possible if opting to incorporate primary data also that adds value to the issues being presented. The interview questions were formed around the literary findings, which then allowed the literature and interviews to be compared and discussed.

Interviews were conducted as part of the research which is one of the main methods of gathering primary data; permitting data to be brought together that has not been gathered previously. Ghauri et al. (2005) highlights one of the main advantages of using primary research methods is the data is going to be relevant as it is specifically gathered to the specialised research area, this is also backed up by Zikmund (2003). Being able to shape the data being gathered to suit the needs of the study allows consistent information to be provided. Saunders et al. (2007) points out that a main limitation to primary research is interviewee and interviewer bias when using focus groups. The research in this study does not involve focus groups for this exact reason to decrease the chance of bias. However the interviewee’s and interviewer were criminology students and may present a bias for that reason. Having bias makes it less reliable which affects the validity and also makes it hard to generalise results, this is something to be taken into consideration for this study. Nevertheless this is a valid point and makes the study less reliable but not an easy issue to overcome given the ethical restrictions and materials available for the study.

The library based element and the interview section are both focusing on qualitative data, however there will be some secondary data featured in the form of quantitative statistics jotted throughout. Bryman (2001: Page number) describes qualitative research to be a “strategy that usually emphasizes words, feelings, perception, and qualitative research tends to be concerned with words rather than numbers”. The point of the dissertation is to look into the perception people have and the way society see child obesity and what they think in regards to it being criminalised. Hoepfl (1997) stated that qualitative research allows data to discover the meaning of events rather quantitative using numbers to establish facts. Qualitative data provides the means to find out what people’s attitudes and intentions are about fundamental topics (Ghauri et al, 2005). This permits researchers to broaden knowledge and insight in their chosen topic. This is very useful and one of the main reasons interviews were picked was to develop an understanding of whether obesity is seen as criminal as it will give an insight to people’s opinions on the issue as well as comparing it to current literature available.

Interviews were chosen as they have potential to gain rich and insightful data (Robson, 2011). Sarantakos (1988) highlights the main advantages of interviews are: there flexible and adaptable, they directly ask the questions and can assess non-verbal behaviour, which can sometimes reverse the meaning. Robson (2007) also highlights that direct face to face interviews have advantages as you can measure the seriousness which participants take the exercise and you get a higher response rate as it is harder to say no. Although Sarantakos also points out that there are disadvantages such as biases are hard to rule out and that interviews are very time-consuming considering the time it takes to transcribe interviews. Interviews were picked from this study to gage an understanding of what people thought about childhood obesity as from interviews you can directly ask the questions you need answered. It was tailored to the topic of the dissertation which allowed the discussion of both literature and the data found in the interviews. Interviews not only helped to gage an understanding and present data for discussion but as it was done whilst the literature was being gathered it showed areas that were in need for research to cover the topic of child obesity. For example, in one interview the topic of illnesses and diseases that can make you obese was discussed about bringing to light this new area to be included.

The interviews will be carried out on two separate days with 5 interviews on one day and 5 on the other. All interviewees were handed a leaflet (Appendix 3:55-56) to inform them that the interview will remain anonymous and that they can stop at any time and this leaflet is then signed by each interviewee to ensure consent is present. Participant numbers will be used when discussing in the main paper and no names will be included within the dissertation to keep identities confidential. There will also be a verbal introduction read out to participants to ensure consistency (Appendix 4: 57). 10 students will be asked the same three questions in the same order. Interviewees will be both genders but all over the age of 18 attending Buckinghamshire New University. They were interviewed in a rentable room in the library of Bucks New University. All interviews were recorded on a Dictaphone and transcribed after all participants had completed the interview. The interviews will be structured and based upon four questions (appendix 4: 57). Interviewees were asked to explain their answers in as much detail as they could.

A main advantage of the research design is that it incorporated both secondary and primary research by being a library based review including short interviews to compare and possibly back up the literature based findings. The disadvantages of just doing one form of research will be minimised as you will decrease the disadvantages of doing primary or secondary by using both. For example a main disadvantage of using primary research is researcher bias which can still occur but will be compared to other literature on the same topic so this will be minimised, this makes the results found in the dissertation a higher validity.

2.2: Data Analysis
2.2.1 Library Based Research

A library based search is an analytical overview of literature on a given topic. In order to present the literature found in from the library search it was thoroughly studied and then broken down into the three chapters. They were broken down into chapters to specifically analyse each section of information uncovered giving the direct access to then compare to the interview findings.

2.2.2 Interviews

Gibbs (2007) describes coding as the direction you take when analysing your data, where you systematically link together similar theories and descriptions. Robson (2011) explains the importance of thematic coding has to drawing points of interest out of data. Thematic coding was used to analyse the data gathered from the interviews as the reason they were carried out was to gage what people thought about child obesity. The interviews consisted of people’s thoughts and ideas and being able to dissect the meaning of these gives value to the data collected and transforms it to a functional format, this is then used when discussing the issues that arose. Being able to identifying general themes from the interviews was necessary in understanding more about the phenomenon. It was especially useful in pin pointing specific areas in need for discussion as child obesity is a broad topic; this was how the chapters were chosen.

There were a lot of advantages to thematic coding such as: flexibility, being easy to pick up, within reach to those with little or no experience and it allowed key features to be summarised which then made it easy to remark on in the chapters. However the main disadvantages these were: being flexible it gave the potential for a broad range of data which could then be confusing to interpret and use and that coding may be limited to description or exploration and not very focused towards interpretation (Robson, 2011).

Robson (2011) then goes onto describe the five phases to thematic coding: the first phase is familiarising yourself with data, the second phase generating initial codes, the third identifying themes, the fourth constructing thematic networks and the fifth and final phase integration and interpretation stage. Miles and Huberman (1994) mention that there are more than one stage to coding the first level is attaching labels to groups and the second putting the initial themes into a smaller amount of themes.

2.3: Inclusion/Exclusion of Criteria

Research materials included in the research investigation would need to be from the UK and information from other countries or discussing other countries will be excluded as the points will not be as relevant, unless it specifically addresses the UK or is used in a comparative style. Another crucial point is the date period which is something the researcher should be aware of (Zikmund, 2003). If a publication was older than 10 years it is not likely to still be of importance, however in the case of childhood obesity it seems to be a newly mediated topic which can mean that all information is still of relevance. So literature that is older than 10 years will only be included if it seems to still be of significant importance or a pivotal point for discussion.

Chapter 3: Child Obesity, media and technology

“Of course, with the important role comes responsibility, the media must operate in an ethical and responsible way” (Browne, J, 2011, online).

This chapter looks at the part media and technology play in the child obesity epidemic. The media cannot be punished for neglecting children as they do not owe the same duty of care parents do, establishing how much the media affects the problem of obesity nevertheless will benefit the overall argument. It can be broken down into three categories, firstly the rise in technology, which has increased sedentary activities among youths. Secondly, with the issue of child obesity increasing this has led to an upsurge of media coverage on the issue (Kim and Wills, 2007), the ways in which the issue is portrayed may too affect child obesity. Thirdly studies have shown that advertising of junk foods may be directly linked to the increase of child obesity, and has been a topic of much discussion in recent years. It is important to remember that not only are media there to inform but they aim to educate and entertain and are getting paid so it is important to remember they may have hidden agendas (Melville-Brown, 2007) as well as their aim being to publicise health problems not rectify them.

3.1: Literature Findings
3.1.1 Sedentary lifestyles amongst youths

The involvement children have with physical activity has noticeably decreased over the past 20 years. Dr Watkins (cited in Cole and Kmietowicz, 2007:334) stated that “free range children have been replaced with battery reared children reared in cyberspace, and that’s the reason for the epidemic of childhood obesity”. This highlights that the increased participation in sedentary activities, that are more readily available for the children of today, play a huge role in their lives and may impact on the statistical increase of childhood obesity. The changes in lifestyle that causes lack of physical exercise and the consumption of more high in fat foods are thought to be major influences to obesity, even when taking into consideration genetic causes that are coming to light more and more (Warren et al., 2003). What are the pin point changes in society that caused this change in lifestyle? We now live in an instant culture (Heaton-Harris, 2009). Children in today’s society spend their time playing video games and socialising on the internet rather than meeting face to face. It is these sedentary pursuits that allows children to do little exercise and encourages them to snack more. Ford – Martin (2005) found that 92% of children had a home gaming system and the average time a day children spend in front of a media screen is 6 and a half hours. It is no wonder that child obesity is on the rise and physical activity is at an all-time low among young children. It is starting at such a young age as a Kaiser family foundation study (cited in Ford-Martin, 2005) found that a third of all children aged six and younger had their own televisions in their bedrooms. The children of today do not know anything different than sitting down in front of computers and televisons. It is not that sedentary activities are what children are most commonly engaging in. It is worrying because it is replacing physical exercise of youth altogether (Ofcom, 2004).

Ofcom (2004) emphasise that there is a correlation between watching television, poor diet, poor health and obesity with children and adults. Steinbeck (2001) links the decrease in physical activity to the increase of child obesity; Biddle, Gorely and Stensel (2004) believe this to be true also. It would appear to attempt overcoming the child obesity epidemic children need to lessen their time involved in sedentary activities and partake in more physical activities.

3.1.2 Media Coverage

Rodgers (2009, online) believes there is currently a panic surrounding child obesity in the UK with this sudden rise of media attention. Marsh and Melville (2011, online) describe moral panics as an exaggerated social reaction to something embraced by the mass media, which is caused by the activities of certain groups and/or individuals. This becomes the source of major public concern that amplifies the ‘panic’ surrounding such activities.

The TV series ‘Jamie’s school dinners’ (2005), presented by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, made a huge impact on child obesity, the media coverage on the topic and public perceptions. The Chef uncovered that 97% of school children were getting a totally unbalanced diet on a daily basis and this needed to change for the benefit of children’s health. A nutritionist on the series explained that the current school dinners lacked fruit, veg and vitamin C which are crucial in forming immunity (Jamie’s School Dinners, 2005). The TV series not only changed the public perception, more importantly led to changes by the government to ensure children had healthier school dinners.

The Department for Education (2013), explains the government’s current stance that there are strict nutrient-based standards that all schools in England need to comply with. This includes food and drink that can be obtained throughout a school day. The Government clearly state that they take the issue of healthy school dinner’s seriously, as it can affect children’s willingness to learn, behaviour and eating habits for life. The School’s Food Trust (2007, online) is a document that sets out the compulsory standards the Government insisted on that needed to be in place by September 2009. A 2011 article in the Sunday Observer shows that since the positive change to healthier school dinners that there has been an increase in not only learning as test results show but absences have dropped by 14% (Boffey, 2011). The media therefore has positive effects as well as negative.

The media has seen to be useful for informing people about child obesity and helping to overcome the epidemic, as Jamie School Dinner’s is a prime example. However the media is widely known to provide misconceptions, which could worsen the issue. As it has been discussed child obesity is prominently featured in the media. When an important issue such as a child’s health is at stake it is important that the issue is honestly portrayed ensuring it can be dealt with effectively. An argument is that the media portray only the extreme cases of obesity as that would be ‘shocking’ news stories (Winterman, 2012). This then leads people to think that to be obese you would need to be extremely obese which may be cause for confusion and misunderstanding. As shown when half of parents underestimated the size of an obese child which implies that the media maybe the cause of this dangerous misconception (Winterman, 2012). If parents are misinformed by the media this could have life threatening affects for children who are obese, especially if it encourages the parents to believe that their children are not obese and do not take much needed action.

It has also been noted that prime time TV shows about obesity, that dominate popular channels, give the wrong impression about obesity also. Boyce and Inthorn, (2007) studied programmes that were dedicated primarily to obesity, and came to the realisation that the shows directed blame on individuals generally rather than a public health issue. They tended to give the impression that it was down to self-control and discipline of the individual, with weight control being easily attainable as a result. The study also found that the programmes failed to improve levels of knowledge on obesity as it used shame and humiliation to persuade people to lose weight not knowledge. Jones (2006) backs this relaying that lack of correct information is a key problem. Rees et al. (2011) interviewed children about obesity, and they also shared the opinion shared by most TV programmes on obesity and thought if a child was obese they were to blame as it was something the media made out to be controllable. This false idea that obesity is easily controllable is wrong and may cause a lot of bullying in schools.

3.1.3 Advertising

It’s not just TV programmes that are thought to be affecting the ideas around child obesity; also adverts for unhealthy food are being blamed for the increase in child obesity (Carvel, 2003). It had been established beyond reasonable doubt that advertising of unhealthy products influences what children not only eat and drink but also the brands they prefer. Boyce, (2007) agrees that advertising is widely seen to encourage unhealthy consumption, particularly with children, as food is the most frequently advertised product on children’s TV. Coon and Tucker (2002) conducted a literature review into journal articles and concluded based on their findings that children exposed to advertising were significantly more likely to opt for advertised food products than those not exposed. Ofcom (2004) provided research also to suggest that there is a direct link to children’s food choices and advertisement.

