Children, risk and Society

“A Healthy solution for Child Labour Practice (An evolution of INDUS project)”

- Dr. Smita Awachar, (Associate Professor) and Mr. Prashant Sonwane (Research Schollar)
Dept. of Sociology, Dr. B.A.M. University, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.

Introduction

No universally accepted definition of child labour. Child & Childhood are defined
differently in different culture and in different nations. Several scholars claimed that,
children's abilities and maturities varies so much that defining a child’s maturity by calendar
age can be misleading. A Working child is defined as child in rang of 5 to 15, who is doing
labour either paid or unpaid and working within or outside the family and basically is
deprived of the right to education and childhood. There is no definition put forth by the Govt.
of India with respect to child labour – the closest to a definition can be fished out of the Child
Labour Act of 1986. Child labour can be defined as any type of work a child (up to 18 years
of age) is engaged in for a large part of the day that is preventing his/her regular attendance
and success in school. In addition, overall developments which will facilitate a child to
realize his/her full potential.
It is proved that there are many factors responsible for child labour such as: Poverty,
Absence of Education, Lack of Awareness, Non-acceptance of Family welfare measures,
Cultural Factors, Social Indifference, Lack of Political wills, Inadequate enforcement of
legislation.1
Child labour may be categorized in following manner and it covers a range and
variety of circumstances in which children work: Child Labour, Street Children, Bonded
Children, Working Children, Children used for sexual exploitation, Migrant children,
Children engaged in household activities. Child labour practice seen allover world, in India it
has wide acceptance for various reasons.
Child Labour in India
India continues to host the largest number of child labourers in the world today.
According to the Census 2001, there were 12.7 million economically active children in the
age-group of 5-14 years. The number was 11. 3 million during 1991 (Population Census) thus
showing an increase in the number of child labourers. Workers in general are classified into
main and marginal workers by the population census. Census data shows that there is a

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decline in the absolute number as well the percentage of children (5-14) to total population in
that age group classified as main workers from 4.3 percent in 1991 to 2.3 percent in 2001.
But there was a substantial increase in marginal workers in every category of worker
irrespective of sex and residence. As a result, despite the number of main workers declining
from 9.08 million in 1991 to 5.78 million in 2001, the total number of children in the work
force increased. A large part of the increase was accounted for by the increase in marginal
workers, which increased from 2.2 million in 1991 to 6.89 million in 2001. Main and
Marginal workers put together, the Work Participation Rate (WPR) of children in the 5-14
age group has declined from 5.4 percent during 1991 to 5 percent in 2001. The trends
between 1991 and 2001 of declining main child workers along with increasing marginal
workers may indicate the changing nature of work done by children. This is also to be seen in
the context of decelerating employment growth in general in the economy during the last
decade.
Objective
1. To understand the scheme of INDUS
2. To highlight the activities under INDUS project for mainstreaming of child
labour.
3. To assess the impact of INDUS project in Aurangabad districts
Methodology
Aurangabad district is purposely selected for this study because it is the head quarter
of the district and also Marathwada region. Aurangabad is also a centre of industrial
development since, last 40 years. This paper is based on primary and secondary data. This
paper is divided in two parts A. INDUS project and B. Scenario in Aurangabad.

A. INDUS Project

Education for all is an action programme of UNESCO and

motto of the Govt. of India. According to the 45th Article of the
constitution 6 to 14 years children should be enrolled in school.
Recently Govt. of India make free and compulsory for this age group.
100% enrollment at primary school is one of the aims kept for
primary teachers according to 1986 New Education policy. But then also several children
were away from the schools because of different reasons. Apart from that school drop-out
rate is also very high in all over the country. Though Maharashtra is one of the progressive

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states in the country, same trend about primary education is easily found out. Children who
reside out of four walls of the schools are mainly coming from economically poor and
socially backward families. Hence, they started working wherever they can neither their
family members our society brother about the working environment of the children or their
future at large. Indian government implemented several projects and programmes to abolish
child labour practice in various plans. But this practice still exit hence, new integrated
programme was launch that is known as ‘The Indo-US Child Labour Project’ (INDUS).

