DHAKA: Across the globe more than 150 million children between age five and 14 are involved in child labour, while India is home to the highest number of working children in the world.

On ‘International Day Against Child Labor’ on Friday, attempts are under way to put a stop to it. In India, more than 28 million children have jobs, according to UNICEF estimates.

India’s current child labor law prohibits children under the age of 14 from being employed in hazardous jobs.

However, in May this year, rather than encouraging a complete abolition of child labor in the country, the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved only amendments to the law.

“We live in a country where it is very normal for a farmer's son to help the farmer after school hours or for an artisan's children to learn the craft. So we don’t want this form of work to be penalized as child labor,” a labor ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Al Jazeera.

The Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), an NGO headed by 2014 Nobel Peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, welcomed approval of the amendment bill.

“Currently, as the law stands, children under the age of 14 are not allowed to work in only 18 occupations and 65 processes that are deemed to be hazardous,” explained Bhuwan Ribhu, an activist and lawyer with the BBA.

A recent UN report said nearly 300 million people still live under poverty in India. For a country with extreme inequalities, an abolitionist approach may not be a practical solution.

In the 35 years since its establishment, the BBA has rescued more than 83,500 working children from across 18 states in India.

Reddy said “We have millions of working children in India. Now you can't rescue all of them and put them in remand homes.”

Instead, the government should provide jobs for children in the formal sector that can be monitored, she said.

BDST: 1558 HRS, JUNE 12, 2015
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