The report written by Barclay (2011) expresses clearly the government’s stance, which indicates that they strongly agree junk food adverts encourage children’s ill health. From July 2007 such adverts were not restricted but totally banned from children’s TV by Ofcom, in what one would presume

Child molestation is a sexual crime that has not always been an open topic of discussion for many families, religious groups, and communities. Over the years, many people have been unwilling to speak of such a silent monster, and child molesters have been able to escape years of ridicule and shame through the force of intimidation and threats on their young victims. In addition, there are many reasons people believe that child molesters offend young children, but there is no scapegoat that conceals the fact that this sexual crime has destroyed both the esteem and hope of numerous children. With an increase of children finally gaining the courage to speak of their encounters with child molestation, and the startling findings of who their perpetrators can actually be, the silent monster is being surfaced. Its sufferers are surprisingly found to be from a variety of races, religious groups, and social classes. In order to prevent child molestation from occurring in families, religious groups, and communities of our society, it is important to understand the facts and statistics, discover ways for the victim to experience freedom of this dreadful experience using his/her voice, and to prevent cases of child molestation from continuing to be one of the silent monsters of the 21st century.

Sexual crimes range from an array of offenses, but one that appears to be quite common in families, religious groups, and communities of the United States today is child molestation. Child molestation, which is also known in psychiatric terms as pedophilia, is a crime that involves indecent sexual relations between an adult and a child. Of all things, it definitely should be considered a silent monster of the times, because it causes a great deal of fear and pain in the minds and hearts of its victims which can linger throughout their lives. Several young victims do not find the courage or strength to speak about their offenders; the offenders are often those who are respected members of their families, religious groups, or communities. In an attempt to protect the child molester, the juvenile victim may wait for years to thrash out about the atrocious and humiliating experiences of their sexual experiences with his/her offender. Unfortunately, the silence continues for years and some gain the courage to expose the ghastly nature of their sexual offender while others may believe that a discussion of the molestation will create even more pain and shame.

Understanding the Facts

To make an effort to understand the severity of such an awful sexual crime, it is important to understand the facts. According to the Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute (2010), “It is estimated that at least two out of every ten girls and one out of every ten boys are sexually abused by the end of their 13th year.” With this startling information, it is vital that adults find as many opportunities to speak with their children at an early age, to strongly monitor the adults that their children interact with on a daily basis, and to inform the child that this issue is very much prevalent in today’s time and world. According to National Child Abuse Statistics (2010), “90% of child sexual abuse victims know the perpetrator in some way; 68% are abused by family members” (“National Child Abuse Statistics,” 2010). Adults must make children aware of the fact that a child molester can be a member of even their close circle of family and friends. Often, children that are victims of child molestation are fearful of reporting information, because their offender is a relative or person of a respected position in the church or community. Therefore, adults must continuously emphasize that the ‘silent monster’ can appear from places a child may least expect. In addition, “About 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children, continuing the horrible cycle of abuse” (“National Child Abuse Statistics,” 2010). So, the possibility of the cycle of child molestation continuing over family generations can likely increase if the molested child does not reveal how he or she was sexually offended. Repression of this appalling crime can later cause other innocent children to fall victim to child molestation.

Possible Causes of Child Molestation

Many people question how an adult could possibly allow themselves to offend a young, vulnerable child through forceful, sexual acts. Moreover, society often perceives the child molester as a ‘monster’ or a person who is greatly sickened both mentally and emotionally. Without surprise, the stigma of ‘child molester’ on an adult can remain with them for a lifetime despite the fact that he/she may have chosen to transform their ways. When an adult is exposed as a child molester, their lives can become absolute turmoil. For example, some may often hear stories of child molesters that have been harassed greatly in federal prisons after they have received their sentences as punishment by the judicial system. Although there are many other horrendous crimes, even those that are imprisoned for extreme offenses consider the child molester to be one of the greatest criminals.

According to Fuller (1998), some of the few causes for molestation include, “heightened arousal to children, early childhood experience, hormone imbalance, sexual anxiety, unresolved conflicts, child pornography and advertising, sexual addiction, alcohol and drugs, and cultural tolerance.” Although there are many potential causes for child molestation, there is no apparent justification for adults that delve into this are of sexual crime. Several adults from many ethnic backgrounds, religions, and social classes have come forth in some cases to speak of their experiences as victims of child molestation. Both common and famous people reveal to the world everyday stories of the evils of child molestation and the memories that still remain in their minds and hearts, and their beliefs and reasoning for the child sexual abuse often stem from one of the above causes of child molestation.

Child Molestation in the Church World

Allegations of cases of child molestation in the church have increased drastically over the past years. Although the Catholic Church seems to be one that has been in the media for some time now with accusations of clergy taking sexual advantage of young boys, it is obvious that the topic of child molestation in the church reaches far beyond the Catholic Church.

Recently, there have been accusations in the media of adults coming forth and discussing how they were sexually molested as children by their spiritual leaders. As Clowes and Sonnier (2005) state, “The church has always had a small number of priests and other religious who have taken advantage of their positions of authority and influence in order to gain sexual favors or to take advantage of the helpless.” As a result, child molestation becomes widespread in many churches, because the young victims are either intimidated by the role of the clergy member that is abusing them or they begin to fear the demise of the level of respect the members of the church have for the person that has violated them sexually.

Since many of the religious leaders in the church are predominantly men, the topic of homosexuality, as it relates to child molestation, arises. Most of the victims that experience child molestation by clergy are young males. Henceforth, it is apparent that those religious leaders that partake in child molestation are dealing with issues of homosexuality as well. It has been found that, “In fact, a number of studies performed over a period spanning more than half a century—many of which were performed by homosexuals or their sympathizers-have shown that an extremely large percentage of sexually active homosexuals also participate in child molestation” (Clowes & Sonnier, 2005). Some of the young males that have experienced child molestation by esteemed clergy members of the church also often question their sexual orientation as time passes, because they are being molested by a member of the same sex.

Targeting the Signs of Child Molestation

Many children that are victims of child molestation often display signs to adults that are not recognized or even ignored. If the signs are acknowledged early on, adults can go forward to try to bring criminal charges to the sexual offender and bring some sense of peace and relief to the young child that is being sexually abused. There are some signs that are not made evident immediately while there are others that adults can pinpoint very early.

Some signs that adults need to become aware of are many. According to Williams (2001), a few of the warning signs of child sexual abuse are:

extreme mood swings

excessive crying/nightmares

bed-wetting

acting out inappropriate sexual activity

school or behavioral problems

bruises, rashes, cuts, limping, multiple or poorly explained injuries

Although these warning signs can also be related to other behaviors, these should serve as things that adults should continuously be aware of. A child’s behavior, once they have been sexually abused, can reveal a great deal of what stage they are in the sexual indecent acts done by their sexual offenders. The key to prevention is to find the willingness to accept and be proactive towards the warning signs. This could be the difference between saving a child’s life or having the sexual crime continue.

Ways to Prevent Child Molestation

Child molestation is a sexual crime that many families, churches, and communities desire would not come to their doors. For those that are severely affected by child molestation, they may suffer their entire lifetimes with scars from the indecent sexual experiences with their adult offenders. Even though child molestation is a devastating problem and issue for all of those involved, there are ways to prevent child molestation.

It is strongly encouraged that adults create avenues for children to speak openly about fears they may have of being sexually abused or to discuss encounters they may have already experienced as a victim of child molestation. According to”Why Should Kids Tell?” (2008):

Perhaps the greatest defense against childhood sexual abuse is to help both children and adults become more comfortable discussing it. We can bring about a paradigm shift so that children will not think twice about confiding sexual abuse to an adult in their life who they trust. If we encourage enough children to tell, and teach enough adults what to do, we can change the repetitive cycle of childhood sexual abuse: studies show that 87% of all sexual abusers were themselves sexually abused as children.

In addition, there are other preventive measures that adults can take to ensure that their children are safe from the harm of child molestation. According to the child molestation prevention organization Darkness to Light (2008) some ways to prevent this sexual crime is to learn the facts, minimize opportunity, talk about it, stay alert, make a plan, act on suspicions, and get involved.

Child molestation is definitely a problem of today’s times. It is a sexual crime that must be actively approached in order to prevent children’s lives from being destroyed. The predators of this crime can be a close family member, an elite church representative of the clergy, a coach for a sports team, etc. Nevertheless, adults must be cautious of all other adults no matter whom they are or where they are from. Victims of child molestation can be any race, come from any social class, and even be male or female. The statistics show that this is an ever-increasing problem, but the measures for prevention do offer a sense of hope for those that are wronged by the sexual crime of child molestation. All in all, it is one a ‘silent monster’, and it will continue to be until children find the courage to speak out against their adult offenders along with adults discovering the strength to address the situation proactively no matter how much pain may surface before a resolution is provided. Sexual crimes are common to many in the United States, along with other parts of the world, but there is the opportunity to bring justice to those that choose to destroy the dignity of all those aggrieved—one being the precious, young children of the world who have the right to have their innocence and childhood protected.

Now days, the complex and universal problem of child labor have become a “harsh reality” attracting worldwide attention. The prevalence of child labour is economically unsound, psychologically disastrous and physically as well as morally dangerous. No doubt, labour is worship but child labour in dangerous and a blot on the conscience of society. It is a sad affair that child labour is deprived of his youthful life, education and thus prospects of higher level of living. Child labour perpetuates poverty, it does not reduce it as it condemns one generation after another to its vicious circle. Child labour harms the progress and prosperity of a nation. Throwing light on this fact, John has rightly said, “Starve a child of food, of affection, of freedom, of education and you produce an adult who is stunted as an individual and holds back progress and development rather than accelerate it”.

Our country is also facing this critical problem of child labor. A wide variation is seen in the estimation of child labor in country. According to 1971, 1981 and 1991 census of India, the number of working children accounted for 10.74 million, 13.60 million and 11.28 million respectively. The ORG has estimated that the number of child labor is closer to 44 million. According to U.N., 55% of the work force in India is made up of child labor. It is normally seen that employers do not always provide accurate data on child labor in order to safeguard themselves from legal hassles. It was pointed out in the World Conference on Children that the number of child labor in the world is about 25 crore, out of which the maximum number about 10 crore is found in India alone. It is estimated that about 7.5 crore are engaged in rural areas while remaining 2.5 crore are employed in urban areas. Alarmed at this critical problem, ILO has also estimated that India alone accounts for one fourth of total child labor of the world.

Childlabor is rampant across the country. Children can be seen working in agricultural fields, carpet and durri industries, biri, handicraft, match box, glass and bangle industries, in restaurants and as domestic servants. It is estimated that 30 per cent of child labor is engaged in agriculture and allied activities, 30 to 35 percent in industries and remaining are engaged in mining, tea gardens and hotels etc. These occupations are hazardous, causing severe physical damage to them and thus inhibiting their mental, moral and social development. These child laborers become prey to many fatal diseases, like T.B., Cancer, Asthma, lungs and skin related diseases. The sad plight of child labor is depicted by Sudha and Tiwari in these words,”It is really sad to note that children in most of the developing countries are living miserable, cheerless lives, toiling unendlessly to ward off starvation, totally deprived of all comforts and opportunities for self growth and development.”

Poverty, unemployment, traditional attitude, marginalization of farms, urbanization, lack of schools, reluctance of parents to send their children to schools are the factors responsible for the problem of child labour. In fact, poverty is seen as the major factor responsible for this problem. Poor parents hardly have time for their children because they are all the time struggling for bread and butter. They are not in a position to fulfill their responsibilities towards children. In reality, the children are supposed to be the extra earning hands, rather than extra mouths to feed. Children are made to work at a very young age. Emphasizing this factor, the report of the Committee on Child Labor commented, “Stronger than tradition is the factor of chronic poverty responsible for the prevalence and perpetuation of child labor”.

In poor families, the child, since his very appearance in this world, is endowed with an economic mission.The child is compelled to shed sweat of brow “to keep the wolf away from the door”. Large sized families are also held responsible for this problem. Again, most of the workers are engaged in non organized sector. The inadequacy of wages in this sector compels these workers to send their children on work to supplement their income. Availability of child labor at lower wages also motivates the employers to employ them. The employment of the child labor not only reduces the cost of production but also provides access to that labor which is unresisting and unorganized. As a result of this trend, the wages of other adult workers decline, adult unemployment increases and that paves way for the poverty. Nurse’s vicious circle of poverty explains the phenomenon of child labor clearly. Thus, child labor is an exploitation of child by the vested interests. On the one side, there is compulsion of poor parents and on the other side; the unresponsive attitude of specific industries is also responsible for this problem. The situation of child laborers in India is desperate. Children work for eight hours at a stretch with only a small break for meals. The meals are also frugal and the children are ill nourished. Most of the migrant children, who cannot go home, sleep at their work place, which is very bad for their health and development. Seventy five percent of Indian population still resides in rural areas and are very poor.

Children in rural families who are ailing with poverty perceive their children as an income generating resource to supplement the family income. Parents sacrifice their children’s education to fulfill the basic needs of their younger siblings and view them as wage earners for the entire family. Irrelevance of education in practical life is also considered an important factor for this problem. It is rightly pointed out, “A secondary reason for child labor is that many children choose to work because neither they nor their poverty stricken families see the point of acquiring an education which has little relevance to their lives and which moreover does not guarantee them a job. They prepare to undergo some kind of apprenticeship so that they can learn a skill and earn money at the same time”. These children are deprived of their childhood. The prospects of getting good education and good jobs become a distant dream for them. Thus, the parents, society and the state are responsible for this criminal injustice with the future citizens.