Govt. of India and Govt. of Maharashtra started several programmes to eradicate child
labour practice and at the same time to reduce school drop-out rate. But the success rate is
very low several reasons are working behind it. The Ministry of Labour, Government of India
and US, Department of Labour have developed a project under ILO-IPEC for Prevention &
Elimination of Child Labour in identified Hazardous Sectors. This project has been being
developed as a follow-up of the Joint Statement on “Enhanced Indo-US Cooperation on
Eliminating Child Labour” signed between the Ministry of Labour and the US Department of
Labour in August, 2000 whereby each reiterated their respective nation’s commitment to the
Prohibition and Elimination of the Worst Forms of child labour as a matter of urgency and
agreed that each would support and facilitate the development of comprehensive projects in
identified sectors.

The Indus Project is jointly funded by the Ministry of Labour, Government of India
and the Department of Labour, United States of America (USDOL) and is implemented in
ten hazardous sectors in 21 districts across five states namely, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. An estimated 80,000 children will be withdrawn and
rehabilitated in this project.

In 2004, the Govt. of India has taken up INDUS Child Labour Project to help to seek
a future of child labour and to give every child their childhood and education. This project is
a joint venture of the Govt. of India and United States of America. The International Labour
Organization (ILO) is the Implementing Agency in India. Started in 2004, INDUS project
will end in 2007. America’s 50 per cent monetary share is being routed through the
International Labour Organization. The project will cover 80,000 children across 20 districts
in four states ‘‘This project is just the entry point,’’ says Project Director, Patrick Martin,
contemplating the stack of Child Labour Index Cards on his table in a 27 member-strong
office specially established by the Aurangabad Collector to roll out INDUS.

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The features of Indo-US Child Labour Project (INDUS)
 The INDUS project is being implemented in 21 districts across 5 states in the country
– Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
 The components of the project (as listed by the Department of Labour of the Govt. of
India) although established with good intentions barely nicks at the fundamental
problem of violation of human rights. Similar to the issue to poverty, the goal should
be to eradicate poverty as a whole and not help the “worst affected” by poverty
because that attitude either intentionally or not implies that if poverty is not “abject,”
attention to it can be delayed. The very idea of categorizing poverty and child labour
is asinine.
 Withdrawing children in the age group 8-14 from hazardous occupations and
providing them meaningful transitional education – what about children less than 8
years? Further, would the project hesitate to pull out children between 8–14 who are
not engaged in “hazardous labour”?
 Raising interest towards Action against Hazardous Child Labour in other States –
again, even at the level of raising awareness, it is of paramount importance to
sensitize the government, civil society and the public that any form of child labour is
unacceptable.
Major components of the INDUS project

 Identifying children working in hazardous occupations by means of a detailed

survey.
 Withdrawing children in the age group 8-14 from hazardous occupations and
providing them meaningful transitional education.
 Making provision for systematic Vocational education/training of adolescents.
 Providing viable income generating alternatives for families of children
withdrawn from work.
 Strengthening public education of child workers (to be implemented through the
Department of Education, Maharashtra Centre for Entrepreneurship Development
MHRD)
 Monitoring/Tracking.
 Social mobilization.
 Capacity building of National/ State and Local Institutions

Raising interest towards Action against Hazardous Child Labour in other States.2

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 INDUS is a technical cooperation project jointly funded by the Government of India
and the Government of the United States of America. It was developed within the framework
of the Joint Statement on Enhanced Indo-US Cooperation on Elimination of Child Labour
signed between the two governments on 31 August 2000. The project is a collaborative effort
to provide programme support in a coordinated manner to ongoing efforts undertaken by the
Government of India, through the National Child Labour Programmes (NCLPs), towards a
progressively child labour free country.

