An Introduction to the The Child and Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation)
Act, 1986 was proclaimed by the Government of India in order to regulate the
provisions with regards to child labour within the Country. Various Amendments
took place in the above-mentioned Act in the year 2016 and 2017.
This Four Part Act, is trailed by a Schedule is shaped with the with aim to
address the problems related to the peoples living in today's society, alongside
that preclude the involvement of Children under fourteen years old in
unambiguous business or employment. The Part C of the Act puts forth the
guidelines and regulations of the conditions of work of Children, on which the
current report is based.
The Acts forbids an employment of child in around 13 occupations and around
51 processes.
Following are the Occupations That Have Been Prohibited by the
above-mentioned Act
- Transport Of Passengers, Goods Or Mails By Railways
- Making of Bidi
- Weaving of Carpet
- Manufacturing of Matches, Explosives And Fire
- Manufacturing of Soap.
- Cleaning of Wool
- Industry Building And Construction.
The Government of India Has Additionally Prohibited the Working Of Children
In The Accompanying Occupations Or Cycles:
- Abattoirs/Slaughterhouses
- Hazardous Processes And Dangerous Operations As Notified
- Printing as Defined,
- Cashew And Cashew Nut Descaling And Processing
- Soldering Cycles In Electronic Industry.
Historical Background
- The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986
According to Article 24 of the Constitution of India, "No child below the
age of fourteen years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or
employed in any hazardous employment". The Act assigned a Child as an
Individual who had not finished fourteen years with an object to control the
functioning hours and conditions, and to restrict working of children in
perilous areas or in industries.
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- The Child and Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act,
2016
This Amended Act totally denies the work of Children who have not finished
fourteen years old. The restriction of work of Children in dangerous
occupations and hazardous process has been expanded to the age group of
Children between fourteen to eighteen years of age, in the mean time
directing the working circumstances where they are not forbidden.
Serious Punishment for the employers who disregard the provisions of the Act
was additionally made stricter while making the offense of employing any
Child or adolescent in contradiction of the Act by an employer cognizable.
It is here when the name of the Act was likewise revised.
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- The Child And Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment
Rules, 2017
A revision in the Child And Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation)
Amendment Rules, 2017 as Standards was made for giving a specific wide
system to prevent, prohibit, rescue and rehabilitate the Child and
Adolescent, while illuminating the issues related with assistance in family
and family endeavors. Meaning of family concerning Child have been
consolidated in the rules alongside a few specific provisions. Safeguards
with regards to specialists as far as concerned in terms of their long hour
of work have likewise been provided.
Summary
The subject refers to Part III of the Act, as it incorporates Sections 6 to 13.
It contains specific guidelines which are essentially required to be followed by
the employer while employing an adolescent. Below are the major outlines of the
Part.
- Application
The Provisions of this particular Part of the Act will apply to the
establishment or any class of establishment where the occupations or
processes which are alluded to in Section 3 are not being carried on.
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- Hours and time of work
As referenced in Section 7:
- No adolescent representative will work throughout the hours which have
been decided and recommended for the establishment or class of establishment
- The establishment fix the number of hours
- A time span of three hour should not be surpassed without giving
relaxation or break of 60 minutes
- Maximum limit of work hours for a day will be six, including an interval
hour.
- No adolescent representative to work between 7 PM to 8 AM
- An Adolescent young adult can't work in two establishments at the same
time or the same day.
Exception:
Where a process is carried on by the occupier with the specific Aids
given by the Government or it gets assistance or acknowledgment from Government
for it.
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- Weekly Holidays as per Section 8
- One occasion in a week is compulsory.
- A permanent notification must be displayed in an obvious space, with
respect to the day of the week be taken as a vacation, which can't be
modified more than once in ninety days.
Exception case: Where a process is carried on by the occupier with the aids of
Government or it gets assistance or acknowledgment from Government for it.
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- Notice to Inspector as per Section 9
- On an employment of an adolescent a notice in a written form is to be sent
within a local jurisdiction to the Inspector within the prescribed time
limit of thirty days.
- It should to contain the following particulars:
- the name and the place of the establishment where it is situated,
- name of the individual who manages or deals with the establishment,
- the postal address of the establishment,
- Various other details like the nature of occupation or process which is
carried on in the establishment.
Exception: Where a process is carried on by the occupier with the aid of
Government or it gets assistance or acknowledgment from Government for it.
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- Disputes with regards to the Age as per Section 10
In the event of dispute between an Inspector and the occupier of the
establishment on the age of adolescent, the Inspector has a right to prescribe a
medical authority to decide the age of such adolescent in the exceptional cases
as if the birth certificate is not available.
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- Maintenance of Register as per Section 11
Occupier has to maintain and keep up-to-date records in a register with regards
to the employment of adolescent or allowed to work in any establishment. The
register should be accessible by an Inspector for inspection all through the
functioning hours of the establishment.
The register should contain:
- The name and date of birth of each and every adolescent employed or
allowed to work
- hours and times of work of any such adolescent and the time frames to
which they are entitled
- nature of work
- any other points as may be prescribed therein.
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- Displaying the Notice containing the abstract of Sections 3A and 14
A notification containing the abstract of Sections 3A and 14 must be displayed
in an obvious and accessible place at each railway station by each railway
administration, each Port Authority and each occupier. This notice should to be
in the regional language as well as in the English language too.
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- Health and Safety
An appropriate government make rules for the health and safety of the Adolescent
employed or allowed to work in any establishment or class of establishment by
notice in the Official Gazette. The Act contains a list of issues on which rules
are essentially required to be made on all or any of them.
Interpretation
After going through the provisions of part III of the Act, a significant
Amendment which can be noticed all through is the utilization of the word
adolescent rather than child, while prohibiting the child work totally. Making a
recognition between child adolescent was a positive development.
As before the
amendment Child work was not completely abrogated. Only those Children working
in dangerous or hazardous industries were restricted to provide them employment
which insisted that it is the legislation who is encouraging the children to
work.
While it was constantly endorsed that the main goal of the Act was to address
the social concern and forbid the commitment of Children in terms of employment,
the provisions suggested something different by and large.
We have made considerable progress from 1986 where Child labour wasn't
prohibited to now in 2016 when child labour is unequivocally restricted, while
as yet leaving a lacuna the adolescent being utilized or employed.
Drawing a difference between Children and adoloscents in view of regardless of
whether they have achieved 14 years of age or not on the off chance that an idea
which is being discussed tremendously.
Many believe that this change of 2016 is very much retrogressive in nature
putting extraordinary accentuation on the way that it took 30 years to finally
have the option to make it happen.
Despite the fact that the penalty has been increased in the offense husband made
cognizable, the situations of children being employed and adolescents working in
unsafe or hazardous industries are still in existence and being heard too. This
lead us to think that stricter provisions are required to be in this regards.
The Executive's role requires to be fortified and strengthened.
Conclusion
At last, we sorted out that the subject relates to a part of recently amended
child and adolescent (prohibition and regulation) act.
In this report we went through the set of history and need of having an act as
such in implementation. We talked about the different regulations which are
imposed by this Act on the occupier when they employed adolescents. The lists of
obligations, necessity to keep a register, directions on working hours, holidays
as the week progressed and prerequisite to send a notification.
We additionally examined the amendments, which has been existence in this Act
through the time, the significant one being incorporation of the word Adolescent
While forbidding Child Labour by and large. The impact of this must be visible
for the Name of the Act, which went from being the Child Labor (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act to the Child and Adolescent (Prohibition and Regulation) Act.
At last, we went through an assessment on the amendment, it's timing and the
need of additional or further amendments.
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