New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) Globalisation and modernisation in agriculture is creating a big demand for child labour in the sector, said experts at a panel discussion on child rights in the capital Tuesday.
“Modernisation of agriculture like cotton seed picking has increased the demand for children in the workforce,” said Ravi Srivastava, professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

“Not only are their small hands adept at this, but they also come as cheap labour,” Srivastava said at the panel discussion. He teaches at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development at the JNU.

According to the National Sample Survey (NSS) — initiated in 1950 for data collection for socio-economic planning — over two-thirds or 67 percent of child workers in India are engaged in agriculture.

The Indian census in 2001 put the total number of child workers at an estimated 12.6 million, although non-governmental organisations put the numbers much higher.

Use of child labour in cotton fields has increased over the years, with Gujarat, the largest producer of cotton and cotton seeds in the country, accounting for about 85,340.

Srivastava said that contrary to popular belief that children engaged in the agriculture sector worked on family-owned fields, one-third of them are wage workers — which means they are employed by others and are under-paid.

“Child labour has a socio-religious factor to it. It is seen that the highest incidence of child deprivation is among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslim families,” he said.

“Therefore, most children working (in agriculture) are from such families,” added Srivastava.

Dipankar Gupta, sociologist and fellow-professor at the JNU, said while many groups are lobbying for inclusion of agriculture in the list of occupational fields where child labour is banned, stringent implementation of this should be equally emphasised.

“You can have as many laws as you want. What’s the big deal in having another clause added to an existing law? What should be given importance is implementation should be stringent. There should be an audit of budgetary allocations,” he said.

The discussion was organised by international charity Save the Children.