FACT SHEET ON CHILD LABOR IN INDIA

• Presently there are 20 million child labor in India, and out of this 85% belong to rural areas or unorganized sectors
• India's child labor policy is consistent with the International Labor Conference Resolutions,1979
• It is a socio cultural menace 
  
• Article 24 prohinits employment of children in mines or other hazardous activities
• Child labor( Prohibition and Regulation) act, 1986 seeks to regulate employment of children in hazardous activities
• The Directive Principles of Sate Policy also seeks to regulate Child Labor in India
• India is signatory to 36 conventions of ILO on Child Labor
• India adopted its first policy on Child Labor in 1974 in consonance with the UN Declaration on Child Rights,1959
• To monitor the working of various rules and regulations on Child Labor, National Authority for elimination of Child Labor was established under the chairmanship of the Union Labor Minister
• However despite all such efforts real scenario is gloomy as there have been hardly any efforts to regulate unorganized child labor
• Of the total workforce in India, share of child labor is 12.1%
• In the carpet industry of Mirzapur, more than 25,000 children are employed in hazardous occupatios
• In the matchstick industries of Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu around 40,000 children are employed
• The efforts of the girl children in hazardous occupations are rarely counted as they are considered as mere helpers not workers