The amendments to the law prohibiting child labour, approved by the Union Cabinet, have attracted a certain amount of controversy because they will allow children to work in family enterprises, provided the work is not hazardous, while attending school. On the face of it, any form of child labour should be disallowed and parents allowing it should be punished under the law. But children who go to school also helping out in their "mom and pop" stores is common in developed countries as is children in poor countries helping out on the family farm or taking care of younger siblings. Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Prize-winning founder of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, has issued a nuanced response that is worth heeding. While demanding a ban on any kind of labour for children under 14, he has qualified it by saying that they could work in family enterprises and during vacations provided they do so under the supervision of their parents or legal guardians and not relatives. The real menace is parents sending their children to work with better-off relatives, where they never go to school, and then collecting the child's pay at the end of the month. Any law, however, that replaces a blanket ban - relatively enforceable - with one that allows discretion as to timings and choice of occupation for the children is likely to open up many opportunities for graft and harassment.
Mr Satyarthi has gone on to add something that is arguably even more important. He has said it is "essential to provide education to them [children] as it can effectively eradicate child labour". That is the nub of the matter. It is not wise to impose a ban that will mostly remain on paper. The best way to eradicate child labour is to ensure that every child goes to school. Somebody from the school should call on a home from where a child has not been coming to school for some time. There is an even better way of ensuring school attendance: pay poor parents, who have notionally foregone the income of their children, an allowance for sending them to school - a "conditional cash transfer". This plus the mid-day meal at school should go a long way.
But more can be done. Make going to school an interesting, useful and happy experience for children. Surveys have found that some students often drop out of school, after being automatically promoted up to a point, because they cannot follow what is going on. This is because school teaching does not recognise the reality of children of varying learning attainments being in the same class and age group. Where policing is crucial is in prohibiting child labour in industries that have traditionally employed them in order to be able to pay lower wages. Regular policing of such establishments and prompt prosecution of offenders should be the norm. More intractable is the work for some of these industries like beedi rolling and embroidery done by children at home.
