1.1 Prelude to Child Labour

Child is the father of a man. Child is the wealth of a state. Child is the hope and future of a nation. Child is the precursor of human civilization. When the child is so important in the life of a nation; he can neither be ignored nor neglected in the onward march of a world civilization. Children should therefore be properly reared up for the sake of human civilization, for the sake of a nation and its government. Environment should be so created that a child may properly grow physically; mentally as well as intellectually to play its role in tomorrow’s society.
Child is the continuation of human civilization and bears the testimony of parenthood and generation. He is the foundation of a family, a society, a nation and the world as a whole. He requires careful and effective measures for his proper nourishment by the concerned person and authority. He is to be provided with the basics he requires. But unfortunately this does not prevail all over the world equally specially in the developing countries. A few fortunate children of these countries are provided with the basics while the rest are denied of their basic needs, physical and mental growth. They are compelled to offer labour for their livelihood before they attain majority. They work with the hammer and the spade instead of working with the book and the pencil. Sometimes, circumstantially they go into the clutches of anti-social elements, creating law and order problems and finally they become the liability of the state instead of becoming an asset.
Therefore, the ultimate duty to develop a child lies within the state and its government and because of this duty from time immemorial law considers the head of the state as the parens patria of every child within the country. In the eye of the law, the head of the state is the guardian of all children within it. It is thought that the duties which the parents perform towards their children are the duties of the state and the parents perform all these as the state’s representatives; and for this reason if the parents neglect to perform, they become answerable to the state and sometimes face punishment.
Today the child becomes a labour at a very early age when he should free from the anxiety of food, clothing and education, when his mental facilities would develop unhindered he toils in the sun and wipes the salty sweat off his brow only to keep the bone and flesh together. Hunger, poverty and illiteracy have taken him from the shade to the sun and engaged him in physical labour. The development of his mental faculties, his health and his right to live are at stake today. The state of affairs about the children is very dangerous and not at all beneficial to the nation and state as well. If the fundamental rights of the children are not protected, if the basic needs of life of the children are not met, the country will face a bleak future.
Child labour is a world-wide problem today. To the conscious community of the modern world child labour is no more a new phenomenon; people are well-acquainted with child labour. From the dawn of human society children have been utilized and exploited in various forms. But the development of commerce and industry and the consequent urbanization of society child labour has become rampant. Children are earning to supplement the income of their parents. They are being used by their parents and guardians to help the family financially.
Child labour is as old as human history in all societies of the world. Young child in tribal and agricultural societies work to help their families and communities. Children have to work for the survival of their own and their families as well because of necessity. So child labour has been more or less in existence in some form or other in all periods of time. According to Mendelievich1:
“To a greater or lesser extent, children in every type of human society have always taken part, and still do take part, in those economic activities which are necessary if the group to which they belong to is to survive.”
Children have been exploited in different ways from the beginning of human society. It is evident that the child was treated as a chattel of his parents and they had the right to kill the child at birth, to sell him, to exploit his labour or to offer him as a sacrifice to a diety.2 According to Despert, J Louise “The Child’s position in the average family in the masses was for centuries roughly in this order: father, cattle, mother, child.”3 1.2.1 Roman Period

