Should Child Labour Be Banned Up to 18 Years?

Bangalore: Child labour is an age old issue in our country. While most children have a gala time playing with their friends and studying, there are others who work for their daily meal. They wash cars, sell flowers on the streets, and even clean tables at restaurants. Eventually their childhood dreams fade into the painstaking dullness of poverty and their aim becomes to simply stay alive. Yet, they have a hope in their eyes.

The Union government has planned to introduce a clause to the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 to ban employment of children below the age of 18 years in hazardous factories and industries, declared Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge, at the National Children Yatra on Climate Change, in Chennai on Sunday.

However, as per the Act the age limit of a child will continue to remain at 14, said the Minister.

On the query - if the age limit of a child would be increased to 18 from the present 14 in defining a child, the minister said “There won’t be any such increase in the age. As per the Act, only till the age of 14, they will be defined as a child. But we are working to introduce the clause in the Act to protect children up to the age of 18 from being employed in the hazardous factories and industries,” as reported by IBN Live.

He said “We are in the process of bringing out amendments in the Act to prohibit and ban completely employment of children below the age of 14 years.”

The Minister touched upon the issue of child labour, addressing over 500 children from various parts of India at the Yatra. He said, “A child’s natural place is at school and in the playground. But there are a few unfortunate ones who are out of school and employed as labour.”