EXPLORING THE INSIGHTS OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDIA WITH SPECIAL FOCUS ON NATIONAL CAPITAL DELHI

Child labour is a serious social issue and globally, millions of children continue to work, putting at stake their education, health, normal development to adulthood, and even their lives. Basic objective of the study is to know the statewise prevelance of child labour in India and to explore the health status, substance abuse and causes of child labour in Delhi city. For this study, both primary and secondary data sources were used. Results reveal that Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar have highest prevalence of child labour in the country. Most of the children are working in agricultural (68 percent), manufacturing (17 percent), trade and hotel (9 percent) sector in India. Despite having legislation against child labour, children are continued to be engaged in significant numbers in hazardous and non-hazardous sectors. It has been found that majority of child labour’s heath status is in poor state and are living in very unhealthy conditions in Delhi as well as more than half of the children are using any type of substances in Delhi. Major causes of child labour in Delhi are forced worker, family poverty, illiteracy, orphan hood. Correlation analysis depicts that child labour has a significant association with poverty, unemployment, school attendance ratio.