Children are flowers of our national garden they should be nurtured with love and affection so that; they grow into responsible and responsive citizens. Child labour has important demographic and social-economic implications for developing countries like India. Many provisions have been made in the constitution of the country to promote the welfare and development of children. Under Article 29 of the constitution, no child below the age of 14 can be deployed in any hazardous work. Article 23 prohibits forced labour. The chapter IV of theIndian constitution mentions specific directions related to the welfare of children. In Article 39, it is made obligatory for the states to formulate polices in such a way so that the healthy development of children can be ensured.

To safeguard the interests of these deprived children, various laws have been enacted in the country. Many legislations have been passed to prevent the employment of children in hazardous occupations and to improve their working conditions. Many policies have also been formulated for the healthy and balanced development of children. In the same way, there are important legislations which provide legal protection to child labour in India. Some of them are following:

1. Child (Pledging of labour). Act (Government of India, 1933)

2. The Employment of Children Act (Government of India, 1938)

3. The Minimum wages Act, 1948

4. The factories Act, 1948

5. The Plantation Labour Act, 1951

6. The Mines Act, 1952

7. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1958

8. The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961

9. The Apprentices Act, 1961

10. The Bedi and Cigar Workers Act, 1966

11. State Shops and Establishment Acts,

12. According to the National Policy for children, 1974, no child under 14 years can be

engaged in any hazardous occupation. It is also laid down in the policy that children

should be protected against neglect, cruelty and exploitation. Again, the Child Labour

(Prohibition and Regulation) Act was initialed in 1986 to ban children’s employment in

70 hazardous occupations. National Child Labour Project (NCLP) was also launched by

Labour Ministry in 1988 to rehabilitate working children. In Oct, 2006, the Government has passed legislation to ban the employment of children below 14 years in restaurants, hotels, tea-stalls, eateries and as domestic laborers.

India has also become a signatory to various international declarations and agreements to regulate the menace of child labour. So, it has become obligatory for the country to undertake the measures to eliminate the scourge of child labour which has assumed serious proportions in recent years. Many policies have been formulated for the healthy and balanced development of children. The Government has launched Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meal Scheme, Education Guarantee programme etc to bring the child labour under the umbrella of education. Non Governmental Organizations were also permitted to open residential schools for these children to bring them back to the mainstream of the society. Residential and special schools have also been setup for the education of child labor. In 2006 the Government has introduced Integrated Child Development services aimed at providing a package of services consisting of supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check up and education and non-formal education.

In spite of adoption and implementation of various policies, laws and programmes by the government directly or indirectly, the problem of child labor is still staring at us. Due to ignorance, illiteracy and economic compulsions of the poor families, these laws are evaded at different places at different points of time. Weak enforcement machinery, little information related to child labor laws and peculiar socio-economic conditions are also the factors responsible for the avoidance of laws related to children. To check the problem of child labour, it is essential to eradicate the menace of poverty by improving agriculture sector, providing employment to unemployed hands at minimum wages, establishing agro-processing units in rural areas.

Stringent measures should also be taken to make employment generation and poverty eradication plans effective and successful and corruption free. In the same way, population control measures and other medical facilities must be provided to the poor section of the country. Adequate school facilities, provision of night schools, improvement in school environment and curricula of education can also contribute a lot in solving this critical problem. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) should also ensure that rescued child labourers do not return to work. So every effort must be made for the repatriation of rescued child labourers to their native places.

Poverty, unemployment and illiteracy are the prime reasons responsible for this problem. So efforts must be made to eradicate these causes. Monetary incentives and income generating assets must be provided to poor families so that they are not compelled to send their children to work. It is essential to compensate the families of those children who are being withdrawn from work force. A strong socio-political environment must be achieved with the active cooperation of people, society, and non government organization. NGOs must motivate the parents to provide education, health care and skill development facilities to their children. Special schools may be set up for the child labor so they can acquire minimum qualifications. In the same way, specific strategies must be evolved keeping in mind the nature of work in which the child is currently engaged. Thus, a joint effort of government, NGOs and society is required to solve this critical problem. We should try to strike at the root cause of this critical problem. Efforts should be made to change the attitude and mindset of the people towards their children.

We should never forget that today’s children are tomorrow’s citizen. If this critical problem is not tackled urgently, we can well imagine the future of our country in the days to come.

1

This report proposes to examine the key effects, elements and issues surrounding child labour in relation to the global economy. Through their thorough and convincing research, the authors, Eric .V.Edmonds and Nina Pavcnik (2005) estimate the number of economically active children between the ages of 5-14 years and claim that parental poverty is its main cause. However, they are hesitant to endorse the widely held belief that international policies are the solution to this global crisis; rather they suggest more domestic measures to limit it, such as affordable education and more job stimulation. They also argue that contrary to popular perception most working children engage in domestic/market work rather than in manufacturing establishments.

Introduction

The term Child Labour is a widespread phenomenon often equated to child abuse. In Eric’s footnote on ‘What is Child Labour?’ He states the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) definition of child labour which is”… defines an economically active child as a child labourer if she is under 12 and economically active for one or more hours per week, 12-14 and working more than 14hours per week or one or more hours per week in activities that are ‘hazardous by nature or circumstance’ and if she is 15-17 and works in ‘unconditional work forms of child labour’ (trafficked children, children in bondage or forced labour, armed conflict, prostitution, pornography, illicit activities)”(ILO 2002, cited in Edmonds and Pavcnik 2005; pp.200).

Edmonds asserts however that these forms of child labour are rare. He insists stating that children engage in activities which could either be harmful or beneficial depending on the type of activity and also the impact on the child should depend on what the child would be doing if not working (the child’s alternative foregone). Household Survey evidence by the ILO’s Statistical information and monitoring program on child labour (SIMPOC) also defines child labour as “A child is defined as economically active if he or she works for wages (cash or in-kind); works in the family farm in the production and processing of primary products; works in family enterprises that are making primary products for the market, barter or own consumption; or is unemployed and looking for these types of work (ILO 2002,cited in Edmonds and Pavcnik 2005; pp.201). This is a more practical definition taking into account that most children work at home for their families; either on the farm or domestically.

The rare hazardous forms of labour stated in the ILO’s definition are difficult to make out in household surveys which the SIMPOC are based on thus specialized surveys are conducted by the ILO and other concerned organizations. As a result of these surveys, the ILO’s SIMPOC (2002) estimates 8.4 million children engage in ‘unconditional work forms of child labour’ and of these, 68 percent are in bonded or forced labour (forms of slavery). According to Edmond and Pavncik most child labourers are employed by their parents to work on the farm or domestically which goes against the widely held view that children work mainly in manufacturing establishments and other forms of employment. They argue that children also face risks in the simplest forms of labour as they get older, for example agriculture, due to exposure to toxic chemicals, harsh weather conditions, animals/parasites. Ashagrie (1997) agrees with this point stating that “the self reported injury rate from child labour surveys of children working in agriculture is actually higher at 2 percent than the 9 percent level reported in manufacturing. (Ashagrie 1997 cited in Edmonds and Pavcnik 2005; pp.208)

Edmonds and Pavncik’s article posits an open research question as to whether the reasons children engage in these hazardous working conditions differs from the driving force of children working on their family businesses or domestic work.

Literature review.

Child labour in the global economy is estimated at 211million, ILO (2002), which accounts for 18 % of children, aged 5-14 worldwide. Of these, 60 % are in Asia and 23 % in sub Saharan Africa. Although Asia has a greater percentage of child labours Africa has a higher participation rate estimated at 30%. SIMPOC also estimates that 4 % of children work in transition economies (i.e. countries undergoing economic liberalization) and 2% in developed countries.

The United Nations children’s educational fund (UNICEF) conducted three surveys in thirty-six less developed countries in 2000 and 2001 providing information on the participation rates in both domestic and market work for 124 million children. The first survey helps buttress Edmond and Pavcnik’s point on child workers engaging mainly in domestic/ market work rather than manufacturing establishments.

Participation rates in various activities for 124million children 5-14 from 36 countries in 2000.
All children
5-14
Age
5-9 10-14
Gender
Male Female
Location
Urban Rural
Market work (MAR)

25.0

15.3 35.2

26.6 23.3

18.9 30.5

Paid

2.4

1.0 4.0

2.8 2.0

2.2 2.5

unpaid

5.8

4.4 7.3

5.6 5.9

4.0 7.3

family

20.8

12.4 29.7

22.4 19.1

14.8 26.2

Domestic work (DOM)

64.6

50.8 79.2

59.3 69.9

60.7 67.4

Any work (MAR + DOM)

68.4

53.5 84.3

64.8 72.1

64.1 71.7

20 or more hours per week

20.7

10.3 31.8

19.4 22.1

14.1 26.4

40 or more hours per week

6.4

2.7 10.3

6.1 6.7

3.6 8.8

UNICEF End of Decade Assessment microdata, (2000). See Edmonds and Pavcnik (2005, JEP).

From the table above it is evident that less than 3% of children work outside the household for pay and this is mainly the case in rural settlements rather than urban where manufacturing activities are dominant. Approximately 6% participate in unpaid work. Edmonds and Pavcnik interpret these unpaid children as those children who help their neighbours in the farm or business or could also be children receiving in-kind payments (food) as well as children who are indebted to their employees by their parents. However in contrast to this, 20.8% of children work in family businesses and of this figure, 26.2% are in rural areas and 14.8% in urban. The authors further research shows that there is an agreement with this UNICEF survey from other available data from countries like Nepal, South Africa, Vietnam, India as well as Bangladesh where child labour in its garment industry also had a figure of 1.2% unpaid children age 5-14 as cited in a 2002 child labour survey. According to the table approximately 65% of children work domestically and 68% work in both market and domestic work. There is a high participation rate pattern by older female children age 10-14 in rural areas. The table also shows that they tend to work longer hours than males. This is probably due to cultural domestic values. Agriculture takes the largest part of the employment sector in countries (e.g. Kenya 77% In 1998, Guatemala 63 %in 2000, Ethiopia 89% in 2001 etc) followed closely by domestic work and then manufacturing which is only a percentage of economically active children. Figures from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) 2004 (FOA 2004 cited in Edmonds and Pavcnik 2005)match with this indicating that most adults work in agriculture and since most children work with their parents they also work in agriculture.

There is a trade off between work and school for child labourers. Most working children attend school and the UNICEF estimates in its second survey the total hours of work in relation to different types of work as well as school attendance. The data shows that on average, children spend 26 hours on market work weekly. Children that work for their families and are unpaid spend 27hours weekly. Paid employment takes up more hours in a week and by older children. Children that take part in domestic work spend 16 hours per week .Edmonds and Pavcnik further stated that these figures should not imply that domestic work is insignificant because on average, majority of the hours spent on market work is indeed domestic work. However children that attend school spend less hours working than those who do not attend school.

The third survey below by the UNICEF reports the school attendance of children aged 5-14. From the table we observe that approximately 70% of children in that age range attend school and this attendance is mainly in favour of older male boys, in urban areas. School attendance conditional on work status accounts for 74%. There is a 14% likelihood that children who do not work do not attend school but this is reflected mainly in younger children. Less than 5 % of the 30% of children that do not attend school work in market work only and we see that domestic work is more popular in this

case as 32% of the 30% participate in it alone. Thus Edmonds states that in ignoring this figure of domestic work researchers would lose out on one of the segments of children not attending school.

A large fraction of children, 42%, well known as ‘idle’ attend neither school nor work

Work and schooling status for 124million children 5-14 from 36 countries in 2000
All children
5-14
Age
5-9 10-14
Gender
Male female
Location
Urban rural
Attend school

69.5

58.9 80.8

70.768.3

75.1 63.9

Attendance rates conditional
Any work
Not work

73.9

60.0

64.1 80.6

52.9 82.2

75.7 72.3

61.6 57.8

80.1 68.3

64.9 52.8

Conditional on nonattendance
Domestic only
Market only

32.0

4.5

30.8 34.9

2.8 8.3

27.1 36.6

6.3 2.7

31.8 32.0

4.9 4.3

Both market and domestic
Not work

22.0

41.5

13.1 42.2

53.3 14.6

20.3 23.5

46.2 37.1

12.8 26.6

50.6 37.1

UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey End of Decade Assessment microdata.(2002)

Child labourers face consequences on schooling attainment because time spent working gives less time for extracurricular activities and might weaken their school performance. Orazem and Gunnarsson (2004) find that “third and fourth graders who attend school but never work in market or domestic work perform 28 % better on mathematics tests and 19% better on language tests than children who attend school and work”. Empirical evidence of this is given in an example by Beegle, Dehejia and Gatti (2004) wherein after five years of working and schooling they examined the status of young adults in Vietnam. They observed that a one standard deviation increase in the hours worked by children attending school is equated to a 35% decrease in educational attainment. Edmonds and Pavcnik however are of the school of thought that this negative correlation between working and grade advancement might reflect that low performing students engage in work rather than that work generates low-performing students.

