CHENNAI: India has the dubious distinction of employing the largest number of adolescents in hazardous industries — 24 lakh in total, according to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) latest ‘World Report on Child Labour, ‘ almost equalling the combined adolescent labourers in Pakistan (13 lakh) and Indonesia (12 lakh).

The ILO report shows that Egypt and India together constitute two thirds of all child labourers in the world. The number makes up at least half the combined child labour populations in Brazil, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay, Vietnam and Jordan together.

While the report shows a global decline in the number of adolescent labourers (17.8 per cent to 13 per cent), progress has been slow when comparing the decline to the decline in children aged between 5 and 14 years engaged in labour (9.3 per cent to 3.1 per cent). India too has witnessed a similar dip in the percentage of child workers between 5 to 14 years from 90.75 lakh between 2004-05 to 49.84 lakh in 2009-10 as recorded by the National Sample Survey Organisation.

“We do not have the exact statistics of adolescents currently employed in hazardous industries,” says Varsha Pillai from Child Rights and You (CRY).

The report highlights developments like the need for high-yield seeds in agriculture and the rapid growth of the IT industry both of which have increased the demand for highly skilled workers and helped in children not dropping out of schools.

Activists, however, feel that more needs to be done on the policy front. “The Right to Education Act (RTE) only brings children between the ages of 5 and 14 under its ambit. Nobody knows what happens after they pass that age, that’s the sensitive phase,” says Girija Kumar Babu, joint secretary, Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW).

“While the government is working hard to strengthen the RTE they also need to increase its purview up to 18 years of age for all,” she adds.

Young at work

17 crore children are child labourers in the world

Increased dramatically from 8.5 crore child labourers recorded in 2013

India has 24 lakh adolescents working in hazardous industries while Pakistan has (13 lakh) and Indonesia (12 lakh).