The history of ancient Rome is the history of slavery.4 They inherited it from the Greeks and Phoenicians. They expanded the institution of slavery with the territorial growth of the Roman Empire. The Romans developed slavery systematically with a view to free the local population for wars of conquest which in return brought slaves from North Africa, Iberia, Gaul, Britain and Germanic lands.5
The sources of slavery were many and varied. In primitive Athens and Rome, creditors enslaved their insolvent debtors. Children also had been sold by their poor parents. The principle sources of slaves were war, piracy and kidnapping, breeding and import from barbarian lands. Victors in war always possessed and frequently exercised the right of selling captives. It is evident that when a city was captured, the whole population was often sold into slavery. An individual became a slave often by capture, or force; as punishment of some offence; by birth from slave parents; by sale for non-payment of debt; or by sale by parents, guardians or chieftains.6
Normally there were two sources of slavery- (i) by birth or (ii) by captive of war. According to the slavery by birth a child, a child of a slave woman and a free man was a slave. But the child of a free woman and a slave man was free and the child was free if the mother had been free anytime between conception and birth of the child.7 In few cases the child of a free woman might be a slave.8 The sale of a new born child was allowed from the third century and in the fourth and fifth centuries the sale of older children was also allowed.9
Roman family was considered as the legal unit and the pater familias (head of the family) was regarded as the only full person according to law. The pater familias was said to be sui iuris (independent), those in his power (whether children, slaves or person in manicipio) were alieni iuris (dependent). The head of the family (pater familias) used to hold extreme power over the life and death of his children under the patria pstestas (power of pater familias).10 He had power of uncontrolled corporeal punishment. He could sell his children, transfer them to another family by gift or adoption and he even had the right to hand the child over instead of paying the penalty for a wrong doing by him.11 So it appears that from the beginning of human society children have been exploited in different ways. 1.2.2 Child Labour and Industrial Revolution

Child labour is the employment of child as wage earners. In 1700’s during the industrial revolution in Great Britain child labour became a serious social problem. The problem also extended to those countries which later became industrialized. Children were by many businesses in Britain during the 1700’s. They worked for lower wages than adults. Factory owners wanted to use children’s small, nimble fingers for handling machines. Children worked for low wages in dirty, poorly lighted factories, mills and mines. They often performed jobs that required adult strength. Many children worked to help support their unemployed parents.12
In the early stages of the Industrial Revolution in Britain children were used as the substitute for adult expensive labour. Evidence shows that without the assistance of child labour it was quite difficult to get work for a single man as well as old men.13
There were many parentless or abandoned children during the great social dislocations of the early Industrial Revolution called pauper children. Pauper apprentices worked in the early water-frame machines. They could easily do than adults. As they were helpless, friendless class they were abused but in some places children even seem to have been kindly treated. These apprentices were provided with food and housing. By 1816 the pauper apprentices seem to have become rare, because the early factories were set-up near waterfalls. Labour had to be imported there being a sparse population. Obtaining steam power the newer factories were set up on coal fields near towns. The children who lived with their parents were hired by these factories. The condition of children’s work in these factories was very distressing. There was the heated atmosphere (often eighty to eighty-five degrees) and there was an enormous amount of dust. According to evidence given in 1816, it was impossible to see across the room in some departments of cotton spinning. The hours of work were from twelve to fourteen with only one hour off for dinner, while they had to take their other meals at work. They had no scope for rest and they had to work the whole day on their feet. Children had to work overtime to make up for the irregularity of water supply in case of water mills.14
Industrial Revolution means change and developments. These are the development of engineering development in iron-making, change in textiles, creation of the great chemical industries, great development of coal mining, development in the means of transport. Coal and iron played a pivotal role for the development of the industrial revolution.15

Iron needed coal and coal meant the expansion of mining and the absorbing more men, women and children. Because of harsh reality parents were compelled to allow their children to work. Children's earnings were a vital part of those family budgets. For carding and spinning factories the owners were greedy for cheap labour. The family had always been an economic unit with wife and children working alongside the husband in the traditional cottage or domestic industry. The adult spinners hired and paid children. Even they used their own children. To act as trappers, children were taken underground as soon as they were physically lit.16 Though Industrial Revolution robbed children of their childhood but in fact it did not create child labour rather systematized (child labour) to an appalling extent.17

1.2.3 Child labour in the Sub-continent

Child labour is the combination of multiple causes. The main causes are poverty, large family, unemployment, absence of compulsory education, absence of scheme for family allowance, illiteracy and ignorance of parents, cheaper rates of child labour, inadequate family income, slow process of protective labour legislation, inadequate and ineffective inspecting machinery to check up the child labour.18 Child labour is usually a combination of poverty, poor performance of children at school, parents' desire to keep their children occupied and uncertainty at home.19
The causes of child labour vary from developed to less developed countries. In developed countries, children mainly work to earn some pocket money. On the other hand, in less developed countries the principal cause of child labour is poverty. Other causes are entrenched tradition, lack of schools and recreational infrastructure, tensions and uncertainties of the family. It is noted that the causes of child labour are almost similar throughout the Sub-continent viz. India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

