Child Labour & Inclusive Education in Backward Districts of India

Roy, Chandan and Barman, Jiten (2012): Child Labour & Inclusive Education in Backward Districts of India. Published in: International Journal of Education , Vol. No. 4, No. No. 4 (20 December 2012): pp. 311-327.

Abstract

India has five million working children which is more than two percent of the total child population in the age group of 5-14 years. Despite existence of legal prohibitions, several socio-economic situations ranging from dearth of poverty, over–fertility, non-responsive education system to poor access in financial services adversely affect a section of children and keep them in work field. This work burden not only prevents the children from getting the basic education, it is also highly detrimental to their health and ultimately leads to intellectual and physical stunting of their growth. At this backdrop, this paper measures the magnitude of child rights to education enjoyed by the child labour across the states of West Bengal. The paper identifies various reasons behind non-inclusiveness of a great portion of child labour in main-stream of education through empirical analysis in two backward districts of West Bengal. An analysis of NCLP activities based on evaluation surveys helps to trace the gap of work and lack of convergence mechanism with activities of Sarba Shiksha Mission. We recommend few measures to revamp the whole process, so that relationship between child labour and inclusive education activities can be revamped. NCLP and Sarba Shiksha Mission should work hand in hand to fulfill this objective. Complete implementation of Right to Education can help to solve many of these issues involved with child labour, as the act itself has an inclusive approach.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Child Labour; Inclusiveness; Right to Education; NCLP; Sarba Shikhsha Mission
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions; N - Economic History > N3 - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R5 - Regional Government Analysis

References

Ahmed, I. (1999). Getting Rid of Child Labour. Economic and Political Weekly, XXXIV(27), 1815-1822.

Basu K. (1999). Child Labour- Causes, Consequences and cure with Remarks on International Labour hazards. Journal of Economic Literature, 37(3), 1083-1119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1257/jel.37.3.1083

Bhattacharya. (2008). Education for Child Labour in West Bengal. Occasional Paper 15, IDSK.

Bhatty. (1998). Educational Deprivation in India- A Survey of Field Investigations. Economic and Political Weekly, 33(27), 1731-1740, and 28, 1850-1854.

Biggeri M., Meherotra S., & Sudershan M Ratna. (2009). Child Labour in Industrial Outworker Household in India. Economic & Political Weekly, XLIV(12), March 21, 2009.

Burra, Neera. (1995). Born to Work- Child Labour in India. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

Chaudhury D.P. (1997). Child Labour in India in the Asian Perspective. Social Change, 27(3&4) Sept – Dec.

CSSS (online): ‘Minority Concentration District Development Project, Cooch Behar, West Bengal’ sponsored by Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India, Centre for Studies in Social Science, Calcutta. (http://www.icssr.org/CoochBehar_MCD_Report_Final.pdf ) DISE (2011) SSM-UD

GOI (online). Report of the Working Group on Child Labour for the 11th Year Plan, Planning Commission, New Delhi (http://planningcommission.nic.in/aboutus/committee/wrkgrp11/wg11_rpchlab.pdf)

GOWB. (2012). Ministry of Labour (GOWBL). Labour in West Bengal, 2012, Kolkata.

Grooteart, C., & R. Kanbur. (1995). Child Labour – An Economic Perspective. International Labour Review, 134(2), 187-203.

Horn P. (1995). Children’s Work and Welfare. CUP, Cambridge, 1780-1890. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511608032

IAMR. (2012). India – Human Development Report – Towards Social Inclusion. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.

ILO. (2007). Child Labour Facts & Figures: An Analysis of Census 2001. ILO-Geneva.

INDUS –CLP. (2007). Child Labour Facts & Figures - An Analysis of Census 2001. Geneva ILO, 2007.

Jatarey S., & Lahiri S. (2000). Will Trade Sanctions reduce Child Labour? The Role of credit Markets, Discussion Paper, No. 500. Department of Economics, University of Essex.

Knight W.J. (1980). The World’s Exploited Children- Growing Up Sadly. Monograph-4, Business of International Labour Affairs, Washington DC.

Krishna, Sumi. (2009). Restoring Childhood- Learning, labour and gender in South Asia. Konark, New Delhi.

Lieten G K. (2000). Child Work and Education. Economic and Political Weekly, XXXV(25), 2037-43.

Meherotra, S., & Delmonica E. (2007). Eliminating Human Poverty – Macroeconomic Policies for Equitable Growth. London Zed Press and New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2008.

MW & CD. (2007). A Study on Child Abuse: India 2007. Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.

NCLP. (2012). Status Report, NCLP, U/Dinajpur. Neera Burra (online). Child Labour in rural Areas with special focus on migration, agriculture, mining and brick kilns. Retrieved from http://www.ncpcr.gov.in/Reports/Child_Labour_in_Rural_areas_with_special_focus_on _Migration_Agriculture_%20Mining_by_Neera_Burra.pdf

Ranjan P. (2001). Credit Constraint and the Phenomenon of Child Labour. Journal of Development Economics, 64, 81-102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3878(00)00125-5

Remington F. (1996). Child Labour- A Global Crisis without A Global Response. Economic & Political Weekly, Dec 28, 1996.

Roy Chandan & Jiten Barman. (2012). Right to Education: An Accelerator of Social Transformation & Economic Development. NAP, Delhi.

Roy Chandan (2012). A Study on Dropout Problem of Primary Education in Uttar Dinajpur District, West Bengal in Roy & Barman (ed) “Right to Education: An Accelerator of Social Transformation & Economic Development”, NAP , New Delhi.

Satpathy, Anoop K. Sekar Helen R., & Karan, Anup K. (2010). Rehabilitation of Child Labour in India: Lessons Learnt from the evaluations of NCLPs. V.V. Giri National Labour Institute.

Wazir R. (2002). No to Child Labour & Yes to Education. Economic & Political Weekly, Dec, 28.

Weiner (1991). The Child and the State in India. Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.

Weiner (1996). Child Labour in India. Economic and Political Weekly, Nov 9-16, 1996.