What's going on?

With all laws, India's stance on child labour seems pretty firm. The reality, though, isn't quite as simple. While the nation has child labour laws, they're hard to enforce, particularly in the rural areas of India where child labour is most prevalent and where many villages are barely connected to state infrastructure. Officially, each state of India (India has 29 states) is responsible for enforcing child labour within its own borders but many face issues of funding and administration.

On top of this, India's judicial system is dramatically overwhelmed and severely backlogged and child labour violations can easily slip through the cracks. Even when cases are prosecuted correctly, in some places the penalties for those using child labour is as little as a $160 fine and 3 months in jail, which isn't enough to serve as a practical deterrent.

So, what's going on? Why don't the people of India just stop using child labour? As much as the international community dislikes the practice, we can't ignore that it's a firmly-established tradition in many places. Traditions are hard enough to change as it is but this is especially true when families have few economic opportunities. For many families in India, giving up child labour means giving up an entire income, which could plunge them into absolute poverty. For some employers, particularly in less-developed areas, using child labour is the only way to create local products cheap enough to be competitive with international mass-produced goods. So, it's a tricky subject.