1.1.3.1 Child Labour in India:

In India the main cause of child labour is the extreme poverty. Other causes also exist there like traditional attitudes, urbanization, industrialization, migration, lack of schools or reluctance of parents to send their children to school, cheap labour and availability of children.21
From the dawn of humanity children were engaged in activities in home as well as outside. Along with the adult they performed hard work both in agriculture and industries. In the medieval age children were put into apprenticeship. They learned craft or trade under the supervision of their parents. It has been following even today in agriculture or other farm work.22
Slavery was the most cruel of all works of children. For a sum of money children were sold openly. Sometimes landlords brought them from their tenants or sometimes children were taken away to work in carpet weaving, glass manufacturing and prostitution. The rural impoverished families were paid an advanced amount by the labour contractors. In the family bondage system, children had to work to pay off their family loans or other obligations. The situation operated in such a way that it is difficult or in some cases even impossible for those families to pay off or repay their debts. In an inter-generational bondage arrangement a family may remain bonded through generation. In exchange for the upkeep of their children the poor parents surrendered them to work. They assumed that children will be better provided in wealthy or abundant families as unpaid servants than in their own families.23 In ancient India child labour existed as child slaves. For doing low and dishonorable work children who were less than eight (8) years of age were purchased or sold like commodities. The children of slaves were born as slaves, lived and died as slaves unless their masters were satisfied to release them.24
The number of child workers in India was 10.74 million or 4.66% of all children aged 5 -l 4 according to the government census 1971. The number increased in 1981 as 3.6 million or 5.2%.25
By using National Sample Survey (NSS) data study of 1986, the Ministry of Labour estimated the number of working children India-wide to be 16.6 million, 9.1% of India's children.26
It is mention-worthy that if children participate in piece-rate work with their families work in a household-based industry with their families, are employed as domestic servants, are engaged in unpaid work to help their families or work intermittently are not usually recorded as workers. So the exact number of working children in India varies greatly. According to the 1983 NSS the figure was 17 million and by the Operations Research Group of Baroda, it was 44 million. The 1981 Census showed that 82 of India's 159 million school-aged children (aged 6 to 14) were out of school which indicated some form of child labour.27
In India the number of child labour is nearly 100 million according to some NGOs. It is noted that the government has recognized the employment of children in the match industry in Sivakasi the diamond polishing industry in Surat, the precious stone polishing industry in Jaipur, the glass industry in Firozabad, the brassware industry in Moradabad, the carpet industry in Mirzapur, Jammu and Kashmir, the lock-making industry in Aligarh and the slate making industry in Mandsaur and Markapur.28
Maximum involvements of children are found in agriculture, domestic service and rag-picking. According to a study of 1994, more than five million children remain working as bonded labourers.29 l n the sex industry 5,00,000 girls work as prostitutes.30

1.1.3.2 Child Labour in Pakistan:

In Pakistan the majority of working children are originated from the working class. But some young children of upper-middle and upper-class families are also found to work in their own businesses. Parents are responsible for their male children before puberty and female children up to their marriage. It is noted that the current movement towards Islam in Pakistan compels the girls to marry early and for this reason they cannot go to school or if they are already at school, they have to leave. Boys are bound to work instead of study to support the family.31
According to 1986-87 Labour Force Survey, the number of 10-14 years old working children is 19%, and the percentage of rural and urban children is 23% and 10% respectively. Boys are higher than girls in number. It is noted that children of below 10 years of age, children working as domestic servants in private homes, children doing domestic labour in their own homes and children in carpet weaving and brick making occupations are not included by the Labour Source Statistics. According to a study by UNICEF in 1990 there are 8 million working children in Pakistan.32
In Pakistan, agriculture is the main sector in which the largest number of rural children have been involved and urban children work in small factories, hotels, shops, garages, in domestics service in middle and upper class homes and self-employed on streets. Approximately one-fourth of urban working children are below ten years of age. Among them more than half work ten or more hours a day and 88% work from eight to ten hours per day.33
There are one million child carpet workers in Pakistan, the majority of whom work in Punjab and they are below fifteen. The total number of carpet weavers in Punjab is 1.5 million and 30% of them are children of below ten years of age.34 A conservative estimate for child brick kiln workers is 250,000. Many of these children are bonded labourers.35 Bonded labour also exists in agriculture, mining and carpet-weaving.

