Global Journal of Human Social Science, H: Interdisciplinary, Volume 22 Issue 7

adults for working in the cotton fields. 5 This anomaly where children are preferred as workers in several sectors is special to the textile sector because of the tasks involved and must be dealt with a targeted mechanism. III. R easons for C hild L abour on the G round- L evel India’s large population of nearly 1.4 billion individuals consists 40% of children . 6 Further, over a fifth of this population reside below the poverty line . 7 This indicates that a large amount of people in India do not have access to basic facilities. They live with the fear of ensuring their subsistence for the day. This livelihood with a lack of means of subsistence leads to families ensuring every member provides help in obtaining sustenance in everyday life. The promulgation of child labour starts from the lack of financial capabilities of a family to maintain themselves. Contractors then use this to exploit families and induce children to work at factories, where they sometimes pay a meagre sum to the family for taking the child. Moreover, the child is rarely paid any substantial wages that can afford meals or is just paid in kind with one or two meals a day. Empirically, the primary reason for the existence and the increasing amount of child labour is dedicated to poverty. In a research conducted on child labour in the handicraft industry in Kashmir, the simplest conclusion found was that parents prefer to send their children to work over school. 8 Most economic models suggest that children are sent to work owing to low income families . 9 Child labour is attributed to the large sizes of family in India and linked with the demand for more income. This demand is sought to be supplied by putting every child to work. Studies suggest that another factor attributable to child labour is the migration of poor families to urban cities in search for employment. Often, parents move to urban areas envisaging better opportunities to work and earn, but this demand is scarcely met. This leads to parents then also looking for employment for their children, since they cannot even leave them with their families around the village anymore . 10 5 Pramila H. Bhargava, The Elimination of Child Labour, 2003. 6 Childline India Foundation Annual Report 2020-2021. Last accessed on 11th September, 2022. 7 https://www.prsindia.org/theprsblog/poverty-estimation-india Last ac cessed on 12th September, 2022. 8 B.A Bhat and T.A Rather, Child labour in the handicrafts home industry in Kashmir: A Sociological Study , 4 International NGO Journal 391, (2009). 9 Lana Osment, Child Labour, the effect on child, cause and remedies to the evolving menace, University of Lund, Sweden, (2014). 10 S.K Yadav and G. Sengupta, Environmental and Occupational Health Problems of Child Labour: Some Issues and Challenges for Future, 28(2) J Hum Ecol 143, (2009). IV. S tate E ndorsed C hild L abour The reasons of Poverty discussed in the previous section, if were seen in exclusivity, common sense would suggest that the eradication of poverty would lead to an abolishment of child labour. Hence, it would also dictate that an increase in the GDP of the Country would be directly proportional to the decrease in child Labour. Despite this, a large majority of children aged 5–14 work in the agriculture and service industry. 11 It becomes essential to analyse other factors that lead to child labour at this juncture. Weiner points out that accepted arguments of child labour existing due to poverty and lack of funds by the Government to work on it lack conviction. He argues that child labour is not heavily opposed by the Government because it is a major part of their industrial strategy. 12 An argument that suggests that the Government promotes child labour may at first appear to be a liberal conspiracy theory. Especially with statutes like the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (“CLPRA”) and making primary education compulsory, such an argument does not seem to have credence superficially. Credibility in such an argument can be seen through an analysis of the Government expenditure on enforcement of the CLPRA and the Right to Education Act, 2009 (“RTE”). India’s expenditure on education constitutes a small fraction of its GDP which has been continually going down despite not a large enough increase in literacy. Not only has India decreased the amount of expenditure in comparison to other sectors despite the adoption of the RTE, this expenditure is much less as compared to other countries such as United Kingdom and Argentina. 13 Even Afghanistan and Nepal in the sub-continent have a higher percentage of their GDP dedicated to education than India. This however, only proves that the government is not focusing on education. To substantiate the above claim further, a logical analysis must be drawn to understand how putting children to work may be a part of government strategy and beneficial in some way. It is evident from recent policies in India that Foreign Direct Investment is being encouraged. Recently, India even overcame China in the amount of Foreign Investment inflows into the country, with its highest ever amount of FDI in a calendar year . 14 11 Bureau of International Labor Affairs. Child Labor and Forced Labor Reports in India, 2014. 12 Weiner, Child Labour in Developing Countries: The Indian Case, 2 Int. J. Children’s Rts. 121, (1994). 13 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.XPD.TOTL.GD.ZS?end=20 17&locations=IN-AR-LK-GB&start=1987 Last Accessed on 27 th August, 2022. 14 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/in dia-pips-china-in-fdi-inflows-for-the-first-time-in-20-years/articleshow/ 67281263.cms Last accessed on 27th August, 2022. Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 14 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals H Child Labour in the Fast Fashion Industry, with a Focus on India