Parents send their children to work not by choice but as a result of economic necessity thus Child labour is caused fundamentally by poverty and as far back as data show, there have been several policies proposed with the aim of fighting against child labour worldwide. Have these legislative acts helped solve the problem of child labour? To answer this question Edmonds and Pavncik give two examples, firstly the US Congress enacted laws prohibiting the importation of goods made by children and as a result of these sanctions, Bangladesh was said to have released over 10,000 paid child workers below the age of 14 from its garment industry in the mid 1900’s. Evidently this is not drastic as the figures are a tenth of the percentage of child workers in Bangladesh. Furthermore Moehling (1999) finds little evidence that minimum wage laws in manufacturing sectors put into practice between the years 1880 and 1910 contributed to the decline in child labour during this period. In addition, the authors state that more recent studies show that the US House of Representatives have discussed the “Child labour elimination act” which would enforce punitive measures, alter financial support, and order US oppositions from multilateral development banks to 62 developing countries affected by child labour.

Edmonds and Pavcnik argue that although these policies might help reduce child labour, they are not guaranteed to be successful in less developed nations where they are targeted at for these reasons enumerated in their article:

Lack of available resources to implement policies (i.e. bans) mainly in cases where the children engage in market work for their parents wherein the end product contributes to the family income.

Child labour policies are seen as a case of multiple equilibrium, Basu and Van (1998), whereby children that work at low wages are at one equilibrium and increased adult wages when children do not work are at another therefore defeating the purpose of the ban. Moreover according to Basu’s example (2003), if firms are fined for child labour, the cost of the fine increases the demand for cheap child labour as opposed to high earning adult workers in order to make more profit to offset the fine which in turn makes child labour necessary.

Children that are prohibited from working legitimately might move into more hazardous forms of child labour or non exporting sectors of the economy such as prostitution however there is no scientific evidence of this.

Since Poverty is the main cause of child labor it would be logical to combat child labor by

A) Improving the standard of living of families i.e. increasing adult income which in turn does the following

Diminishes the marginal utility of income which decreases the value of marginal contribution because as more income comes into the family form parents it eliminates the satisfaction derived from the income contribution of the child.

Brings about the purchase of alternatives used in place of child labour (e.g. washing machines)

Increases a child’s productive level in schooling (human capital) because the family is now able to afford necessary materials (e.g. textbooks)

B) Encouraging credit markets to give loans to poor households is another suggestive method because child labor has been said to be a result of credit market imperfections. Baland and Robinson 2000; Ranjan, 2001 agree with this stating “Several theoretical studies emphasize that if credit markets allowed households to borrow against future earnings child labor could be much reduced”

C) Providing affordable education because parents would be willing to contribute to improve their children’s long run chances yet, are however left with no choice but to send their children to work due to the perceived returns to schooling. Policies have been adopted to reduce chid labour through educational subsidies. An example of such is the Progresa program in Mexico which is predominately used in many countries worldwide. It gives parents an incentive to keep their child in school. Parents are paid if the school certifies that the child has been attending school regularly. Thus it is a demand approach aimed at reducing the cost of schooling, which varies with age of the child, and increasing family income.

Conclusively relying on laws and their enforcement as discussed previously, is a necessary but unsatisfactory solution to child labour. Overall, economic development interventions relevant to the underlying cause are more effective policy tools to reduce the incidence of child labour.

The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 218 child labourers in the world (ILO, 2006). In 1991, there were approximately 11.3 million child labourers in India, with 2 million of those children working in highly dangerous situations (2004). However, as of late 2000 the ILO states that there are now 10.4 million child labourers in India. It important to stress that these children are working because they do not have a choice, Mummun Jha argues more specifically that, “they come not from the well-off households but from marginalized sections that are already the hardest hit, such as the children of the poor, the lower castes, and the female” (2009, p. 217). In India, there are a variety of complex social and economic factors for why children are working. These reasons can include: a lack of access to education and unemployed parents (Venkatanarayana, 2004). Commonly, poverty is said to be the cause of child labour, yet it can also be a result of child labour as well. Zubair Kabir argues that a cycle of poverty can exist within child labour and India is no exception (2003). Thus, this keeps children in India in a disadvantaged state because they are denied access to education and as a result, will not learn any new skills for a higher paying job (Kabir, 2003). In addition to the lack of education, child labour can pose serious health risks to children. They are often exposed to unsanitary and dangerous situations because employers will not provide basic health measures due to the low-income employment child labourers commonly do and the lack of governmental regulations that exist (2003). Due to children working in the low-income sector of the workplace, this decreases the value of work for adults and thus, adult unemployment rises. With poorly paid, unskilled children working in unsafe conditions, these children will become the future generation in India; and therefore, child labour continues the cycle of poverty (2003).

Another important social factor that causes child labour in India is the deeply ingrained cultural values that have existed for decades (Kabir, 2003). Often girls are left out of statistics regarding child labour because sometimes they do not work in the formal sectors of child labour such as factories; rather they participate in domestic labour (Das & Mishra, 2005). Mummun Jha states that there is an abundance of poverty in India and thus the,

Situation is worsened by the fact that for the poor families in India, alternative sources of income are non-existent. There are no social welfare systems as those in the West. There are fewer sources of bank loans, government loans, or other credit sources. What is available is usually for the relatively better off (2009, p. 211).

India has passed some legislation regarding the well being of children. India did sign the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 (Jha, 2009). However, the Indian government has not signed off on Convention 138 on Minimum Age (1973) and Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (1999) which to the ILO is considered very progressive in regard to the law against child labour (2009). The Indian government maintains due to their decentralized style of government, only the individual states in India have the constitutional power to change the law regarding the minimum age (2009). As a result, millions of Indian children are working illegally (2009).

I feel passionate about eliminating child labour in my lifetime and I feel educating individuals, especially youth about the effects of child labour is crucial in achieving this goal. In this paper, I will argue that child labour is a detriment to the development of less economically developed countries because it prevents access to education, especially to young girls, it risks the health of young children, and decreases the value of adult work; thus weakening the economic growth of a country by perpetuating poverty.

Theoretical Backing:

W.W. Rostow’s theory on the stages of economic growth provides a justification for why child labour exists today. Rostow presented a model of economic growth in the 1960s and it provides a theory on why some countries developed economically while others did not, in his book called The Stages of Economic Growth (1960). Rostow would make the argument that child labour is necessary for some countries to industrialize as there were some forms of child labour during the Industrial Revolution in Europe (Venkatanarayana, 2004). Further applying Rostow’s theory of economic development to child labour, another possible explanation for why it still exists today is because LECDs are employing child labourers in order to compete with multi-national corporations and other more economically developed countries. Most countries employing young children are stuck in Rostow’s second stage known as ‘pre-conditions for take-off’, which can be characterized by a need to develop a surplus of wealth in order to increase investment in transportation, communication and natural source exploitation (1960). Whereas, many other industrialized countries are in Rostow’s final stage of economic development known as ‘mass consumption’, which can be characterized by a growing demand for consumer goods and services, incomes being greater than necessary for buying essentials and an increase in investment by society in health, education and social programs (1960). As a result, Rostow would make the argument that child labour is necessary for economic development in LEDCs, and in order to move through the stages of development, from ‘pre-conditions for take-off’ to ‘mass consumption’ (Rostow, 1960).

Research and Analysis:

Child labour is detrimental to the development of less economically developed countries because it presents a barrier to the education system for children in India. “Many scholars and activists now see a direct relationship between education and child labour” (Jha, 2009, 210). Traditionally, education was only accessible to the upper caste levels (2009). Furthermore, old, cultural values still exist in India today; for example, education is not thought of for people in the lower castes, in particular females (2009).

Kumar Das and Sarojini Mishra (2005) focus specifically on the economic effects of child labour on girls in India. Das and Mishra state that child labour for young girls is related to the deeply ingrained cultural factors such as, caste, religion, family type and size. Thus, girls belonging to the lower caste acquire little to no education and as a result are forced into child labour to help her family financially. Das and Mishra also highlight that much of the research done on child labourers in India focuses on children forced to work in factories; whereas many young girls are experiencing child labour in the informal work sector, such as working at home, but are still exploited (2005). Das and Mishra conclude that better understanding of the causes, consequences of child labour, the labour market and emphasis on the importance of primary school for girls in India is crucial for eliminating child labour (2005).

Similar to Das and Mishra, studies conducted by Rubiana Chamarbagwala (2008), provides evidence that the overall increase of availability of primary education in India will not only increase the number of children attending school, but it will also decrease the chances of girls and boys working in factories. It is important to point out that a simple increase in the availability of education in India would not solve the number of young girls who watch their brothers go to school while they work in the unpaid labour force, and are still being exploited. Unlike other literature focused on child labour in India, Chamarbagwala states that governmental policies should be implemented that will increase the economic benefits of education, and thus provide an incentive for families to send their children to school rather than to work.

Mitesh Badiwala argues for a solution for the lack of access to education due to child labour. He states that even if the schools in India are good, the economic benefits out weight the educational benefits for Indian parents and as a result poverty raises the dropout rates (1998). Therefore, India should implement compulsory schooling for children. It is also important to point out that with children in school, the availability of jobs for adults will increase. The idea of mandatory school requires policies to be enacted and these policies can help provide funds for the primary school system (1998). In addition, Badiwala points out that this idea of compulsory education worked for the Indian state of Kerala, which spends a lot of money on education and has the highest literacy rate in the country (1998).

Recent research conducted by the International Labour Organization (2009), has stated the most recent global economic crisis that occurred in 2008 could increase the number of girls in child labour. The ILO reports approximately 100 million girls worldwide are involved in some of the worst forms of child labour today. In addition, the report says this is especially evident in families that place higher importance on educating the boys of the family, which can be attributed to the traditional values embedded in India (ILO, 2003). As the global crisis affects LEDCs, families will start to prioritize what children go to work and to school. In addition, the ILO states that the financial crisis would decrease the national education budget and thus, affect the importance of education to already financially disadvantaged families.

Child labour can have various devastating effects on the health of child labourers. A study carried out by Occupational Medicine (2006) studied different groups of child labourers in various LEDCs. Yet, only conclusive evidence was found amongst child labourers in India. The goal of the study was to determine whether child labour had any effect on the final height of child labourers. While child labour is known to have other negative health effects such as exposure to harsh chemicals, unsanitary conditions, and the potential for serious injuries; whether growth is affected by child labour is still considered controversial. Occupational Medicine focuses on the idea that child labour can directly or indirectly affect the health of children. For example, “It has been assumed that the chronic physical strain of work on growing bones and joints could lead to stunting, spinal injury and lifelong deformations, (2006, 1). However, growth could be indirectly affected by the strain on already weak bones and joints due to malnourishment. Malnourishment in child labourers is caused by long hours working and unsanitary conditions, essentially child labourers do not get all of the required nutrients for healthy development while working in factories. The study concluded that among the children studied in India, there was evidence that child labour did affect the final height of the child labourers. This is an example of negative long term health effects for child labourers and it is problematic because these children represent the future of India.

Child labour is detrimental to the development of India economically because child labour devalues the work done by adults. Basu and Van support this by suggesting that child labour is competing with adult labour in India and the relationship is unhealthy economically (1999). Basu’s studies show that “when adult wages rise or unemployment falls, the incidence of child labour tends to fall. Hence, if we are seriously concerned about child labour, we will have to improve the economic condition of the adult worker,” (1999, N.P.).

In comparison, Augendra Bhukuth and Jerome Ballet (2006) focus on whether child labour is complementary to adult labour, in particular the brick kiln industry in India. The report states that parents are aiding child labour in the brick kiln industry because children are often found working alongside their parents. Unlike almost all other literature on child labour, this study focuses on how child labour is used to increase the price of labour, because an employer is getting an entire family’s labour. This helps to increase household productivity because the whole family works together to earn a living. While it is importance to decrease the debt owed by families in LECDs, the study fails to acknowledge the psychological damages a child will face due to the intensive labour they experienced during childhood.

Sebastian Braun (2006) examines the relationship between child labour and foreign direct investment (FDI). One would think that FDI would be attracted to countries with child labour due to the increases in profits made as a result of the low wages earned by workers compared to developed countries. However, strong evidence points to less FDI flowing to countries that have child labourers, due to young children making up the labour force. To foreign investors child labour reflects poorly on an economy, because the labour force is in fact young children. Therefore, to improve the chances of receiving FDI and thus improving the economy, countries such as India, should eliminate all forms of child labour and employ adults only. If FDI is deterred based on child labour, then LEDCs employing children are continuing the cycle of poverty and decreasing chances of economic growth because they will not receive foreign investment.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the economic development of less economically developed countries is only negatively impacted by child labour. In regards to school, child labour is preventing access to education. In India young girls attend school less than boys, due to traditional values still prevalent in the country today (Das and Mishra, 2005). Chamarbagwala argues that governmental policies should be implemented that specifically enhance the economic benefits of sending children to school; thus giving families an incentive to send their children to school in India (2008). Badiwala claims there is potential for compulsory education to help eradicate child labour in India; pointing to the Indian state of Kerala as an example (1998).