1.1.3.3 Child Labour in Bangladesh:

In poor countries like Bangladesh poverty is considered as the main reason for child labour.36 Most of the poor people of Bangladesh have a tendency to abandon wife with children. Dire poverty, separation and divorce of wife make women desperate. In search of livelihood they are compelled to migrate in the city with their children. The situation of children goes to worsening position if there are step-mother, step-father, addicted family members to which they belong.37
Rapid Assessment indicates three factors38 as the causes of child labour in Bangladesh. Such factors are push, pull and interactive factors. Push factor compels children to earn livelihood for themselves or their families. Poverty is the most powerful push factor for child labour in Bangladesh. Pull factor attracts the children to join the labour force .In nature the attractions are economic or psycho-social. The urban economy has created more economic opportunities than rural economy of the country, as for examples garment factories, match industries, small engineering workshops, biscuit factories, hosiery, construction sector and other industries and informal sectors. Interactive factor is a combination of push and pull factors. These are continuous poverty, hunger and abuse by family members, attraction of the city life, desire to earn money. In search of livelihood children even run away and migrate to cities.
Since the British period children in Bengal are integral part of the family. The peasants have formed the deprived class of people. They could not keep pace with their oversized families by their meager income. The peasant worked in the zaminders’ field or on his own farm as a labour. They took assistance from their children. In 1971, during the War of Liberation, peasants moved with their families from place to place as refugees. Thus many children were isolated and had to fend for themselves. Bangladesh became independent with numerous socio-economic problems. This also brought a change in the type of work. Previously, while they used to work in traditional agricultural activities now they work in non-traditional hazardous sector.39

1.1.3.3.1 Garment Industries and Child Labour

The essence of export oriented industries was felt from the poor economic condition of the country. The average growth rate of 1978-80 was only 3.5% and 3.8% during second five year plan. It indicates the poor performance of the national economy of the country. Under this circumstance utmost importance is given to export oriented industries, especially garment industry.40
It is observed that Bangladesh attached more importance to garments industry as a potential area for earning foreign exchange from the very beginning of 1980s.41 During the period Bangladesh government has taken some steps to encourage the local and foreign investors for garment industry. Among the steps "Foreign Investment Act of 1980" is mention worthy. And consequently Bangladesh gets a golden opportunity to expand its market abroad. Foreign investment has also played a significant role in garments industry in Bangladesh. During the 80s Singapore, India, Korea, U.K., U.S.A., Belgium, Hong Kong, Switzerland have also made a handsome amount of money in garment industry in Bangladesh.42
In this way garment industries become a prosperous and profitable industry in Bangladesh. It is noted from the 80s the garment industry is the biggest foreign exchange earner and now comprises 76% of its total national exports. And within a short period a good number of poor and destitute wmen and children got employment opportunity in garments industries. Though there are no precise statistics of child labour, a sampling study estimates it to be around 55,000 out of a total of 600,000 earning approximately $8 to $12 per month.43
The need of the employment of huge workers was found in these factories. The owners of these industries found it profitable to appoint child workers at low wages along with adult workers. Child workers also found a safe haven to supplement their families with their income which is earned from these industries. The discriminatory wages of the child worker did not at the beginning attract the attention of the social workers or the government and the child workers also did not raise any objection to this wage discrimination. On a fear of being fired from job the child workers were working in the garments factories of Bangladesh under unjust service conditions and in unhealthy environment. This situation continued for over a decade and the owners of these factories and industries were amassing wealth exploiting child workers.
Things however, started changing after American Senator Tom Harkin had introduced a bill (Child Labour Deterrence Act of 1994) in the Senate prohibiting import of garments from countries using child labour. It has been stated in this Bill that America will not buy readymade clothes from countries where children below the age of 15 are employed in garments industries. The Government of Bangladesh has supported the Harkin Bill and as a result BGMEA, UNICEF and ILO signed a tripartite agreement named Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on 4 July, 1995. It has been signed to stop child labour in garments industries and educate the child workers. By this time several schools have been started for the child workers and each of them is given TK .300/- per month in the form of allowance.

