Should Child Labour Be Banned Up to 18 Years?

He detailed the efforts taken by the government to bring down child labour in the age group of 5-14 years citing statistics from the NSSO Survey. According to the 2004-05 survey, there were 90.75 lakh working children in India. This number was noted to come down to 49.84 lakh as per NSSO 2009-10 survey, showing a decline of 45 percent.

Further, with the World Day Against Child Labour coming up on June 12, CRY (Child Rights and You) announced the Treat Right Project. The NGO is associating with select child labourfree restaurants in the city of Bangalore to spread the message of keeping child labour out of the hospitality industry.

Regina Thomas, regional director, CRY said to Times of India, "Although there are child labour Acts, we constantly come across cases of kids employed in various sectors. As an organization, we believe that each citizen should take responsibility for the situation and ensure that all kids have a happy childhood. Eight restaurants are currently partnering us in our endeavour to eradicate child labour."

India is noted to have the largest number of child labourers in the world - 49.84 lakh, and Karnataka has the seventh largest child labour presence. A fact-finding team reported that there are at least 200,000 boys and girls working from morning to night in the iron quarries of Bellary. Further, Bangalore is estimated to have 2 lakh child workers.