The death of a 12-year-old Indian farm worker during a 100 km trek home following the coronavirus lockdown has sparked a probe into child labour in central India, officials said on Tuesday. India’s 1.3 billion people have been ordered indoors to slow the spread of the virus, which has so far claimed at least 600 lives and infected more than 18,000 people.
Hundreds of thousands of workers across India have embarked on long journeys home by foot since the government last month imposed a lockdown, which has since been extended until May 3. Critics have slammed the state and federal governments’ failure to address the concerns of migrant workers, even as they rushed to ferry Indians stranded abroad and students with mostly middle class backgrounds stuck in western Rajasthan state.
The state government had awarded 100,000 rupees ($1,300) compensation to Madkam’s parents and would step up measures to monitor and tackle child labour and trafficking, Bhuarya added. The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates there are about 10 million workers aged 5-14 in India. Indian labour laws ban the employment of anyone aged under 15 but children are permitted to support family businesses outside of school hours. This provision is widely exploited by employers and human traffickers, child rights campaigners say.
India’s coronavirus lockdown has left tens of millions of informal workers without cash or food, and fearful that bureaucracy will hinder their access to government assistance.Many families will instead resort to taking out loans at high interest rates in order to survive, while others will fall deeper into debt and end up trapped in bonded labour – India’s most prevalent form of modern slavery – according to activists.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
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