1.2 Background of the Study

Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries, with 128.1 million population within 1,41,570 sq. km. of land. The density of population is 868 per sq. km.44 Children constitute16% under 5 and 44% under 5 years of age population.45 The number of child labour is about 6.6 million which constitutes 19% of all children in the 5-14 age group.46 The number of' child labour is increasing day by day. There are about 7 million working children in Bangladesh aged between 5-1 4. This accounts for 20% of all children in this age group and 12% of the labour force. According to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) of 1990-91, 65% were male and 36% were female.47 Out of 6.6 some 2.5 million (25 lac) urban, working children are mostly found in the informal sector. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics identified 301 types of economic activities in which young children are involved in urban areas of Bangladesh and 90 types in the rural area. Of these 301 activities, 49 are identified as hazardous for children.48
Morally and legally child labour is not supported nationally and internationally. But in spite of this, child labour is being used in abundance across the developing countries.
The Constitution of Bangladesh has guaranteed rights of children as well as child labour. Besides this there are various laws framed by the government to protect the interest of child workers and to look after the welfare of children. Bangladesh is one of the earliest signatory countries to the Convention on the rights of the Child (UNCRC). lnspite of these, exploitation of children exists on an alarming nature and scale. This study will bring to light the various aspects of child labour and suggest means to improve their lot if it is at all retained.

1.3 Definition of Child Labour

There are two components of the term 'Child Labour' i .e. “Child” and “Labour”. “Child” means childhood of certain chronological age and “Labour” means its nature, quantum and income generation capacity. So child labour is that child population which participates in work and either paid or unpaid unjustly.49
Before discussing child labour in details it would be better to clarify the words ‘Child’ and ‘Labour’ separately.
The word ‘Child’ has no universally accepted definition. It is linked with racial and climatic factors. These factors have an impact over physical and mental maturity, socio-economic conditions, social norms and practices, educational system and relevant national legal context of the country.50
Child is an English word. The Bangla word Shishu is not directly equivalent to child. Shishu has been chosen to translate child for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Shishu is a child who is innocent, protected and dependent as well as who has no understanding or maturity.51
In Bangladesh the concept of ‘child’ differs from that of western concept. Age is the main indicator of childhood. But in some societies, the fulfillment of certain rites and traditional obligations along with age are necessary requirements to define a child’s status.52

