Aims to widen the scope of the law against child labour and provide for stricter punishments for violations of norms.
Major Provisions:
- Prohibition of employment of children below 14 years in all occupations or processes except where child helps his family.
- Addition of a new category of persons called “adolescent”. They are person between 14 and 18 years of age.
- Prohibition of employment of adolescents in hazardous occupations as specified (mines, hazardous processes and inflammable substance).
- Empowers Union Government to add or omit any hazardous occupation from the list included in the Bill.
- It makes child labour a cognisable offense
- Punishment for employing any child increased i.e. imprisonment between 6 months and two years (from earlier 3 months-one year) or a fine of 20,000 to 50,000 Rupees (from earlier 10,000 to 20,000 Rupees) or both.
- Proposes penalty for employing an adolescent in a hazardous occupation i.e. imprisonment between 6 months and 2 years or a fine of 20,000 to 50,000 Rupees or both
- Empowers the government to make periodic inspection of places at which employment of children and adolescents are prohibited.
- Government may confer powers on a District Magistrate (DM) to ensure that the provisions of the law are properly carried out and implemented.
- It has provision for creating a rehabilitation fund.
Criticisms of bill
- Ban on hazardous adolescent work is accompanied by changes in the schedule of hazardous work in the statute, bringing these down from 83 prohibited activities to only three.
- Amended law prohibits only that child work which is considered hazardous for adult workers, without recognising the specific vulnerabilities of children.
- Law permits under 14 years to now work in non-hazardous “family enterprises” after school hours and during vacations.
- The family is defined to include not just the child’s parents and siblings, but also siblings of the child’s parents. And a family enterprise includes any work, profession or business in which any family member works along with other persons.
- Considering that around 80 per cent of child labour is in work with family members, these changes might harm child in a serious way.