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All work, no play

All work, no play JAFAR Imam, 14, was a daily wage labourer in Hauz Qazi, Delhi, who refused to work 12 hours a day for a scrimpy allowance of Rs 350 a month. For this "transgression", he was burnt to death by his employer in July, becoming yet another victim of a malaise that the government, fearing international sanctions, euphemistically says is "rooted in complex socioeconomic factors".

There is no sign yet of the scourge of juvenile slavery being wiped out. Of late, the government has been concentrating on attempting to convince for the better those calling for bans on imports of items made by child labourers.

Says Kailash Satyarthi of the Bandhua Mukti Morcha, "According to our estimates, there are over 55 million child labourers in the country." A labour ministry official, however, argues that child labour is predominant in the unorganised sector and the traditional crafts industry, where skills are passed down through generations from father to son and without which tutoring the crafts would die.

It is not as if there is no legislation banning child labour. The most important constitutional tool today is the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986. However, Satyarthi claims, "The regulations and the penalties are totally inadequate."

Besides, the law itself acts as a catalyst towards employing children. The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, states that "different minimum wages may be fixed" for adults and children. The Central Minimum Wages Rules, 1950, states that the normal working day will be 9 hours for an adult and 4 hours for a child. This is used as a pretext for paying the children much less than adults, although they are made to work equally long hours. And, with the government dragging its feet over giving the 1986 Act more teeth and equalising adult and child wages, the pecuniary greed for employing children remains.

Satyarthi says that parents push children into labour because of economic compulsions. "Till these problems are addressed it will be impossible to eradicate child labour," he adds.

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