Child labour | 15 Jun, 2020

One of the major social issues in India is child labour. The majority of these children are from 7 to 17 years old and work up to 16 hours a day to help their parents against poverty. During this lockdown period for COVID-19, the issue of child labour has also been increased. Many children are victims in this crisis period. From March to May, Childline – 1098, the national emergency helpline for children in distress carried out 3,653 interventions for child labour across the states. Nearly half of the children rescued were in the age group of 11 to 15 years. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UNICEF have recently released a report on Child Labour, titled as "COVID-19 and Child Labour: A Time of Crisis, A Time to Act". According to the report millions of children are engaged to child Labour because of COVID-19 crisis. The main reason behind this issue is poverty. As all schools are closed, social activities are also decreased. It has pushed the children turn into work forces. They are already in laborious activities, might end up working longer hour. The report says, COVID-19 will increase poverty that will eventually drive the increase in child labour. The report predicts that 1% increase in poverty will lead to 0.7% increase in child labour. So, it's high time the government looked into the matter seriously.

Priyanka Deka,

Noonmati,Guwahati.