Around 12 million of India's children work, says government
NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - Indian employers who are illegally exploiting millions of children for cheap labour make around 1.2 trillion rupees ($27 billion) annually, the Hindustan Times said on Monday.
The Hindustan Times cites a report by Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), a leading child rights group in India, which says employers are not only committing a crime but also making massive profits by paying children well below the minimum wage.
"The greed for maximisation of profit fuels the demand of child labour, with children as (the) cheapest form of labour," the national daily quoted the study, Capital Corruption: Child Labour in India, as saying.
Around 12 million children work as domestic servants or in stone quarries, embroidery units, mining, carpet-weaving, tea stalls, restaurants and hotels, according to government data.
A law prohibiting children below the age of 14 from working in homes and the hospitality industry came into effect in October 2006. Yet there have been few prosecutions, and even fewer convictions, say child rights activists.
The newspaper said the study based its findings on the number of child labourers in the country, the annual income earned by them and the illicit profits made by employers by not recruiting adults.
"Child labour, corruption, and flow of black money (undeclared money liable for taxation), fuel and sustain each other in an illicit nexus that only profits employers and middle men," the study was quoted as saying.
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