1.4.4 Child Age in Different Laws

Child is a person between about 18 months and 13 years of age.53 In Bangladesh different legislations provide different age limits of a child and it is noted that this age limit confine to 12 to 18 years of age. The age limit of a child provided under different legislations are as follows: Sl.No. | Law | Age(Year) | | | Child | 1 | The Divorce Act (Christian), 1869 (Act No. V of 1869) | Son: Below 16Girl: Under 13 | 2 | The Majority Act. 1875 (Act No. lX of 1875) | Below 18 | 3 | The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890 (Act No. Vll of 1890) | " | 4 | The Railways Act, 1890 (Act. No. IX of 1890) | " | 5 | The Code of Crimina Procedure, 1898 (Act No. V of 1898) | " | 6 | The Juvenile Smoking Act 1919 (Bengal Act of No. II of 1919) | " | 7 | The Mines Act, 1923 (Bengal Act No. lX of 1923) | Below 15 | 8 | The Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 (Act No. VI of 1923) | " | 9 | The Nationalisation Act, 1926 (Act No. VII of 1926) | " | 10 | The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 (Act no XIX of 1929) (According to Present Amendment) | Male: 21 Female: Under 18 | 11 | The Children (Pledging of Labour) Act, 1933 (Act No. II of 1933) | Under 15 | 12 | The Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act, 1933(Act No. VI of 1933) | " | 13 | The Employment of Children Act, 1938 (Act No. XXVI of 1938) | " | 14 | The Vagrancy Act, 1943 (Bengal Law No. VII of 1943) | Under 14 | 15 | The Orphanages and Widows Homes Act, 1944 (Act No. III of 1944) | " | 16 | The Minimum Wages Ordinance, 1961 ( Ordinance No. XXXIX of 1961) | " | 17 | The Tea Plantations Labour Ordinance, 1962 (Ordinance No. XXXIX of 1962) | Below 15 | 18 | The Shops and Establishments Act, 1965 (East Pakistan Act No. VII of 1965) | Below 12 | 19 | The Factories Act, 1965 (East Pakistan Act No. IV of 1965) | Below 16 | 20 | The Bangladesh Abandoned Children (Special Provision) Order, 1972 (President Order No. 124 of 1972) | " | 21 | The Children Act, 1974 (Act No. XXXIX of 1974) | " | 22 | The Bangladesh Shishu Academy Ordinance, 1976 (Ordinance No. LXXIV of 1976) | " | 23 | National Children Policy (NCP), 1994 | Below 14 | 24 | The Convention on the Rights of the Children, 1989 (Activities of UNICEF) | Below 18 | 25 | The Women and Children Oppression (Suppression) Act, 2000 | Below 14 |

It reveals from the above table that there is no uniformity of ages in the Acts to ascertain the actual age of a child. There should be standard age limit of a child in all the Acts relating to children. But, as a matter of fact, there is no uniform mentioning of ages. Apart from all these, all legislations regarding the definition of children should be provided with uniformity with a view to keeping pace with international accepted definition.
But age differ from activity to activity and from country to country. Again the compulsory education age and minimum age for work varies from country to country. In Bangladesh, there is legally some confusion to set different minimum ages for admission to employment or work in different sectors.
Compulsory Education Age and Minimum Age for Admission to Employment by regions of Asia are as follows: 54 Country | Age Limits for Compulsory Education | Minimum Age for Work | | | Basic Minimum Age | Light Work | Dangerous/Hazardous Work | Bangladesh | 6-10 | 12 to 15 (by sector) | - | 16 to 18 | China | 7-16 | 16 | - | 18 | India | 6-14 | 14 | No Limit | 18 | Japan | 6-15 | 15 | 12 | 18 | Nepal | 6-11 | 14 | 15 | 16 | Pakistan | 6-16 | 14 to 15 (by sector) | - | 15 to 21 | Sri Lanka | 5-15 | - | No Limit | 16-18 |

The above table presents a comparison of compulsory school ages with minimum age for admission to employment. Compulsory education laws and minimum age laws are interdependent. It is evident that children in school are reluctant to work. On the contrary, children who have no access to education have easy access to work or becoming beggars or delinquent.55
It is derived from the table that the basic minimum age limits in seven countries of Asia varies from 12 to 16 and compulsory education age limits varies from 6 to 16 years of age. Again the minimum age for hazardous work varies from 15 to 21 depending on the occupation. In most countries there are no age limits for light work.

