Child Labour: A Case Study Of West Bengal

The incidence of child labour is still very high in many less developed countries. India with all her richness and wealth is not free from this problem .The absence of a process of equitable distribution of the fruits of development along with the existence of abject poverty among a large section of the people of the country often stand on the way to the reduction of child labour from the economy. In India, according to Census, 2001, there are about 1.26 crore child labourers. They constitute 4.5 percent of the total child population (age 5-14 years) of India. About 8.57 lakh child labourers belong to the State of West Bengal i.e., they form about 7 percent of the total child workforce of the country. According to the Planning Commission, 2007, about 12.2 lakh children in India are engaged in hazardous occupations i.e., about 10 percent of the total working children. They are getting very little opportunity to attend school even for basic education. The Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, has given special effort at present to overcome the problems of child labour and educate child workers after enrolling them in the special schools approved under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP). This paper aims at analyzing the nature and status of education of the child labourers in West Bengal.