THE PLIGHT OF CHILD LABOURERS IN BANGALORE CITY, INDIA: A MICRO LEVEL STUDY

Abstract

Children are part and parcel of the economic activity of eachand every society. Notwithstanding the fact that child labour is not anew phenomenon and it has existed even in ancient times, its form hasbeen kept changing. Poverty, population explosion, survival strategyof the poor and exploitative economic systems are regarded as the causesof child labour in India. This paper discusses child labour as socialissue on the basis of the data from an empirical study conducted in
Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka state in India. The data of thestudy pertain to the nature of the work done by child labourers, theirsocio-economic background (such as age, level of schooling, familysize, and parental education and income), earnings and difficultiesfaced by them as child labourers. The paper also discusses the mainmeasures taken by the government and non-government organisationsin order to deal with the social issue of child labour, viz. legislationand school improvement programmes.