New Delhi: The Child Labour Amendment Bill, which was passed by Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, will expose millions of marginalised children to hazardous occupations in the "garb of" employing them in family enterprises, rights activists said on Wednesday.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and human rights activist Harsh Mander said the amended law was replete with regressive provisions that will end up legalising many forms of child labour and "caste-based occupation".
Satyarthi said the amendments had effectively brought down the "list of hazardous occupations and processes from 83 to 3. It was not even discussed properly and I felt ashamed of the fact that the political class failed our children again."
"In industries such as carpet, plastic, garments and leather tanning most of the child labourers exist in the unorganised sector. You will hardly find any children in the shop floors. But the same industries delegate work to homes and that is where the children are engaged," he said.
Mander said the whole notion of family enterprises was a "code word" for caste-based occupation as the work in most such cases are dictated by caste.
"It will also re-legalise a lot of work that had become unlawful," he said.
Satyarthi expressed disappointment that the bill was passed in its current form despite him meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in connection with his objections.
NGO CRY (Child Rights and You) also sharply reacted to the passage of the bill, saying allowing children to work in family enterprises is likely to have "far-reaching implications".
"Allowing children to work in family set up opens a window for exploitation which comes along with contracting and sub-contracting of work. Currently, there is no mechanism to monitor if the child is working for the family enterprise, within the family set up and/or after school hours," it said in a statement.
According to the provisions, no child should be employed in any occupation or process except where he or she helps his family after school hours or helps his family in fields, home based work, forest gathering or attends technical institutions during vacations for the purpose of learning.
The Centre has explained that 'family' has been exempted in the 'The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill' as the relationship between employer and employee does not exist here and that a law should be framed keeping in mind the ground realities as well as ensuring that it is implementable.