In regards to the health of child labourers, there is evidence that states that child labour affects the final height of an Indian child, among various other serious short and long term effects (Occupational Medicine, 2006). Sadly, there are few studies that state the health effects of child labour on young girls working in the domestic or unpaid labour force.

Lastly, one of the most detrimental effects child labour has on the economic development of a country is the fact that child labour devalues the work done by adults (Basu and Van, 1999). Basu and Van argue that only when the economic situation is improved, will child labourers cease to exist (1999). Furthermore, an interesting study conducted by Bhukuth and Ballet states that sometimes parents continue the problem of child labour by having their children work alongside them in the brick kiln industry (2006). Moreover, it has been proven that child labour can be harmful economically because it decreases the country’s chance at attracting foreign direct investment (Braun, 2006). As a result, child labour is damaging to the economic development of a less economically developed country because it presents a barrier to the education of children, it risks the health of child labourers short and long term and continues the cycle of poverty by devaluing the work done by adults.

Growing up, I truly believed that every child had the same advantages I did: clothes, books, toys, food, a home, and most importantly, the chance to go to school. I remember the first time I realized this wasn’t the case: I was seven years old, sneaking downstairs to watch Saturday morning T.V when I stumbled upon an infomercial urging people to donate on behalf of World Vision. I remember the commercial showing a little girl, approximately six years old and explaining how she went to work at a factory every day for little to no compensation. I was bewildered to say the least; I thought every child went to school. Naturally, this prompted several unanswered questions to my parents, and a general curiosity as to why there is this unequal divide between the affluent and those who are forced to work from as young as five years old. Child Labour is undoubtedly present in countries such as India. I am curious to research the implications on the life of a child worker in India- specifically the implications on said child’s education.

Child labour, according to Free the Children (2005), is seen as “work that is done by children under the age of fifteen (fourteen in some developing countries) which restricts or damages a child’s physical, emotional, intellectual, social and/or spiritual growth” (Free the Children 2005). Currently, it is estimated that there are upwards of 12.6 million child workers in India today, which is the largest number of child labourers under the age of 14 in the world. (CBC 2005: 2) Through my research, I intend to show that the employment of children, though used to advance the production of goods ultimately impacts a child’s ability to access education. I will argue this thesis by providing a brief history of the child labour laws in India, as well as providing a quotation by the Indian government describing the thoughts and laws concerning child labour. I intend to juxtapose this testimonial with one given by UNICEF, an international organization that is dedicated to ending child labour in the global south. I then intend to show the impacts of child labour on developmental indicators such as education.

India is currently one of the countries described in the Free the Children quotation that attempts to enforce child labour laws for children less than fourteen years of age. In 1979, the Indian Government formed the Gurupadswamy Committee; a committee that was formed in the hopes of suggesting measures to end child labour. While the Government has put forward several goals towards the end of child labour, it is recognizably a difficult endeavour. On the Indian Government Website, it states that “aˆ¦poverty is the root cause of child labour [and] the action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their familiesaˆ¦” (Ministry of Labour and Employment 2005) From this quote, it is clear that the Government of India recognizes that the amount of poverty in India is a determining factor in the amount of child labourers in the country. In a CBC article, “The End is within Reach?” (2005), speaks of the relationship between poverty and child labour in India, suggesting that one cannot exist without the other. If this is the case, and if the Indian government considers reducing and eventually eliminating child labour a concern and goal, then it becomes necessary to consider the factors that lead to poverty in India before pursuing the elimination of child labour.

A law enacted in 1986, based upon the recommendations of the Gurupadswamy Committee, states that “children less than fourteen years of age cannot be employed in hazardous occupations.” (Ministry of Labour and Employment 2005) Hazardous occupations, according the Government, refers to any work that involves unsafe activities or working conditions, and includes such activities as operating transportation vehicles, work that involves proximity to a railway line and work that involves handing toxic and hazardous substances. These are only some examples of hazardous occupations that are part of an expanding list. Since this law, several others, for example the Legislative Action Plan, a plan for enforcing Child Labour laws in India, have been enacted and are now referred to as The National Policy on Child Labour. According to the 2005 Indian Census, the National Child Labour Projects now covers 41% of the country.

The Indian Government, in the attempt to enact long term legislative changes on the subject of child labour, acknowledges that these changes will take time to fully come into effect. The Government also acknowledges that the amount of poverty in India is a definite factor to this debate in that the revenue gained from the work of children is necessary income to their families’ welfare.

UNICEF is one of the organizations, governmental and non-governmental, that has taken a strong interest into the affairs of the millions of children currently being employed in India. UNICEF sees child labour as a violation against a child’s right to education. They are of the opinion that, though the Indian Government has implemented such efforts as the National Child Labour Projects- more commonly referred to as NCLP-intervention by organizations in the pursuit of partnerships with the national, as well as state governments are necessary. They believe that in order for a child to have a nurturing childhood, they need “to build a protective environment in which children can live and develop according to their fundamental rights.” (UNICEF 2007) .UNICEF provides three examples of intervention plans in order to provide children with fundamental rights that they see as lacking due to working from a young age. Their primary focus is to promote a child’s right to basic education; second is the implementing of community initiatives in order to empower communities to be active against child labour; and thirdly “addressing [the] existing attitudes towards child labour and facilitat[ing] people’s behavioural change towards a more protective environmentaˆ¦” (Ministry of Labour and Employment 2005) Through such projects and initiatives such as the World Day against Child Labour, these groups aim to raise awareness in the hopes of ending child labour.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines child labour as follows: “the “official” definition of child labour asaˆ¦(1) activity which violates the minimum standards of the 1973 Minimum Age Convention, and (2) activity which is considered prohibited child labour under national law.” (Simolin 2000: 942) The ILO runs the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), which was created in 1992 “with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour” (ILO 2008). Currently they have partnerships with several NGOs, as well as the governments of nations where child labour is prominent. With their partnerships, IPEC and their partners have operations in 88 countries, including India. They believe that child labour perpetuates poverty, and have therefore come up with several priorities to combat the “worst forms of child labour” (ILO 2008), such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, as well as practices of slavery, amongst others. IPEC is also in partnership with UNICEF and assists in the annual World Day against Child Labour.

In recent years another form of child labour has risen in India. Bonded Child Labour refers to the “phenomenon of children working in conditions of servitude in order to pay off a debt. In India, there are an estimated fifteen million bonded child labourers, and possibly more.” (Tucker 1997: 574) According to Lee Tucker, author of “Child Slaves in Modern India: The Bonded Labour Problem” (1997), bonded child labour occurs as a result of the Government spending less than half its budget on primary education, spending it instead on high school and secondary education institutes. As a result, “India is subsidizing the maintenance of a small class of highly educated people, while simultaneously marginalizing the literacy needs of the majority”. (Tucker 1997: 576) Secondly, is the lack of employment opportunities for children who have gone to school, which therefore not only makes working in the labour industry a more alluring choice, as well as a last-resort option for children and their families.

In this same report, author Lee Tucker also addresses the myths surrounding all areas of child labour in India, specifically that of the “nimble fingers”:

“Nimble fingers” theory is applied to some of the harshest industries employing children. This includes the carpet, silk, beedi [1] , and silver industries. This theory asserts that children make the best product in these occupations, thanks to their small and agile fingers, which are, theoretically, better able to tie the tiny knots of wool, unravel the thread from the boiling silk cocoons, or solder tiny silver flowers to thin chains. Under this view, child labour is a production necessity. (Tucker 1997: 570)

Tucker believes that this myth makes it so that more children ultimately sign up for labour positions, as children are encouraged to view their bodies are a needed commodity. This then creates a situation where more children are forced to work long-term; in an environment that can be highly exploitative, as well as emotionally and physically harsh. Another myth surrounding child labour is the need to be trained at the right age, which is usually around six or seven. This myth “contends that children who go to schoolaˆ¦will either be unable to adequately learn a skill or will be at an irreparable disadvantage in comparison with those who did begin working as younger children.” (Tucker, 1997: 577) By this quotation, Tucker discusses the implications behind the choice to attend school from a young age and how that decision can affect a child’s schooling, and by extension literacy, as well as choosing job opportunities and that child’s marketability into later life.

In “Child Labour and Education for All”, Lorenzo Guarcello (2008) argues that when children are forced to work, it is a direct violation to their right to education. Guarcello states:

Education is a key element in the prevention of child labour; at the same time, child labour is one of the main obstacles to Education For All (EFA). Understanding the interplay between education and child labour is therefore critical to achieving both EFA and child labour elimination goal. (Guarcello 2008)

Guarcello continues to say that there is an overwhelming consensus among such organizations, such as UNICEF and the International Labour Organization that “the single best means of stopping child labour is to improve school access and quality” (Guarcello 2008) When education costs are high, families are less likely to send to send their children to school, and are more likely to pull them out of school at a young age. The costs involved in a child’s education can be high for a number of reasons, such as a country’s minimal investment in primary education, living costs being too high in areas surrounding schools and the unavailability of public transportation for the majority. Additionally, school fees can be incredibly pricey, and therefore school cannot be an option for some families.

Guarcello continues in his analysis of child labour and the relationship to education in reflecting on a child worker’s ability to attend school in countries where child labour is common. He identifies the work settings that he believes are the most detrimental to a child worker’s attendance” (Guarcello 2008) and by extension success in the education system. Firstly are children that are solely responsible for non-economic, household duties. These children, according to Guarcello, are the least impacted in terms of school attendance, as their duties can be more flexible and less binding than economical work. Additionally, families are less likely to interfere with their child’s education. The second category of working children is broken up into three groups: children that will never enter school, children who enrol late into their childhoods and those who are forced to leave school early. Children who are never enrolled in primary school are the worst off, says Guarcello, as they are “denied the benefit of formal education altogether, and therefore constitutes a particular policy priority” (Guarcello 2008). The Third and final category of child workers are those that attend classes irregularly. Though these groups differ in terms of how much school is actually missed, Guarcello believes that the lack of schooling is ultimately a determent to the learning of a child, as a working child is less likely to learn at school due to the irregularity and lack of repetition that comes from attending class on a daily basis. Furthermore, child labour does not only affect a child’s ability to getting to school, but also their ability to absorb material, thereby learning effectively, while at school. To sum up his findings, Guarcello states that his findings supported the notion that child labour, both economic work, as well as household duties is a detriment to a child’s education, and suggests that more work should be done to integrate more child workers into the education system.

In addition to putting a greater effort into incorporating more child workers into the education systems, some scholars believe that more work needs to be done in western nations if child labour should be eliminated. In “Buying out Child Labour”, Stephanie Pallage and Christian Zimmermann (2007) discuss their views concerning child labour. Through economical calculations, these authors suggest that countries that trade with the West ultimately have a high comparative advantage in the production of goods if they choose to pay children minimal compensation. Due to the low cost of employing children, the product efficiency is high because these companies can sell these goods at a cheap rate and at the same time, pay their workers close to nothing. A solution, according to these authors, is for countries, such as India, to shift a portion of their GDP to reinvest into their own economy as well as education sectors, and to slowly attempt at distancing themselves from trading nations.

In conclusion, the material that I reviewed largely supports the notion that that child labour, in terms of both economic work, as well as household duties serves largely as a detriment to a child’s education. Child labour does not only affect a child’s ability to getting to school, but also their ability to absorb material, thereby learning effectively. Moreover, families who are in an economic state where they require their children to work are less likely to afford the necessary costs involved in a child’s education such as transportation, a uniform, supplies, as well as tuition. However, the impacts of going to school versus a child’s work involvement remained largely unanswered in the literature I reviewed. More research needs to be done in this field in order for any solution to be successful. Additionally, more programs that integrate child workers into education systems should arise in India in order for current child workers to have the opportunity for literacy.

Although the Indian Government has successfully enacted laws, such as The National Child Labour Projects to protect their minors from hazardous working environments, more time is needed in order for these laws to be enforced to serve the entire country. The partnerships between the state and such organizations as UNICEF and IPEC, through their mission to end child labour, should continue to work closely in order to enable more children the opportunity for an education. However, if these missions are to be successful, they should ensure the proper research as to India’s reasoning for employing child workers and understanding the broader implications behind the need for child workers before suggesting such solutions. As for the more economic solutions, being the reinvestment of GDP into national markets and distancing from international trading nations; I believe that more time, as well as more planning is needed before cutting off all economic ties with the international corporations, as the disruptions could easily provide huge detriments to India’s economic sector. Perhaps India could begin with reinvesting more into primary education, while remaining an international trading nation, and slowly progress to becoming economically independent.

In terms of initiatives intended to raise awareness, such as the World Day against Child Labour, there needs to be included the same research into India’s reasoning for employing children stated clearly on the websites of organizations, rather than just a statement that it is simply a cruel practice against children going against child’s rights. If awareness in western citizens is the goal of these initiatives, then a more inclusive report on child labour in India is needed in order for the issue to be fully understood.

