CHILD LABOUR: PROTECTING CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS' RIGHTS: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Abstract
Modern states regard education as a legal duty," and, "compulsory primary education is the policy instrument by which the state effectively removed children from the work force. -Myron Weiner
In India, child labour persists on a significant scale. Child labour is neither illegal nor is schooling compulsory. Attitudes to child labour among policy makers in India belie the modern progressive view of childhood being a period of learning through school, and not a period of employment. Child labour usually refers to children up to the age of 14, following the ILO Convention. The International Labour Office (ILO) resolution on age of employment, Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment (Convention No. 138), recommends that no person below 15 years be considered suitable for employment (on the grounds that a child should compulsorily complete a certain number of years of school). The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), however, refers to children as persons below the age of 18.
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