CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA

India has the dubious distinction of employing largest number of children in the world. According to 1991 census 11.2 million children in the age group of 5-14 are employed in our country. This accounts for 1.35% of the total population and 3.6 of the child population of the country and 4% of total working population. More than 90% of the working children are in the rural areas and most of them are employed in agriculture and allied activities. The figure are contradicted by several NGOs and also do not reflect the complete picture of working children as the census ignores the “No where children” which is a residual category of children population who are neither at school nor reported to be economically active as full time or marginal workers. They are either doing nothing or performing household work not classified as economic activity and has not be recorded in either of the categories of full time or marginal child labour. Where as world bank report 2000 estimates the child labour in India to be 60 million. Given the uncertainties of definition and the complexities of enumeration it is no wonder that estimate of child labour vary so greatly in India.