According to the Government of India, there are 2 million children working in hazardous industries. Hazardous occupations include brick manufacturing, stone quarrying, fireworks manufacturing, lock making and glassware production. An ILO (International Labour Organization) study on hazardous child labour in Bangladesh found that more than 40 types of economic activities carried out by children were hazardous to them. The survey also revealed that except for light work, child labour usually had harmful consequences on the mental and physical development of children. Also in countries like Pakistan, it was found that of the total population of child labourers, 7 percent suffered from illness/injuries frequently and 28 percent occasionally. The majority of children suffering from illness/injuries were found in agricultural activities. The situation in Sri Lanka seems to be less problematic since, according to a child activity survey, nearly 90 percent of the working children in the age group of 5-17 years have never experienced a health or safety hazard due to the activity in which they were engaged. In Nepal, identified hazardous sectors include construction, transportation and production, and especially the bidi and carpet industries.

THE BIDI AND CIGAR WORKERS (CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT) ACT, 1966

Defines a child as under Section 2 (b) “Child” means a person who has not completed fourteen years of age .

The Act also defines “manufacturing process” as under

(k) “Manufacturing process,” means any process for, or incidental to, making, finishing or packing or otherwise treating any article or sub-stance with a view to its use, sale, transport, delivery or disposal as bidi or cigar or both;

The 2001 National Census of India estimated the total number of child labour; aged 5-14, to be at 12.6 million Child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 215 million children work, many full times.

In 2001, out of the 12.6 million, about 0.12 million children in India were in a hazardous job. UNICEF estimates that India with its larger population has the highest number of labourers in the world less than 14 years of age, while sub-saharan African countries have the highest percentage of children who are deployed as child labour. International Labour Organization estimates that agriculture at 60 percent is the largest employer of child labour in India, while United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates 70 percent of child labour is deployed in agriculture and related activities. Outside of agriculture, child labour is observed in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy.

Companies including Gap Primark, Monsanto[ and others have been criticised for child labour in their products. The companies claim they have strict policies against selling products made by underage kids, but there are many links in a supply chain making it difficult to police them all. In 2011, after three years of Primark’s effort, BBC acknowledged that its award-winning investigative journalism report of Indian child labour use by Primark was a fake. BBC apologized to Primark, to Indian suppliers and all its viewers. Article 24 of India’s constitution prohibits child labour. Additionally, various laws and the Indian Penal Code, such as the Juvenile Justice (care and protection) of Children Act-2000, and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Abolition) Act-1986 provide a basis in law to identify, prosecute and stop child labour in India.

Section 21 of the Constitution states that:

No juvenile/child shall carry any of the following prohibited articles, namely:-

(a) Bidi, cigarette and tobacco in any loose form or packing; including Gutka or Masala under any brand name;

(b) Alcohol and spirit of every description;

(c) Bhang, Ganja and opium and other narcotic drug or psychotropic substances;

(d) Fire-arms or other weapons, whether requiring licence or not.

(e) Any other article specified in this behalf by the Superintendent by general or special orders.

In Bidi factories of Block I & II of Bankura District of State of West Bengal the scenario is not at all different with many children working in bidi rolling activities who are unregistered so are devoid of any facilities prescribed by the Government.

DISCUSSION

Bidi rolling is done in almost all major states of India and it takes place mainly in the home based unorganized sector, with sub-contractors playing the main role for the principal bidi manufacturers. There are about 300 major manufacturers of branded bidis but there are thousands of small-scale manufacturers cum contractors who account for the bulk of the bidi production in India

Government estimates of the total number of bidi workers is about 4.5 million, majority of who are home based women workers. Trade unions claim that there could be about 7-8 million bidi workers in the country, especially if those engaged in bidi trade and the kendu leaf collection are also taken into account. Over the years, many efforts have been made to improve the working and living conditions of workers and their families involved in the bidi industry. Besides the general labour laws applicable (such as Minimum Wages Act and the Provident Funds Act), the Government of India has also enacted two major laws specifically for

the bidi sector workers – Bidi and Cigar Workers (Conditions of Employment) Act, 1966 – to regulate the

conditions of service of the bidi workers, and Bidi Workers Welfare Fund Act, 1976 – to provide for welfare schemes for the bidi workers and their families, relating to health, education, maternity benefits, group insurance, recreation, housing assistance etc. Under the fund, there are also special schemes to encourage education of children of bidi workers, especially for the girl child.

In April, 1992, a Group Insurance Scheme for the Bidi Workers was also introduced under the social security scheme of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India. This provides insurance cover of Rs. 5000/- in case of natural death and Rs. 25,000/- in case of accidental death to those bidi workers who have identity cards.

It is written in the Preamble

Recalling that, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to special care and assistance,

Rights (in particular in article 10) and in the statutes and relevant instruments of specialized agencies and international organizations concerned with the welfare of children, ‘

Bearing in mind that, as indicated in the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, “the child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth”,

PART III of the Constitution states The Fundamnetal Rights which provides for the protection of children. it states under :

Right to Freedom which includes speech and expression, assembly, association or union or cooperatives, movement, residence, and right to practice any profession or occupation (some of these rights are subject to security of the State, friendly relations with foreign countries, public order, decency or morality), right to life and liberty, right to education, protection in respect to conviction in offences and protection against arrest and detention in certain cases.

Right against Exploitation, prohibiting all forms of forced labour, child labour and traffic in human beings;

Right to Education which ensures that children up to the age of 14 get education. It can also be free of cost.

Fundamental rights for Indians have also been aimed at overturning the inequalities of pre-independence social practices. Specifically, they have also been used to abolish untouchability and hence prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth. They also forbid trafficking of human beings and forced labour. They also protect cultural and educational rights of ethnic and religious minorities by allowing them to preserve their languages and also establish and administer their own education institutions.

It is seen in the study surveyed held in Block I and Block II of the district Bankura, West Bengal, that children were deprived of their Fundamnetal Rights.

Objectives of the Study

1. To highlight the conditions of child labourers in Bidi factories of Block I & II of Bankura District.

2. To touch on the the Government policies related to child labours.

3. To estimate the facilities the child labourers are getting in the study area.

4.To suggest measures to improve the welfare of child labourers and to establish a society without child labourers

METHODOLOGY
1. Sampling Technique

Multi stage random sampling method is followed. There are 11 factories , scattered all over the blocks.

2. Questionnaire Design The child labourers belong to lower class, and as they are uneducated,it is decided to use Interview Schedule because the respondent is unable to read and understand the questions and answer the questions. Therefore Interview Schedule is found to be suitable for the study. The Interview Schedule is structured on the basis of various components, which cover the problems of child labourers.

3. Sources of Data The sources of data were primary as well as secondary. The data collected from the child labourers survey constitute Primary and the information gathered from books, journals, magazines, reports, dailies were secondary. The data collected form both these sources were scrutinized, edited, and tabulated.

4. Period of Study The present study covers a period of 2 years i.e., from 2009 to 2011.

Importance of the Study Child labour cannot be eliminated by focusing on one determinant, for example education, or by brute enforcement of child labour laws. The government of India must ensure that the needs of the poor are filled before attacking child labour. If poverty is addressed, the need for child labour will automatically diminish. No matter how hard it is, child labour always will exist until the need for it is removed. The development of India as a nation is being hampered by child labour. Children are growing up illiterate because they have been working and not attending school. A cycle of poverty is formed and the need for child labour is reborn after every generation. India needs to address the situation by tackling the underlying causes of child labour through governmental policies and the enforcement of these policies. This is a pilot project to focus on the burning issue of Child Labourers in Biri factories.

In Bankura district of West Bengal bidi workers are quite widespread. Bidi workers come from lower socio-economic strata. Traditionally lower Hindu castes and poor Muslim communities have been the source of labour in bidi industry. 93% are yearly workers who are either binding bidis inside a factory or getting the kendu leaves and utilizing his/her home space for bidi binding.7% of the binders are seasonal in nature , involved in this profession on a part time basis.87% of workers are directly attached to bidi factories like 522,Co-operative, Priya bidi etc.

Rest are either dealing with middle men who supply the binders with kendu leaves and collect the bidi packet after process completion in exchange of very nominal charges or collect the kendu leaves from the forests and selling the bidis in local market.

Among the surveyed population, irrespective of a seasonal or yearly engagement, 89% of them are home based workers and 11% are factory based workers.

The Bidi workers earn a living by binding bidis for long hours in a day. Their income varies between Rs 1 to Rs 80 per day depending on the hours of binding bidis . Around 66% earn below Rs 40 per day. 32% belong to the group who earn between Rs 40 to Rs 80 and 2% earn above Rs 80 per day. The dust of the kendu leaves with which the workers roll bidis are very bad for the condition of lungs of the workers.

Involvement of these children in this hazardous work is taking a toll on their health aspect. When Lung Function test was done on children bidi workers and Control children population a massive difference is found regarding their lung capacity. A very strong deterioration is visible in condition of lungs among children bidi workers. This point is very alarming.

The right to Health & Care: 58% of India’s children below the age of 2 years are not fully vaccinated. And 24% of these children do not receive any form of vaccination. Over 60% of children in India are anemic. 95 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their fifth birthday. 70 in every 1000 children born in India, do not see their first birthday.

Recent UNICEF report on the state of the world’s children under the title “Childhood Under Threat” , speaking about India, states that millions of Indian children are equally deprived of their rights to survival, health, nutrition, education and safe drinking water. It is reported that 63 per cent of them go to bed hungry and 53 per cent suffer from chronic malnutrition.

The report says that 147 million children live in kuchcha houses, 77 million do not use drinking water from a tap, 85 million are not being immunized, 27 million are severely underweight and 33 million have never been to school. It estimates that 72 million children in India between five and 14 years do not have access to basic education. A girl child is the worst victim as she is often neglected and is discriminated against because of the preference for a boy child.

Article 24 of the Constitution states that:

States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.

2. States Parties shall pursue full implementation of this right and, in particular, shall take appropriate measures:

(a) To diminish infant and child mortality;

(b) To ensure the provision of necessary medical assistance and health care to all children with emphasis on the development of primary health care;

(c) To combat disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care, through, inter alia, the application of readily available technology and through the provision of adequate nutritious foods and clean drinking-water, taking into consideration the dangers and risks of environmental pollution;

The children are not registered in the factories of the study area thus health care facilities are not provided to those children. The main bidi manufacturers do not formally (unregistered) employ children to roll bidis, the system of sub-contracting to home based workers and the logic of the piece rate system of payment (the more you produce, the more you will earn) leads to the involvement of children. The children, whether they go to school or not, end up helping out the family in rolling bidis (such as cutting the kendu leaves, tying the threads to the rolled bidis and folding the tips of the bidis). There are more girls than boys engaged in the bidi industry. There is however no reliable estimate of the number of children who are engaged in the bidi rolling activities.

The 1995 Survey by the Labour Bureau, Ministry of Labour estimated the incidence of child labour as 1% of the total bidi workers.

Legally, India’s child labour law does not cover children who help out as family labour and this loophole creates the scope for employment of children in many home based activities. The labour department officials have difficulties in taking any action against the employers/ contractors who claim that they have given work to only the adult members.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is an agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards and decent work for all. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The organization received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. It has no power to impose any sanctions on governments.

“The ILO Convention No. 182 (article 3d) defines hazardous child labour as “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children.”

The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) was created in 1992 with the overall goal of the progressive elimination of child labour, which was to be achieved through strengthening the capacity of countries to deal with the problem and promoting a worldwide movement to combat child labour.

IPEC’s work to eliminate child labour is an important facet of the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. Child labour not only prevents children from acquiring the skills and education they need for a better future, it also perpetuates poverty and affects national economies through losses in competitiveness, productivity and potential income. Withdrawing children from child labour, providing them with education and assisting their families with training and employment opportunities contribute directly to creating decent work for adults.

Article 28 of the Constitution states that :

States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

The West Bengal Government has the probation for providing free education or providing scholarships to the children of adult bidi workers. So those children who are employed in a part time basis in bidi rolling have the option to go to schools. But because of the poverty striken conditions the parents prefer to make their children work and earn some extra penny rather than sending them to school.

An article in newspaper (TNN Jul 23, 2012, 01.43PM IST) has focused on All India Trade Union Congress to back demands of bidi workers in Mangalore . It states that pixelpixel All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) has announced its intent to lay siege to office of deputy commissioner here on July 26 to press for resolution of various demands of bidi workers. These include delay in release of scholarship amount to children of bidi workers for past three years; and move to shift onus of distributing scholarship from office of commissioner for bidi workers welfare to department of education.HV Ananatha Subba Rao, general secretary of AITUC told reporters that the authorities concerned have reduced the number of beneficiaries eligible for scholarship from the academic years 2009-10 and 2010-11. Nearly 75% of children of bidi workers are not receiving the scholarship, he said, adding problem has aggravated ever since it was decided to credit the scholarship amount to joint account of student and parents.

pixelArticle 32 of the Constitution states the followings:

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.

2. States Parties shall take legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to ensure the implementation of the present article. To this end, and having regard to the relevant provisions of other international instruments, States Parties shall in particular:

(a) Provide for a minimum age or minimum ages for admission to employment;

(b) Provide for appropriate regulation of the hours and conditions of employment;

(c) Provide for appropriate penalties or other sanctions to ensure the effective enforcement of the present article.

