Defending the Innocent: Legal Views on Children’s Rights in Articles 23 and 24

ABSTRACT:

Child labour is among the many factors that have been seen to affect the growth of children all over the globe and not only in India. In this problem, we see that strong legal actions are carried out by the 23rd and 24th articles of the constitution of India that eliminate child labour and safeguard the future of children. This article is aimed at discussing the provided constitutional provisions of human rights, namely children’s protection from exploitation and children’s right to get education and development which are protected by the constitution and how effectively these rights are fulfilled in the process. One of the laws is The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, of 1986 which enshrines Article 23 which bans child labour. Thus it forbids the employment of children below the age of fourteen years in factories, mines and other hazardous establishments.

KEYWORDS:

Exploitation, Child Labour, Human Trafficking.

INTRODUCTION:

The phenomenon of child labour remains a vital problem in India. Child labour is understood as the employment of children in any work that is hazardous and tends to interfere with their education and development. However, child labour still persists in society even with the presence of laws and policies which is a result of socioeconomic reasons such as poverty illiteracy and culture.

To this effect, the Indian Constitution, specifically through Articles 23 and 24 has a strong legal framework in place to prevent exploitation of children in employment. Article 24 also banned the employment of children of less than fourteen years engaged in factories, mines or other dangerous occupations. The constitutional provisions that give legal colour are embodied in more formal and extensive enactments including the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976 and the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 with the Amendment in the year 2016.

DEFINITIONS:

1. Exploitation:

Exploitation is that forbidden situation when people or certain opportunities are used by someone unjustly or dishonestly merely to make money from that. It often entails the exploitation of a person’s toil capital or vulnerability for personal gains without compensating them or honouring their dignity. Many interactions can be exploitive and may comprise social, economic and environmental aspects like unfair treatment of workers, using power over them, or excessive usage of natural resources. The idea focuses on the concept of power and its dynamic whereby the weaker partner, in this case, the victim is the one who ends up losing all her gains to the exploiter. In order to promote justice, fairness and sustainable development exploitation is something that must be fought.

           2. Child labour:

Any sort of work that takes away the childhood, education, or growth of a child is considered child labour. At times it involves working in hazardous conditions, long periods, and in positions that are damaging to one’s health, psychological state, and interactions with society. Such children as wage earners for their families are forced to work due to poverty, illiteracy, and the desperation of a family’s financial situation. This practice tends to diminish children’s future prospects, and it also violates their rights. The key objectives of child labour eradication are to promote education and attend to difficulties would-be students experience, ensure and respond to existing laws concerning child labour, and address the root causes like insufficient social safety nets and poverty.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS:

ARTICLE 23: Prohibition Of Human Traffic in Human Beings and Forced Labour:

Clause 1 is made for citizens, friendly aliens, and Enemy aliens. It protects against human trafficking (selling and buying men, women and children) and bonded Labour (anyone who took a loan and repaid it his generation to become their labour) that includes beggars ( person who does compulsory work without salary), forced labour( a person who is compelled to do work against his will and includes force like physical, legal, economic.).

Clause 2 states that if the state is required to impose compulsory services for the public good(like military service training for civilians) doesn’t amount to pay thus being an exception to the first clause forced labour.

ARTICLE 24: Prohibition Of Employment Of Children In Factories, etc.

This clause states that children below the age of 14 cannot work in any factories or any hazardous place. If any child is found working in any factories or other hazardous places the owner or the contractor would be held liable.

But does that mean that children who work as child artists too are doing child labour? No, this article only prevents children from hazardous work and work that violates their right to life and liberty and their right to education.

In 2006 the government of Shri Manmohan Singh Ji even banned the working of children as domestic servants. The list below is of works banned in India for the children’s working environment as per the Child labour act 2017: Transport of passengers, goods or mail by railway; (2) Cinder picking, clearing of an ash pil or -building operation in the railway premises; (3) Work in, catering establishment at a railway station, etc as per child labour act amendment 2017.[1]

CASE LAWS:

• C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu, AIR 1997 SC 699

Shri MC Mehta committed to invoke Article 32 in the M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu case, allowing the Court to investigate the infringement of children’s fundamental rights as protected by Article 24. Sivakasi was seen as a major offender since he used a lot of child labour. It was involved in the production of fireworks and matches. The Court noted that this met the criteria for being a hazardous enterprise. Therefore, it is against the law for anyone under the age of 14 to work in this industry.

