India has finally ratified the International Labour Organisation’s conventions of recommendations on child labour during the recently concluded International Labour Conference in Geneva and India has finally inched closer to a child labour free country in the near future. Moreover, the observation of World Day Against Child Labour every year on June 12, which was recently observed across the country this year too, will finally see something tangible come out of it. With these ratifications it is only natural to expect more stringent legislations that will follow to end child labour that was missing in the country for a very long time. The only big legislation in India for children earlier will be the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) 2002 to provide free and compulsory education of all children in the age group of6 to 14 years as a Fundamental Right. The ILO Convention No. 182 is about the worst forms of child labour that include practices like slavery , debt bondage, serfdom, forced labour including recruitment of children in armed conflicts, child prostitution, use of children for illicit activities like drug trafficking and any work that is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children. India was the 182nd country to ratify this convention since it came about in 1999. There are only 6 nations after India left to ratify it. The ILO Convention 138 on the other hand deals with the recommendations the minimum age of admission to employment and work. It ranges from the ages of 14 to 16 for the nations that have ratified this pact. India, probably to be in concurrence with its other Acts like the RTE have chosen 14 as the minimum age of employment. However even adolescent from the age of 14 to 18 will be prohibited employment in hazardous occupations. Both the conventions that have been ratified recently by India will come into force by 2018. Although it is a shame that India was one of the last nations to ratify these two conventions on child labour, it indeed is a ray of hope for the thousands of children that are exploited in various occupations across the country. It will also finally enable legislations against the various hazardous occupations that continue to employ children in the country. The government now has to work out the details of the various traditional and cultural practices in a country that has a very diverse culture and thereafter clearly define those practices that can be termed as child labour and which comes under the ambit of these conventions.
