Factors in the Location of Child LabourPreet Rustagi

IHD, New Delhi and

Dev NathanIHD, New Delhi and Duke University, USA

Current Locations of child labour

Manufacturing– Home-based work– Household workshops of informal sector

•This is so in production for both international and domestic marketsAgriculture

– Home-based work– Agricultural fields– Grazing livestock

Services - Locations

• In auto repair workshops

• At hotels and restaurants

• Retail shops

• Domestic help

Garments’ outsourcing process – embellishment/ thread cutting in NCR

Garment factory

Wholesale contractor

Sub-contractor – Location dealers

Each location, there is a line, some times layers of contractors who work with location dealers

They are in general friends/relatives/ other known persons of the home based workers

Home based workers

Households – male, female and children

Households units– male, and children, including some trafficked

Why not in main factories?• The law prohibits it• But implementation of law is due to:

– In the case of production for export – the rise of private buyer codes that require no children below 18

– In the case of production for the domestic market - sustained media exposure and campaigning by child rights’ advocates

• These factors have led to a change in the location of child labour in manufacturing – away from main factories to home-based work and household workshops

Notice at garment factory, Delhi

School going girl working with her father at home during off school time

Main street in Seemapuri area where households and household units engage in embellishment work

Workplace cum hostel: Household unit where migrant boys are employed

Boy working in a household workshop

• Why are informal workshops set up in household areas? – In order to double as living space after working

hours– In order to be away from public gaze– The law allows children to work with parents /

relatives– This is used to have informal units that are not

subject to compliance mechanisms– This is informality in order to evade legal regulation

• Other dispersed locations– Restaurants– Auto workshops– Agricultural fields– Employers’ houses

• Difficult to monitor

• Often in activities away from public view– E.g. in dish-washing at the back of dhabas

Factors in location of child labour1.Law which

– Prohibits in the factory– Permits at home, and in– Household workshops

2.Enforcement brought about by– Pressure from international buyers– Media exposure and child rights’ campaigns

3.Dispersed locations where regulation difficult4.Employers’ attempts to conceal activities from public view

CONCLUSIONS

•Legal reform– To remove locations and relations exempted from

purview – For universal and compulsory education

•CCT where adult earnings are low

•New forms of regulation - not punitive, but working out methods to overcome the problems

•Involving the community – importance of value systems and community norms