The children of the study area survive in unhealthy environment. The air that they breathe is full of dust of kendu leaves and is creating immense deterioration in their respiratory system. Measures are not being taken to rehabilitate them to a cleaner, better environment.

Under Indian law, bidi rolling is defined as hazardous work, but a loophole means children who help their parents in their work fall outside the legal framework.

“Formally, it is the women who take on the orders from the contractors,” says Anita Kumar of Plan India. “However, behind the scenes, the pressures these women face in terms of delivering on huge volumes, invariably children, mainly girls, get pulled into this to support their families in bidi rolling.”

As part of its global “Because I am a Girl” campaign, children’s rights organization Plan International has started a program focused on girl child labour in Andhra Pradesh, including girls involved in bidi making. The project will collectively impact 1,500 girls over 3 years. Children trapped in bidi work will need a rescue effort on a much larger scale.

From unhealthy living conditions to exploitative wages, slave-like working conditions and severe health consequences – the situation of bidi workers involves violation of their fundamental rights and freedoms on many levels. The majority of girls are pulled out of education by the time they complete primary school to support their families’ income.

The ban on the use of forced child labour is one among the labour standards. In India, Article 24 of the Constitution prohibits employment of children below 14 years in a factory, mine or any other hazardous employment. In pursuant to the said Article 24, various enactments like Mines Act, 1952; The Merchant Shipping Act 1958; The Motor Transport Workers Act, 1951; The Plantation Labour Act, 1951; The Bidi and Cigar Workers (Condition of Employment) Act, 1966 and the Apprentice Act, 1961 prohibiting employment of children below a certain age come into the Statute Book. The earlier enactments i.e., The Employment of Children Act, 1938 and the Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933, The Factories Act, 1948 fall in the same category.

Article 39 states that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and children should not be abused and the citizens not be forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength. This Article also states that children be given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in freedom and dignity; that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation, and against moral and material abandonment.

Article 45 provides for free and compulsory education for children. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 provides the statutory backing against employment of children in factories, mines and hazardous employment, and regulates working conditions of children in other employment. This law, as also the Bidi and Cigar Workers (Condition of Employment) Act, 1966, prohibits child labour in bidi-making.

Suggested measures:

The National Policy on Child Labour, August 1987 contains the action plan for tackling the problem of child labour. It envisages:

A legislative action plan

Focussing and convergence of general development programmes for benefiting children wherever possible, and

Project-based action plan of action for launching of projects for the welfare of working children in areas of high concentration of child labour.

In pursuance of National Child Labour Policy, the NCLP Scheme was started in 1988 to rehabilitate child labour. The Scheme seeks to adopt a sequential approach with focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance. Under the Scheme, after a survey of child labour engaged in hazardous occupations & processes has been conducted, children are to be withdrawn from these occupations & processes and then put into special schools in order to enable them to be mainstreamed into formal schooling system.

Way back in 1979, Government formed the first committee called Gurupadswamy Committee to study the issue of child labour and to suggest measures to tackle it. The Committee examined the problem in detail and made some far-reaching recommendations. It observed that as long as poverty continued, it would be difficult to totally eliminate child labour and hence, any attempt to abolish it through legal recourse would not be a practical proposition. The Committee felt that in the circumstances, the only alternative left was to ban child labour in hazardous areas and to regulate and ameliorate the conditions of work in other areas. It recommended that a multiple policy approach was required in dealing with the problems of working children.

Based on the recommendations of Gurupadaswamy Committee, the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986. The Act prohibits employment of children in certain specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulates the working conditions in others. The list of hazardous occupations and processes is progressively being expanded on the recommendation of Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee constituted under the Act.

In consonance with the above approach, a National Policy on Child Labour was formulated in 1987. The Policy seeks to adopt a gradual & sequential approach with a focus on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations & processes in the first instance. The Action Plan outlined in the Policy for tackling this problem is as follows:

Legislative Action Plan for strict enforcement of Child Labour Act and other labour laws to ensure that children are not employed in hazardous employments, and that the working conditions of children working in non-hazardous areas are regulated in accordance with the provisions of the Child Labour Act. It also entails further identification of additional occupations and processes, which are detrimental to the health and safety of the children.

Focusing of General Developmental Programmes for Benefiting Child Labour – As poverty is the root cause of child labour, the action plan emphasizes the need to cover these children and their families also under various poverty alleviation and employment generation schemes of the Government.

Project Based Plan of Action envisages starting of projects in areas of high concentration of child labour. Pursuant to this, in 1988, the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme was launched in 9 districts of high child labour endemicity in the country. The Scheme envisages running of special schools for child labour withdrawn from work. In the special schools, these children are provided formal/non-formal education along with vocational training, a stipend of Rs.100 per month, supplementary nutrition and regular health check ups so as to prepare them to join regular mainstream schools. Under the Scheme, funds are given to the District Collectors for running special schools for child labour. Most of these schools are run by the NGOs in the district. Government has accordingly been taking proactive steps to tackle this problem through strict enforcement of legislative provisions along with simultaneous rehabilitative measures. State Governments, which are the appropriate implementing authorities, have been conducting regular inspections and raids to detect cases of violations. Since poverty is the root cause of this problem, and enforcement alone cannot help solve it, Government has been laying a lot of emphasis on the rehabilitation of these children and on improving the economic conditions of their families.

A World Bank Report published in January 2000 has revealed that there are six crore working children in India-the largest in terms of any country in the world. Elimination of child labour is no doubt a big challenge for facing the country today. The former Union Labour Minister Dr. Satya Naayan Jatiya and present Union Labour Minister Mr. Praveen Ranjin Das Munsi says that the Government has adopted a progressive and integrated approach to eliminate child labour in the country. In order to resolve this socio-economic problem, a multi-dimensional action plan involving awareness generation among all sections of the society is required. In creating a national awareness campaign for the elimination of child labour, the non-government organizations (NGOs) and the mass media have also to complement the governmental efforts. Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children that works to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Their founder Eglantyne Jebb drafted the ‘Declaration of the Rights of the Child’ in 1922 which was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924.

Save the Children works to bring about a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Our Approach:

Save the Children actively works with the communities, the State governments and the National government to bring lasting changes for the most marginalized children by:

Providing them with immunization and nutrition.

Ensuring that they have a chance to join formal school.

Exposing and preventing exploitative child labour practices and running prevention programs.

During emergencies, we provide emergency supplies as well ensure that children are protected in safe places as well continue schooling.

CONCLUSION

The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation. Government has been taking various pro-active measures to tackle this problem. However, considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.

The worst thing for bidi workers is the feeling that there is no protection, no welfare, no state support. They vote but have no power or effective representation. For all development indicators they remain at the bottom of the ladder all their lives.

And among them, the girls suffer the most. Throughout their life cycle their basic rights are violated; as children, as child brides, as young mothers, they continue to fight for survival with extreme labour and economic slavery. The worst thing for bidi workers is the feeling that there is no protection, no welfare, no state support. They vote but have no power or effective representation. For all development indicators they remain at the bottom of the ladder all their lives.

Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

The Commission has the power to inquire into complaints and take suo motu notice of matters relating to deprivation of child’s rights and non-implementation of laws providing for protection and development of children among other things.

Aimed at e

Introduction

Child labour is undoubtedly a human rights issue. It is not only exploitative but also endangers children’s physical, cognitive, emotional, social, and moral development. It perpetuates poverty because a child labour, deprived of education or healthy physical development, is likely to become an adult with low earning prospects. [1] This is a vicious cycle which apart from ruining the lives of many results in an overall backwardness in the masses.

Moreover, conceptualising child labour as a human rights issue gives the victim with the authority to hold violators liable. Human rights generate legal grounds for political activity and expression, because they entail greater moral force than ordinary legal obligations. Children are right holders with the potential to make valuable contributions to their own present and future well being as well as to the social and economic development of the society and thus they should under no circumstances be perceived as passive and vulnerable.

Today, traditionally prescribed interventions against child labour which were welfare based like providing a minimum age for work are being replaced by rights-based approach. A rights-based approach to child labour needs to be adopted which puts internationally recognized rights of children to the center while utilizing UDHR, ICCPR and ICESCR as a supportive framework. Child labour is a condition from which the children have a right to be free and it is not merely an option for which regulating standards must be devised.

In this paper we shall firstly trace the slow orientation of child labour laws to include human rights perspective internationally, and then evaluate current Indian laws and policies from a human rights perspective

A Human rights approach to child labour

Initially, scholars were unsure over extending human rights to children. [2] For instance, the 1948 Universal declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) emphasises that “everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms set forth in the declarationaˆ¦” but makes no age qualification to the same. So it is unclear whether it extends to children. However, Art.4 of UDHR has been interpreted as prohibiting exploitation of child labour by interpreting “servitude” to include child labour. [3]

In addition, Articles 23 and 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights seek to guarantee “just and favorable conditions of work” and the “right to education,” both of which are violated constantly and globally through the exercise of the worst forms of child labor.

In 1966 the International Covenant on economic, social and cultural rights (ICESCR) and International Covenant on civil and political rights (ICCPR) took significant preliminary steps towards modifying human rights according to age, by defining childhood as a state requiring special protection, with rights distinct to those of adults. [4] Even so it was not until 1989 that the Convention on Rights of Children (CRC) clearly spelt out the rights of the child while giving them a special status apart from the adults.

Thus, it should not be surprising that early international legal efforts to address child labour tended to be abolitionist in tone and treated as an aspect of labour market regulation. [5] Next, a prioritization approach was adopted where concentration was on the more abusive forms of child labour. So the ILO adopted Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 1999, aimed at the immediate elimination of intolerable forms of child labor. The convention requires signatories to work with business groups to identify hazardous [6] forms of child labor and introduce time-bound programs for eliminating them.

Conventions 138 and 182 are recognised as core International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions but unfortunately human rights groups have done much to criticise it. They argue that this artificial division of hazardous and non-hazardous forms of child labour is artificial and made only for the benefit of labour regulations. Child labour in any form is very harmful and exploitative for the children. [7]

Secondly, child labour, as defined by ILO is work done by children under the age of 12; work by children under the age of 15 that prevents school attendance; and work by children under the age of 18 that is hazardous to their physical or mental health. It is an economic activity or work that interferes with the completion of a child’s education or that is harmful to children in any way. [8] Such an age based classification is incongruous and is behind time. [9] The right to a childhood cannot be replaced by placing such age barriers which imply at least some work could be done by children at even age 12! Where is the best interest of child seen in such laws?

Fortunately, a human rights approach to child labour was soon adopted by Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989. Such rules focus not only on the avoidance of harm to children but as well, on regulation of employment relationship in which working children find themselves and beyond that, on rights of children to education and to participate in decisions that affect their lives, including those related to their employment. This holistic view of child labour as only a part of a child’s life is principally what sets human rights approach apart from the labour regulation approach. [10] However, some critique of CRC feel that categorizing child labour as a special category has trivialized their rights and have made them weak and in need of an adult advocate. Conversely, the defenders of CRC argue that it is through this classification that children gain more rights with legally recognized interests which are specific to their stage in life cycle.

The slavery convention, 1926 and Supplementary convention on abolition of slavery, the slave trade, institutions and practices similar to slave trade, 1956 entered into force in 1957 prohibits slavery like practice under Art 1. In recent times Child labour has been read as a slave like practice as it involves economic exploitation. Since children are more vulnerable than adults and are dependent on their parents, it can be assumed that when they are economically exploited by their parents or by their consent, the decree of dependency necessary for work to b qualified as slavery like practice will be attained in most cases.

In the light of ICCPR (art 8(2)) and Supplementary convention on abolition of slavery, the slave trade, institutions and practices similar to slave trade, 1956, Art.4 of UDHR should be interpreted as prohibiting exploitation of child labour as child labour comes under “servitude”. Child labour also comes under the term “forced or compulsory labour” in Art.8(3) of ICCPR. The obligations of state parties under art 8 are immediate and absolute. Thus state parties have to prevent private parties from violating child labour norms. Art 24, ICCPR obliges the state to protect children from economic exploitation.

Convention on rights of child

United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate a full range of human rights such as civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights for children. The Convention offers a vision of the child as an individual and as a member of a family and community, with rights and responsibilities appropriate to his or her age and stage of development. By recognizing children’s rights in this way, the Convention firmly sets the focus on the whole child.

The Convention under Art.32 speaks of economic exploitation of children by making them perform work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education, or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. The Convention spells out a child’s right to education [11] , as well as identifying the forms of harm to which children should not be exposed. Other rights given to children include right “to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health” and to abolish traditional practices that are prejudicial to children’s health (Article 24), a right “to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development”; parents have the main responsibility for this, but governments are required “within their means” to assist parents, as well as to provide material assistance and support in case of need(Article 27) and a right “to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child”. Article 22 specifies that refugee children have the same rights as all other children.