The Court reiterated that minors under the age of fourteen cannot work in any dangerous industry and that all children must receive an education up until the age of fourteen. The Court also took Article 39(e) into account.

 People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, AIR 1983 SC 1473:

In People’s Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, the petitioner examined the working conditions of labourers engaged in a number of Asiad initiatives. Under the age of fourteen, it was noted that youngsters had worked. Nonetheless, it was argued that since the 1938 Employment of Children Act did not designate the construction sector as a hazardous business, this type of employment was not prohibited by the statute.

The building job is classified as hazardous employment, according to the court. Consequently, although it isn’t specifically stated in the Employment of Minors Act 1938, minors under the age of fourteen are not allowed to work in construction. Additionally, the Court recommended that the state government adjust the schedule.

REASONS FOR THE HAPPENING OF CHILD LABOUR:

The issue of child labour is a very extensive issue which has several causes, which are first and foremost poverty. Young people in the community and from poor families always supplement their living expenses through what they earn. Due to low incomes, most children are forced to work even in hazardous activities if the family income from parents is inadequate. Work is a necessity than knowledge for the economic defence of a population. This causes a generation of poverty whereby children have no education and the few vulgar jobs that they are able to secure provide them with meagre income for them to have to bear children and work hard to fend for them.

Another key consideration is the exclusion from quality education systems which hoist the African origin’s standard of living to another level. Knowledge is inaccessible or averse in many regions due to the fact that it is either unaffordable, too distant or of poor standard as schools. Especially children are taken through early childhood and without education they are forced into labour. In addition, some countries assume more relevance to work than education, particularly for girls, which boosts the use of child labour. This practice is also sustained by weak implementation of the law as it pertains to child labour. Child labour is unrestricted because there are no sufficient and effective labour laws, insufficient enforcement mechanisms, and no punitive measures against the offenders. Moreover, in issues of the economy, calamities and wars can worsen it as they destabilize systems of education and force children to work for what their families need to rebuild. Solutions to these causes require broad strategies that involve working on the conditions that make children engage in child labour and ensuring that every child is protected, in school, and provided an opportunity to succeed.

CHILD LABOUR AND TODAY’S WORLD:

With various legislative and policy measures to ban child labour still, this problem is a major visibility in India. It is still estimated that millions of children are actively working in different fields, as the surveys show. An estimated 10. The Census of India revealed that 1 million children were working as child labour in India in 2011[2]. There has been some sort of progress made but the problem has not been completely eradicated, especially in the rural regions of the country along with the economically less developed regions.

In Indian Agriculture, children toil in fields, plantations and rearing animals and thus more child labourers are involved in Agriculture. Next are the hazardous zones that are often visited by children in mining areas brick kilns carpet industries and the manufacture of explosives. Many youths are currently working in the informal sector in areas such as small-scale enterprises, hawkers, and house help among others. The problem has been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unemployment and lengthy home-staying due to lockdowns have slowed the family’s capacity to earn thus pushing more youths to the labour market. Such schools have caused the problem to worsen by forcing many children to leave school and abandon education and at the same time exposing themselves to abuse.

Even today there are problems like child labour and lack of education for children, while the Right to Education Act exists and there is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, nobody enforces them. Flawed rules and non-functional rules govern the provisions of care as there is corruption, no funding, and inefficient oversight procedures. Moreover, child labour is still observed as a socially acceptable norm in some societies and therefore is still utilized excessively as a source of livelihood. There are governmental organizations and independent associations in India to combat child labour and provide proper solutions and approaches to free them or send them to school or provide education, advance social programs and schemes to minimize poverty. However, to eliminate child labour completely, more appropriate strategies that address the roots of the problem, which include poverty, poor education, and weak enforcement, need to be implemented by the Indian government.

