Govt of India legitimising child labour, victimising one crore plus child workers into poverty: RTE Forum

By A Representative
Right to Education (RTE) Forum, the apex body of a large number of RTE campaign organizations, has described July 26 as the “black day for million of Indian children” following the Lok Sabha nod to Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill.
The amendment was pushed despite objections from UNICEF's chief of education in India, Euphrates Gobina, who said, the Bill would allow “more invisible forms of child labour and exploitation”, which “may go unseen”. Gobina added, “The most vulnerable and marginalised children may end up with irregular school attendance, lower levels of learning".
Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) founder and Nobel Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi had also described the the changes in the Bill as leading to “further victimisation of children into poverty.”
RTE Forum has taken exception to the Bill's provision which allows work for children below the age of 14 years in family enterprises, calling it “a regressive move”, adding, the move will children of “their rights which they have achieved after the decades long struggles, like, right to education, equal opportunity for quality learning, play, protection and enjoyment of their childhood.”
“The Union Labour Ministry and the Government of India have completely negated the voice of child rights activists of this country and also the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on labour”, an RTE Forum statement says.
“There are 1,01,28,663 child labourers in the country between the age group of 5 to 14 years as per 2011 census. The amended Bill might give a first impression that the government is taking a stringent measure to end child labour upto 14 years. But a closer look at this reveals that it is hardly the case”, it says.
“Of course there are some relevant measures in the new bill such as a jail term of up to 2 years for those employing children below the age of 14 for labour activities”, the statement adds.
Through the Bill, the government has made an exemption that the child can help his or her family or family enterprise after his or her school hours or during vacations. The government has made the amendment on the hypothesis that education and work for children can go hand in hand.
“But this defeats the very purpose of protecting the children from exploitation and also the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act”, RTE Forum believes.
Ambarish Rai, national convener of RTE Forum, has said the ruling party and the government's approach towards children is “insensitive”, calling the Bill “a clear violation of existing Fundamental right to Education (Article 21A).”
“This amendment will affect the retention rate of children in schools and increase drop outs of marginalized especially girl children”, Rai says, adding, “Goal 4 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) declared by United Nations is also pushing for the universalization of education till the secondary level.”
“Employers and contractors will benefit from this amendment and children will now be forced to be exploited through this amendment”, he says.
`Family’ in the Bill has been defined as child’s mother, father, brother, sister and father’s sister and brother and mother’s sister and brother `Family enterprise’ has been defined as any work, profession, manufacture or business which is performed by the members of the family with the engagement of other persons.
“This means a child can work in any manufacturing or business unit if it is owned by his/ her relative”, Rai says.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog