Causes of Rising Instances of Child Labour

Photo Source : ASHMITA NAHAR

Children are not only led to labour due to poor school infrastructure but also find themselves caught in the crossfire' of India's poverty problem. In many cases, it is parents and relatives who force children into labour. Child labour also becomes a means of survival for children who find themselves homeless or abandoned as a result of adverse circumstances.

Poverty has and will always remain one of the primary reasons behind child labour. In a developing economy like ours, the poor people always consider the children of the family as an extra source of income. And thus, they are often forced to work in order to financially support their family.

Causes of Child Labour

• The curse of poverty

The main reason for child labour is poverty. Most of the country’s population suffers from poverty. Due to poverty, parents cannot afford the studies of their children and make them earn their wages from a tender age.

• Lack of educational resources

Even after so many years of our country’s independence, there are instances where children are deprived of their fundamental right to education. There are thousands of villages in our country where there are no proper facilities of education.

• Social and economic backwardness

Social and economic backwardness is also the main reason for child labour. Socially backward parents do not send their children to receive education. Consequently, their children are trapped in child labour.

• Addiction, disease or disability

In many families, due to addiction, disease or disability, there is no earning, and the child’s wages are the sole means of family’s sustenance. Parents, instead of sending their children to school, are willing to send them to work to increase family income.

• Poor compliance of laws

In modern society, laws stipulate that citizens have the right to receive good education, avail good health services and take care of their health. Absence of proper compliance of the laws, child labour is continuing. It can be prohibited only by strict adherence to the related laws.

• Lure of cheap labour

In the greed of cheap labour, some shopkeepers, companies and factory owners employ children so that they have to pay less to them and it amounts to employing cheap labour.

• Family tradition

Photo Source : Medium.com

It is a shocking but a bitter truth that in our society it is very easy to give child labour the name of tradition or custom in many families. The culture and traditional family values play their role in increasing the problem of child labour at the voluntary level. Many families believe that a good life is not their destiny, and the age-old tradition of labour is the only source of their earning and livelihood.