THE HINDU Editorial Vocabulary-June 16, 2017- Topic 2
No time to work: On Child Labour Act
In a welcome move this week, India has
ratified two key global conventions meant to keep children away from work,
decades since they were originally adopted by the International Labour
Organisation. Nonetheless, the scepticism aroused by the Child Labour
(Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 over the government’s
commitment towards complete abolition of child labour will persist. The ILO
treaties are about the minimum age at which a person may begin work and the
hazardous industries where she may not.
Crucially, conventions 138 and 182 of
the United Nations body leave it to the member-states to determine what
constitutes acceptable or unacceptable work for children at different ages.
Such flexibility has given the Indian government wiggle room in adopting the
international standards in question, even though the 2016 legislation falls
several notches below a comprehensive prohibition of child labour. The Act
contains the controversial provision that condones the employment of children
below 14 years under the rubric of family enterprises and the declassification
of several industries as hazardous occupations. The detrimental effects on the
ground from these dilutions of the original 1986 Act could be widespread. With
roughly 90% of the workforce continuing to remain outside the ambit of the
organised sector, protecting vulnerable children from exploitation is
difficult. The rules notified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the
enforcement of the 2016 amendment include some small concessions. Under these
stipulations, children may work in domestic enterprises only for three hours
after school, and not between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m. These restrictions are intended
to ensure attendance at school. But given the sensitivities involved in
monitoring activities within traditional households, effective enforcement will
pose a challenge, and the rescue of vulnerable children will remain an uncertain
proposition.
India’s ratification of the two
conventions, after more than 165 countries have legally bound themselves to
their obligations, is itself a sad commentary on the priorities of successive
governments, cutting across party lines. The ILO’s Minimum Age Convention of
1973 entered into force in 1976 — and the instrument pertaining to the
elimination of the worst forms of child labour in 2000. While policymakers are
no doubt alert to the inequities that perennially plague Indian society, the
practical realities are too painful for the millions who languish on the
margins. Any genuine enforcement of a minimum age at work will elude
governments so long as a universal minimum wage of subsistence for the adult
workforce is not implemented scrupulously. On this score, the record of
different States is at best patchy. This scenario is unlikely to improve in the
absence of a vibrant mechanism of collective bargaining among stakeholders.
Without this, the total elimination of child labour will remain a difficult
task.
Vocabulary
Aroused: awaken someone from sleep.
Example: She had been aroused by the
telephone
Synonyms: wake up, awaken, bring
to, rouse, waken
Abolition: the action or an act of abolishing a system, practice, or
institution.
Example: The abolition of child labor
Synonyms: scrapping, ending, termination, eradication, elimination
Persist: continue firmly or obstinately in an opinion or a course of action in
spite of difficulty, opposition, or failure.
Example: The minority of drivers who
persist in drinking
Wiggle: move or cause to move up and down or from side to side with small
rapid movements.
Example: Stasia wiggled her toes
Synonyms: jiggle, wriggle, twitch, shimmy, joggle, wag, wobble, shake
Condones: accept and allow behavior that is considered morally wrong or
offensive to continue.
Example: The college cannot condone
any behavior that involves illicit drugs
Synonyms: disregard, accept, allow, let
pass, turn a blind eye to, overlook
Exploitation: the action of making use of and benefiting from resources.
Example: The Bronze Age saw
exploitation of gold deposits
Synonyms: utilization, use, making
use of, making the most of, capitalization on
Intended: planned or meant.
Example: The intended victim escaped
Synonyms: deliberate, intentional, calculated, conscious, planned
Perennially: in a way that continues for a long or apparently infinite time;
permanently.
Example: A new blow to the
perennially struggling economy
Elude: evade or escape from a danger, enemy, or pursuer, typically in a
skillful or cunning way.
Example: He managed to elude his
pursuers by escaping into an alley
Synonyms: evade, avoid, get away
from, dodge, escape from, run from
Patchy: existing or happening in small, isolated areas.
Example: Patchy fog
Synonyms: uneven, varying, variable, intermittent, fitful, sporadic