COMPARISON OF CHILD LABOUR LAWS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES:

• INDIA

1. Minimum Age: Children under the age of 14 are not permitted to work in any capacity that could jeopardize their health, according to studies.
2. Work Hours: A child’s day consists of three hours, plus one hour Children also require a weekly holiday that lasts a full day. Even from 7:00 pm until 8:00 am, they are unable to work.
3. Dangerous Work: minors are not allowed to work in any of the professions listed in the Child Labour (Protection and Regulation) Act of 1986. If it is discovered that a child is employed in one of these professions, they will be subject to fines under Section 14 of the Act.

• USA

1. Minimum Age: At least fourteen years of age is the legal working age in a “non-agriculture job” based on the Fair Labour Standards Act (FLSA). Certain kinds of vocations such as delivering newspapers or tilling the land, are an exception though; and children may be allowed to work during particular circumstances.

2. Work Hours: The working hours are as follows; Children in the 14-15 age group are allowed to work only in the evening hours, and the recommended working hours in a school day are not more than 3 hours and in a school week, not more than 18 The federal regulations concerning the working hours do not apply to 16–17-year-olds, but the jobs which are hazardous do.
3. Hazardous work: There are some protected occupations in which people below the age of eighteen years are prohibited from working and these are occupations such as mining, logging, and operation of certain machinery.

• GERMANY:

1. Minimum Age: Child employment in Germany is permitted from the age of 15, but there are certain restrictions. Children below the age of 15 years may be allowed to do light work something like newspaper delivery or cultural or advertising industries but with some restrictions and with the consent of their parents.

2. Work Hours: As for children between 15-16 years, they are allowed to work only up to 8 hours a day and 40 hours in a They are prohibited from working during school hours and during the night. However, there are certain restrictions on what 17-year-olds can listen to in some countries although they are not as severe as those for the underaged.

3. Hazardous Work: Any work that is likely to expose the underage to health or physical dangers is severely prohibited for any person under the age of This applies to workplaces where employees are subjected to handling heavy tools, utilities that may include chemicals, or areas that are deemed unsafe for human beings.

SUGGESTIONS TO STOP CHILD LABOUR:

1. Education and Awareness: By addressing and creating awareness on equal enrollment and quality education as a right for every child. The governments alongside non-governmental organizations must extend their support by construction of schools, teacher training, and encouraging parents to educate their children instead of having them work.
2. Social Support Systems: By providing support for families living in poverty level to provide for their households. Examples would be monetary and food hampers, and/or medical expense allowances aimed at easing financial burdens which compel children to work.
3. Skills Development: Offering employment training and skills revelation to grown-ups in low-income areas. While giving parents and guardians other sources of income, child labour is not needed and thus is reduced.
4. Corporate Responsibility: By persuading companies to incorporate virtue in their supply They should decide on relevant standards of labour rights and refrain from buying any goods or procuring any services resulting from the use of child labour.
5. Community Engagement: By organizing the communities to give information on cases of child labour. Bottom-up approaches are very important for the implementation of child-sensitive policies since the people at the grassroots level can easily identify the children who are at risk and ensure they provide them with the necessary support as well as the necessary tools.

CONCLUSION:

Child labour is avoided and children’s rights are protected by way of a strong prison framework mounted through the Indian Constitution through Articles 23 and 24. Notwithstanding those measures, socioeconomic variables, law enforcement, and a lack of expertise make child work a severe problem even nowadays. It is feasible to empower groups to do so against child labour through public cognizance campaigns and community mobilization. It is possible to enhance schooling by using combining tasks to cease child labour with tasks to lessen poverty.

International networks for technical aid and understanding sharing are required, as are coverage reforms that undertake a comprehensive method and concentrate on prone populations. Articles 23 and 24, the judiciary, civil society, and a coordinated global attempt are all important for achievement. India can assure a better future for its children, shield children’s rights, and substantially reduce child exertions by way of placing these hints into practice.

[1] https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/files/act_2.pdf

[2]https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/files/WorkingGroup12th_plan_on_Child_Labour.pdf