In a shocking report by Child Rights and You, it was revealed that close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names.
In a shocking report by Child Rights and You, it was revealed that close to 1.4 million child labourers in India in the age group of 7-14 years cannot write their names.
According to the analysis, it means that one in three child labourers in the said age group are illiterate. This is the grim reality of children who work for more than six months in a year.
Even for children who support the family economy by working for less than six months in a year, which is very common in a country like India, the situation is equally bad, if not more, worse. A shocking 2 million of these marginal workers have compromised their education as well.
The situation is also reflected in the state figures. While 45 per cent of child labourers in Bihar are illiterate, in Rajasthan and Jharkhand, the figure stands at 40 per cent. Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh also have about 38 per cent child labourers as illiterate.
There is a high potential of early school leavers and those not learning at school to remain outside the world of employment.
Cross-analysis of the out-of-schoolchildren data from West Bengal revealed that while 4.3 per cent of students drop out from school during upper-primary level of education, the drop-out rate skyrocketed to 18.3 per cent at the secondary level. The Census 2011 data for children engaged in work stated that 6.5 million children in India in the age group of 5 to 14 years work in agriculture and household industries. This makes a staggering 64.1 per cent of child labourers in this age group. Further, state-level findings showed that 53 per cent of working children in West Bengal are engaged in similar areas of work.
Director, policy and advocacy of CRY, Komal Ganotra, said, “It is absolutely disheartening to see a 37 per cent increase in child labourers in the category of 5-9 years in the last 10 years. In this tender age when they should be learning to hold a pencil, they are forced to work to support their families economically.”
