If policy makers decide that only children in hazardous industries should be dealt with, they just aren’t interested in any child labourer outside the 2 million groups. The reality however is that 85% of child labour, whichever way you define it, is in agriculture and allied activities.
As per official estimates, all other child labour which constitutes the ‘visible’ child labour in factories, street children, children working in hotels and petty establishments etc account for a very small percentage of the total child labour force in this country. This factor is completely ignored.
The fact that we have almost completely ignored this aspect of child labour in agriculture is the root cause for our failure to make any dent in the child labour situation in the country even after 5 decades of independence.