The project focuses on selected districts within the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, and targets 80,000 children at risk of hazardous
employment in the following sectors: brick manufacturing, stone quarrying, bidi
manufacturing, footwear manufacturing, fireworks manufacturing, manufacturing of matches,
silk manufacturing, lock making, brassware and glassware production. The selected states
have some of the highest rates of child labour, as well as a high proportion of children
working in these sectors. The project also addresses the employment generation and skills
development needs of 10,000 parents

Approach

The overall approach of the project is to create an enabling environment where

children will be motivated to enroll in schools, induced to refrain from working, and
households provided with income generation alternatives that will not make it necessary for
them to send their children to work. It seeks to work with two major programmes of the
Government of India: the NCLPs and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

Strategy of intervention

The intervention strategy of the project consists of developing a comprehensive child

labour elimination model for India by integrating four components. These are:
1. Strengthening public education as a measure to prevent child labour;
2. Monitoring the impact of child labour elimination efforts by tracking each beneficiary in
the one hand and developing a child labour monitoring system on the other, to capture the
shifts in child labour across different sectors; 3. Providing income generating opportunities to
the families of child Labour providing vocational skills training to adolescents in the age
group of 14-17 years In addition, it seeks to support various initiatives aimed at ending child

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Labour through social mobilization and awareness rising. This is combined with the building
of capacities and training of government agencies and civil society partners.

The project seeks to develop this model by working in partnership with the NCLPs
scheme of the Government of India. Several initiatives are being implemented to develop a
model which can be replicated in all the NCLPs districts.

B. Scenario in Aurangabad
Aurangabad:- Aurangabad is the Head quarters of the district and also of
Marathwada. The city is well connected by Air, Rail and Road. It is well known as a
historical and tourist place – Ajanta, Ellora caves, Doulatabad Fort, Jaikwadi dam, Bibi ka
Mukbara. It is also known as a main centre of Industrial development of the region.
Aurangabad is also known for centre of several social movements like Hyderabad Mukti
Sangram, etc.
Indus project is run by Aurangabad Municipal Corporation and also supported by
Ministry of Labour and Employment, US govt. and implemented by International Labour
Organization, New Delhi. In July, 2004, the first survey was done by NGO to find out child
labours in the city.

Major findings of the survey

Graph No. 1 The first survey was done by NGOs for this project (In July 2004)

9238

6639

4243

3707

3357
2599
1288 2525

757 1182 886

531
05 08 09 13 14 17 05 17

1 2 3 To t a l

B oy s G irls To t a l

Source:- INDUS Child Labour Project office, Aurangabad.

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 In the graph no. 1 Age-group wise and gender-wise distribution of child labour was
given. In 2004, total 9238 child labours were listed and INDUS project was introduced to
abolish child labour practice from the district.
Table No. 1 Nature of employment age and gender wise distribution of child labour
Name Of the
Scheduled Age Group Age Group Age Group Total
Employment ( 5-8 Years) ( 9-13 Years) ( 14- 17 Years)

M F Total M F Total M F Total M F Total

Bricks Kilns 130 122 252 338 286 538 315 169 484 783 577 1360
Stone Quarrying 57 39 96 216 103 319 320 68 388 593 210 803
Garage 45 1 46 293 0 293 460 0 460 798 1 799
Rag Picking 167 155 322 362 233 595 232 104 336 761 492 1253
Beef Shop 6 1 7 22 5 27 29 6 35 57 12 69
Shoes Shop 5 0 5 21 0 21 51 3 54 77 3 80
Bakery 2 0 2 11 0 11 17 0 17 30 0 30
Others 345 213 558 262 555 1817 1933 536 2469 3540 1304 4844
Total 757 531 1288 2525 1182 3707 3357 886 4243 6639 2599 9238
Source: INDUS Child Labour Project office, Aurangabad.
Above table no. 1 described nature of employment age and gender wise distribution of child
labour in Aurangabad. Majority of the child labours were engaged in Bricks Kilns, Rag
Picking etc.
It was considered that every year after mainstreaming new child labour were
identified and enrolled. Similarly, new child labours are identified to replace those children
who had either migrated or dropped out.
It was also decided that child labours from different age groups were enrolled in three
different setup. Those are for 5-8 years direct enrollment in regular schools through Zilla
Parishad (ZP) and Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), for 9-13 years Transitional
Educational Centers through Project Office and NGOs, for 14-17 years Vocational Training
through MCED.
Age group 5-8
1288, the total number of child labours in this age group were directly enrolled in regular
school ZPs and AMCs.
Age group 9-13
3707, for this group new Transitional Educational Centers (TECs) were established with the
help of NGOs. For smooth running of the Centers training of the TECs staff was trained by
Yashada. Provision of mid-day meal was also introduced in the centers.