Article 6 of the convention makes it the obligation of the governments to ensure that children are able to survive and develop “to the maximum extent possible” while Article 11 urges governments to prevent “the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad”. Under Article 19, Governments must take action to protect children against all forms of physical or mental violence, injury, abuse, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse [12] and must provide special protection and assistance to children who are deprived of their own family environment under article 20. Article 35, requires governments to take action to prevent children from being trafficked while articles Article 36 and 39 requires governments to protect children “against all other forms of exploitation prejudicial to any aspects of the child’s welfare” and to help children recover from exploitation, neglect or abuse (particularly their physical and psychological recovery and return and reintegration into the communities they come from).

Two other provisions in the Convention are also vitally important for working children. Article 3 says government agencies and other institutions taking action concerning a child or children must base their decisions on what is in the children’s “best interests”. Article 12 emphasises that when a child is capable of forming his or her views, these should be given due attention, in accordance with the child’s age and maturity.

Other conventions of interest include Optional protocol to the convention on rights of child on sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and Optional protocol to the convention on rights of child on the involvement of children in armed conflict both adopted in May, 2000.

India and its International commitments

India has ratified six ILO conventions [13] relating to child labour but have not ratified the core ILO conventions on minimum age for employment (convention 138) and the worst forms of child labour, (convention 182) recognised as the core conventions at the international labour conference which makes it mandatory for the international community to follow certain standards in their crusade against child labour. Nevertheless, India has taken commendable steps to eliminate child labour.

The recent right of children to free and compulsory education Act, 2009 and the preceding 86th amendment exemplifies the same. Furthermore, the passing of Juvenile Justice (care and protection) Act, 2006 shows India’s commitment to a human rights approach to child labour. The Act emphasises on looking into the best interests of the child and allows for social reintegration of child victims.

In such a scenario India not signing the core labour conventions does not make a difference in the fight against child labour. India is a party to the UN declaration on the Rights of the Child 1959. India is also a signatory to the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. More, importantly India ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child on 12 November 1992. [14]

Other important international initiatives against child labour include the adoption of the first Forced Labor Convention (ILO, No. 29), 1930, Stockholm Declaration and Agenda for Action: States that a crime against a child in one place is a crime anywhere, 1996, establishment of 12 June as the World Day Against Child Labor in 2002 by ILO and the first global economic study on the costs and benefits of elimination of child labour. [15]

Indian laws on child labour

The present regime of laws in India relating to child labour are consistent with the International labour conference resolution of 1979 which calls for combination of prohibitory measures and measures for humanising child labour wherever it cannot be immediately outrun. [16]

In 1986 Child labour (Prohibition and regulation) Act was passed, which defines a child as a person who has not completed 14 years of age. The act also states that no child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the occupations set forth in Part A or in the process set forth in Part B, except in the process of family based work or recognised school based activities. Through a notification dated 27 January 1999, the schedule has been substantially enlarged to add 6 more occupations and 33 processes to schedule, bringing the total to 13 occupations and 51 processes respectively. The government has amended the civil service (conduct) rules to prohibit employment of a child below 14 years by a government employee. Similar changes in state service rules have also been made.

The framers of the Indian Constitution consciously incorporated relevant provisions in the constitution to secure compulsory primary education as well as labour protection for children. If the provisions of child labour in international conventions such as ILO standards and CRC are compared with Indian standards, it can be said that Indian constitution articulates high standards in some respects The constitution of India, under articles 23,24, 39 ( c) and (f), 45 and 21A guarantees a child free education, and prohibits trafficking and employment of children in factories etc. The articles also protect children against exploitation and abuse. Equality provisions in the constitution authorises affirmative action policies on behalf of the child.

The National child labour policy (1987) set up national child labour projects in areas with high concentration of child labour in hazardous industries or occupations, to ensure that children are rescued from work and sent to bridge schools which facilitate mainstreaming. It is now recognised that every child out of school is a potential child labour and most programs working against child labour tries to ensure that every child gets an education and that children do not work in situations where they are exploited and deprived of a future. Similarly, there are other programmes like National authority for elimination of child labour, 1994 (NAECL) and National resource centre on child labour, 1993 (NRCCL). Recently, government of India notified domestic child labour, and child labour in dhabas, hotels, eateries, spas and places of entertainment as hazardous under the child labour (prohibition and regulation) Act, 1986, effective from 10-10-2006.

National human rights commission has played an important role in taking up cases of worst forms of child labour like bonded labour. In 1991 in a silk weaving village of Karnataka called Magdi it held an open hearing which greatly sensitised the industry and civil societies. It also gave rise to new NCLP programmes. [17]

Judicial reflections

Judiciary in India has taken a proactive stand in eradicating child labour. In the case of M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu and Ors [18] , this Court considered the causes for failure to implement the constitutional mandate vis-a-vis child labour. It was held that the State Government should see that adult member of family of child labour gets a job. The labour inspector shall have to see that working hours of child are not more than four to six hours a day and it receives education at least for two hours each day. The entire cost of education was to be borne by employer.

The same was reiterated in Bandhua Mukti Morcha v.UOI [19] and directions were given to the Government to convene meeting of concerned ministers of State for purpose of formulating policies for elimination of employment of children below 14 years and for providing necessary education, nutrition and medical facilities.

It was observed in both the case that it is through education that the vicious cycle of poverty and child labour can be broken. Further, well-planned, poverty-focussed alleviation, development and imposition of trade actions in employment of the children must be undertaken. Total banishment of employment may drive the children and mass them up into destitution and other mischievous environment, making them vagrant, hard criminals and prone to social risks etc. Immediate ban of child labour would be both unrealistic and counter-productive. Ban of employment of children must begin from most hazardous and intolerable activities like slavery, bonded labour, trafficking, prostitution, pornography and dangerous forms of labour and the like. [20]

Also, in case of PUCL v. UOI and Ors [21] children below 15 years forced to work as bonded labour was held to be violative of Article 21 and hence the children were to be compensated. The court further observed that such a claim in public law for compensation for contravention of human rights and fundamental freedoms, the protection of which is guaranteed in the Constitution, is an acknowledged remedy for enforcement and protection of such rights.

However, Human rights experts criticise the scheme of payment of compensation envisage in Child labour act and further adopted by the Judiciary with gusto. [22] They say that monetary compensation is like washing away ones conscious which still believes that if a child labour is sent to school he must be compensated for the amount which he might have got if he had worked instead. This only confuses the already divided opinion of the society today which still thinks that poor and needy children are better off working.

Conclusions

India has done well in enacting suitable legislations and policies to combat child labour. Nonetheless, its implementation at grass root level is very much lacking. The child labour laws today are like a scarecrow which does not eliminate child labour but only shifts it geographically to other places, to other occupations like agriculture which may be less paying or it might be still continued clandestinely. [23] The lack of a specialised enforcement officer leads to lesser attention being given to child labour legislations. Furthermore, many of the child labour programmes remain poorly funded.

Child labour is a complex problem which cannot be eliminated without first attacking it at the roots. Thus, poverty, unemployment, lack of social security schemes, illiteracy and the attitude of society need to be tackled first before any progress can be made. A starting point can be to treat Child labour as a human rights problem and discouraging its manifestation in any form. If the society as such sees child labour as a social malaise, we will be much closer at achieving success.

Lastly, there is a lot of debate over the age from which child labour should be banned. The ILO conventions do not give a definite age, 14 years seems to be the general understanding but CRC defines a child to be below 18 years. Right to education is for children below 14 years and Child labour is prohibited till age of 14 years. This brings the question as to whether children of age 14-18 years are to be denied basic human rights and are to be left vulnerable.

All people were born with rights. Children are people as well; so, children also have theirs. Their right have been violated from child labor. Child labor is defined as, “the employment of a child in a business or industry especially in violation of state or federal statutes prohibiting the employment of children under a specified age.” Obviously, child labor has been a big social problem from over the world, mainly the third wrodl countries or developing country such as Philippines. This paper will argue the cases of child laborers, specifically in the city and in provinces of the Philippines. The social problem in Philippines, the government has ways to manage and improve it or not or even made it disappeared or not. It is a known fact that the disadvantages outnumber the advantages of child labor. There are three points, so that it is easier to view the advantages and the disadvantages of the said problem. Having a history background of Philippines which will have understand what is going on better. The purpose of this argument paper is to present the increasing amount of child labor in Philippines and how they were harm. Another would be to discuss the effects of child labor to the family, economy, and to the self. Lastly, the paper will suggest ways to stop or reduce child labor.

In the pass industrial background of child labor first appeared with the development of the developing country’s system. In this type of business a dealer bought raw materials to be “put out” to the homes of worker to be spun, woven, sewn, or handled in some other materials. This allows a division of labor and a level of specialization among different types of people. Products are paid by pieces, and children were commonly used at whatever task they could perform. In England and North America, this system was important from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century and is still being seen up to the present in some industries and, in some country including Philippines. (Labor) The kids were forced to beg on the streets and help making money for the professional beggars. The children that are prostitute help trading with the tourist. The girls were used as a servant in a private home and being treated no better than slave. Many children were brought from the dumpsites and put on the street to make money. Children are being use as a runner helping distribute illegal drugs in to the city. The nubile girl working as a striper and night and teenage exposing their skin than necessary on the theater screen. Truly, child labor has many faces. Children performed these can either endangers their health or safety, interferes with their education or prevent them from playing other activities that are important to their development. The children can not really survive. (Heineman, 2001) Most of the children must be kept inside so that they could not be seen by the public. They would mostly be working in factories at night or as prostitutes at night. Cloth factory in Philippine uses child labor to produce goods and export the goods to the United States. (Deshpande, 2008) The reason the number of child labor is increasing because they were taken from other province and were promised with good live. Another is that they were forced to work due to poverty. Since industrious works are more suitable for children than compared to other people who are in the right age to work.

Child slave labor is to use the illegal working children below 18 years of age in danger job. Underage children are being forced to do physical labor to help their families mainly due to poverty. About 2.06 million all around the Philippines are forced to do labor, such as in crop plantations, mining caves, rock mining, and factories. Due to the poverty problems that are not being help from the government, the number of child labor will continue increasing. (Deshpande, 2008)Child labor has many health effects in children who are supposed to be in the environment of a classroom rather than walking on the streets and risking every chance, over and over again, to earn money. Although most do get the privilege of education, most end up being dropouts and repeaters because they are not able to focus on their studies. Because of child labor, children suffer from starvation, the ability to grow, and improper health development. (Deshpande, 2008)The problems of child laboring continue to grow, so the economics of the country will drop rapidly. People with proper education will not get job due to higher salary payment compare to illegal child labor. The cost of child labor is incredibly low comparing to workers with high education. Philippines is a young nation with high percentage number of young people in its overall population. There are up to 22.4 million children ages between five and seventeen. Sixteen percent of the overall population represent working children ages between five and seven, which means that one of every six children work. In the last twelve months, 3.7 million children ages five to seventeen worked. Children from rural area make up 67.1 percent of this number and almost half are between the ages of five and fourteen. These working children are mostly all boys, who account for 65 percent. As far as the locations where these children work, 60 percent perform unpaid family work in their own households, 17.2 percent work in their own homes and 53 percent work in family farms. (Group, 2002)

The impact of the children’s health is a big problem for some country. The illness and death of family income head family means that the children has to go out and find money. A child that has health problem maybe judge unfairly and their work most of the time affect with their education. Child that believes to be clean from disease maybe put on the street as a prostitute. There is very few information available about the reason of disability on child labor – research is deeply needed in this area. However, there is evidence of children being intentionally disabled for use such as begging. Furthermore, it is noticeable that disability can lead to poverty. (Group, 2002) By disabled children can weaken the poverty organization and there are higher risk of treating people unfairly. Anecdotal evidence believed that like women, disabled children are less likely to get equal pay for equal work. Most of the work for children is and dangerous job that require the risk of their health daily. If children are disabled from doing work, they would not be getting reward or very less, however their live may have been ruined forever and damage to their life and future. This is why there are increasing risk of people treating unfairly and poverty. The same is true for those who have HIV/AIDS or STIs or are raped at work. Sexually oppressed children is the mainly risk here. Child labor continues to live throughout the world. Children have to work because their survival and that of their families depend on it, and in some cases, because dishonest adults take advantage of their weakness. Child labor is caused from weaknesses in education systems and is deeply rooted in cultural and social attitudes and traditions. The problem is more by the fact that child labor is kept away from public view, making the problem seem less of an important. What can be done about child labor? 1. Prioritize education. It is a fact that the countries with a lot of child labor are worst at education than those that spend more primary education. Primary education should be free, made it important, well-resourced, and located everywhere. It is much easier to keep track on school attendance that to check on factories and workshops. It might make us feel good, but it only helps educate one child, isolating them from others in their community. (Group, 2002)2. Give the jobs of child workers to the adult that is capable of working. This way, the family does not suffer, and indeed should be better off, as adult wages are generally much higher than child wages. (Group, 2002)

All in all, child labor can be widely spread in Philippine, but that are more disadvantage of using child labor than advantage. Government has to come in to help set law more stricty. Children labor are get harm both my mental and psychical. They are not able to live in a normal society because of their difference, both from accident or harm to make people feel sorry. All these things can be help if the government gives more attention to education and give jobs to the people that are allegeable to do work and band all the factories or any organization that use child under age.