There are many reasons for Child Labour.These are as follows:- 1.PARENTAL ILLITERACY: Illiterate parents do not realize the need for a proper physical ,emotional and cognitive development of a child. As they are uneducated, they do not realize the importance of education for their children. 2.OVERPOPULATION : Most of the Asian and African countries are overpopulated . Due to limited resources and more mouths to feed , Children are employed in various forms of work. 3.POVERTY: many a time poverty forces parents to send their children to hazardous jobs. Although they know it is wrong, they have no other alternative as they need the money 4.URBANISATION : The Industrial Revolution has its own negative side. Many a time MNC's and export industries in the developing world employ wild workers, particularly in the garment industry. 5.UNEMPLOYMENT OF ELDERS : Elders often find it difficult to get jobs. The industrialists and factory owners find it profitable to employ children. This is so because they can pay less and extract more work. They will also not create union problem. 6.ORPHANS: Children born out of wedlock, children with no parents and relatives, often do not find anyone to support them. Thus they are forced to work for their own living .

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Types of child labour: A recent changeThe types of child labour have changed in recent years due to enforcement of legislation, awareness amongst buyers about child exploitation, and international pressure. Child labour is now more invisible because the location of the work has changed from the more formal setting of factories, to business owners’ homes. There has also been an increasing involvement of children in the home-based and informal sectors.Children are engaged in manual work, in domestic work in family homes, in rural labour in the agricultural sector including cotton growing, at glass, match box and brass and lock-making factories, in embroidery, rag-picking, beedi-rolling, in the carpet-making industry, in mining and stone quarrying, brick kilns and tea gardens amongst others.Work is often gender-specific, with girls performing more domestic and home-based work, while boys are more often employed in wage labour. In general, the workload and duration of the working hours increases as children grow older. Getting accurate, detailed information about children working in different sectors is a major challenge because, in many cases, children work in informal sectors such as agriculture, and in urban settings in restaurants, motor repair workshops and in home-based industries.Challenges to ending child labourChild labour is not uniform. It takes many forms depending upon the type of work that children are made to do, the age and sex of the child and whether they work independently or with families. Due to this complex nature of child labour, there is no one strategy that can be used to eliminate it.Combatting child labour requires long term co-ordinated action which involves many stakeholders and the government. This includes educational institutions, mass media, NGOs and community-based organizations as well as trade unions and employers. It is important that the attitudes and mindsets of people are changed to instead employ adults and allow all children to go to school and have the chance to learn, play and socialize as they should.Education is a key to preventing child labour and has been one of the most successful methods to reduce child workers in India. This includes expanding education access to schooling, improving the quality and relevance of education, addressing violence in schools, providing relevant vocational training and using existing systems to ensure child workers return to school. Big PictureIndia’s 2011 census showed that:· There were more than 10.2 million “economically active” children in the age group of five to 14 years – 5.6 million boys and 4.5 million girls,· Eight million children were working in rural areas, and 2 million in urban areas,· Although in rural settings the number of child workers reduced from 11 million to 8 million between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, over the same period, the number of children working in urban settings rose from 1.3 million to 2 million,THE POLICY FRAMEWORK SURROUNDING CHILD LABOUR The key international laws dealing with child labour include the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (CRC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment of 1973 (ILO Convention138) and on the Worst Forms of Child Labour of 1999 (ILO Convention182).India has not ratified either of the two ILO conventions and also made a reservation to article 32 of the CRC at the time of ratification stating that it would apply the article in a progressive manner, according to its national legislation and international commitments, especially in relation to the minimum age.Related national legislations:· Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (1986), “to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employments” (preamble of the CLPR Act). It excludes a section of toiling children in the unorganized sectors including agriculture, as well as household work.· National Policy on Child Labour (1987), with a focus more on rehabilitation of children working in hazardous occupations and processes, rather than on prevention.· Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000 (the JJ Act) and amendment of the JJ Act in 2006: includes the working child in the category of children in need of care and protection, without any limitation of age or type of occupation. Section 23 (cruelty to Juvenile) and Section 26 (exploitation of juvenile employee) specifically deal with child labour under children in need of care and protection.· The Right to Education Act 2009 has made it mandatory for the state to ensure that all children aged six to 14 years are in school and receive free education. Along with Article 21A of the Constitution of India recognizing education as a fundamental right, this constitutes a timely opportunity to use education to combat child labour in India.

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