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Age group 14-17
4243, for this age group Vocational Training was given by MCED. Tool kits also distributed.
Following training for the trades were covered.
For Boys:
2-3 wheeler repairs, Diesel mechanics, Agriculture pump repairs, House wiring,
Refrigeration, Photography, Welding and fabrication, Carpentry, Motor rewinding,
Catering.
For Girls:
Embroidery, Tailoring, Glass painting, Asst. Nursing Course, Flower making,
Zardozi, Rexene bag making, Mehendi Art, Beauty Parlour, Ready made Garments
Major recognition
 TEC children interacted with the former President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
 Visit by the US delegation led by the Dy. Secretary of Labour Mr. Steven Law.
 Visit by the senior specialist on child labour for Sourth Asia Mr. Herve Berger.
 The Collector Mr. Vikas Kharage shared his experiences on the Governement
Initiatives in India, in Bangkok.
 The Dy. Collector Ms. Varsha Thakur Ghuge was invited for a programme on
Doordarshan’s Hello Sakhi.
 The DPDC has sanctioned Rs. 5 Lakh for the Elimination of Child Labour to Labour
Department since 2008.
 The project Director attended a course on ‘Labour dimensions of trafficking in human
beings, with particular focus on Children: understanding the issue and effective
responses in Turin Italy in December 2008.
Findings
 6991 children withdrawn from work during this project schedule.
 Table No. 2 Age and Major Achievements
Sr. No. Age Major Achievements Total
1 5-8 Children in regular schools 1000
2 09-13 Children mainstreamed 2974
3 09-13 Children newly enrolled 2000
4 14-17 Children completed vocational training successfully 1017
Total 5-17 - 6991
Source: INDUS Child Labour Project office, Aurangabad.

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 This is an overall picture of success of INDUS project total 6991 children are
coming in mainstream. This year (2008-09) two girls and two boys successfully
passed SSC exam that were joined INDUS project 2004-05.
 12 clusters are now child labour free.
 The number of out of school children has decreased.
 2540 children are mainstreaming till March 2009
 This year two girls and two boys passed their SSC exam, which joined this project in
2004-05.
In near future Aurangabad Municipal Corporation area will be declared “Bal-Mitra”
(means Friend of children)
Conclusions
This project got high success in mainstreaming child labour. These children are
skilled in Soft Toys, Key Chains, Files, etc. Hence, on the basis of above findings it can be
concluded that this project is successful to control Child Labour practice and several child
labour return in mainstream. They started enjoying their childhood, which is their natural
right.

Notes:
1. “INDUS Child Labour Project, Jalna”, also available at
http://jalna.gov.in/html/indus_intro.html)

2. “INDO – US Project (Indus Project)”, also available at http://labour.nic.in/cwl/indus.htm

References:

Bhatnagar Suresh and Saxena Anamika, (2000), “Modern Indian Education and its
Problems”, Meerut, R. Lall Book Depot.

Dash B. N., (2004), “Education and Society”, New Delhi, Dominant Publishers and
Distributors.

GOI HRD Ministry, (1976), “Non-Formal Education: A Remedy and a Restorer” (Report of
the 28th All India Adult Education Conference in 1975), New Delhi, Indian Adult
Education Association.

INDUS Child Labour Project office, Aurangabad also Available at

http://aurangabad.gov.in/htmldocs/indus/index.html

Murty S. (2001), “Child Labour in India”, Jaipur, RBSA Publishers.

Tripathy S.N., (1996), “Child Labour in India”, New Delhi, Discovery Publishing House.

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