1.4.5 Definition of Labour

According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English ‘Labour’ means physical or mental work. But Labour is something different from the work. It is decided in the Statement of the Children, Children’s Forum Against the Most Intolerable Forms of Child Labour like that-
“Child work does not have negative effects on children’s development because it is either voluntary work, not a profit-oriented activity or jobs within the household. It also opens opportunities in life and gives children new experiences. On the other hand, child labour is profit-oriented The child needs to work for the whole day every day, continuous work and it gears towards product-oriented industries and it is mentally and physically exhausting.”56
The most common activities performed by children are preparing food, fetching water or groceries or herding animals or caring for younger siblings or more steep work in the fields. This kind of work is not treated as hazardous rather beneficial to children and teaches them to participate in household chores, subsistence food-growing and income generating activities.57 So there is some complication about the definition of child labour, because the nature of work is very intimately connected with it. For example, if any child works voluntarily in his family, without leaving all his basics for his natural growth, he can’t be called a child labour.
Though “work” and “labour” are two different words but child labour is the synonym of employed or working child. It is also a paid occupation. So, child labour means any work done by a child for economic gain.58
Child labour has been defined by Homer Folks59, Chairman of the United States National Child Labour Committee as:
“Any work done by children that interferes with their full physical development, their opportunities for a desirable level of education or their needed recreation.”
According to V. V. Giri, the formal President of India-
“The term ‘child labour’ is commonly interpreted in two different ways: first, as an economic practice and second, a social evil. In the first context it signifies employment of children in gainful occupations with a view to adding to the total income of the family. In the second sense, the term ‘Child Labour’ is now more generally used. In assessing the nature and context of social evil, it is necessary to take into account the character of the jobs on which children are engaged , the danger to which they are exposed and the opportunities of development which they have been denied.”60
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), child labour has to do with working too young, working long hours, working under strain, working on streets, working for very little pay, working on dull repetitive tasks, having to take too much responsibility or being subject to intimidation.61
Kulshreshtha expresses another view regarding child labour. According to him:
“Three things are needed to be taken into consideration in the concept of child labour, firstly, the child should be employed in gainful occupation, secondly, the work to which he is exposed must be dangerous, and thirdly, it must deny to him the opportunity of development.”62
Therefore, child labour can be defined as involvement of children in any type of work detrimental to physical, mental, moral, intellectual and social development. Child labour means detrimental to the natural growth of childhood, denial of basic needs and exploitation of energy and vigor, in other words bringing down the maturity of a man.

1Elias Mendelievich, Children at Work, (Geneva: ILO, 1979), P3
2 Alfred Kadushin, Child Walfare Services (2nd ed.), (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1974), p.224
3 Despert J Louise, The Emotionally Disturbed Child – Then and Now, (New York: Robert Brunner, 1965), p. 15.
4 Ramkanto Singh, Roman Ain (Roman Law), (Dhaka: Mohanagar Law Book Centre, 1998), p. 240.
5 The encyclopedia American International, 1829 ed. Vol. 25. S. V. “Slavery”, p. 19.
6 Encyclopedia Britannica, 1768, Vol. 20, S. V. “Slavery”, pp. 629-632.
7Barry Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law, (London, Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 72.
8W. W. Buckland, A Text Book of Roman Law From Augustus to Justinian (London: The syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1966), p. 68.
9Ibid, 71.
10A n Introduction to Roman Law, pp. 65-68.
11 A Text Book of Roman Law From Augustus to Justinian, p. 104.
12 The World Book Encyclopedia, 1988 ed., S. V. ‘Child Labour’, Vol. 3, p. 455.
13 Pinchbeck, “Women Workers and the Industrial Revolution”, International Labour Review, Vol. 120, No. 1, 1981, p. 37.
14 L. C. A. Knowles, Industrial and Commercial Revolution in Great Britain During the Nineteenth Century, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1926), pp. 92-93
15Ibid, 17-22.
16Dorothy Marshall (ed.), Industrial England 1776-1851, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1973), pp. 99-100
17 Encyclopedia Americana International, 1981 ed., S. V. “Industrial Revolution”, Vol. 15, p. 123.
18 Child Labour in India, pp. 12-19.
19 Elias Mandelievich (ed.), Children at Work, (Geneva: ILO, 1979), pp. 8-9.
20 Elias Mandelievich “Child Labour”, International Labour Review, Vol. 118, No. 5, 1979, p.560.