Child issues

Story hook

It is 2014. A 60-year-old Indian activist, Kailash Satyarthi, shares the Nobel Peace Prize with Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai. His citation: "for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the right of all children to education." Satyarthi's Bachpan Bachao Andolan has rescued 1.1 lakh+ children from bonded labour, mining, carpet looms, and trafficking rings.

Yet in the same year India still has 1.01 crore working children (Census 2011 figure). The youngest face — a 9-year-old girl stitching footballs in Meerut for the FIFA World Cup. The oldest adult complicity — middle-class households employing child domestic workers.

Article 24 of the Constitution promised: "No child below the age of fourteen shall be employed to work in any factory or mine." Seven decades later, the promise is partial. This file maps the laws, the loopholes, the schemes, and the stark numbers.

Why this matters for UPSC

For UPSC:

• Prelims: Article 24, Child Labour Amendment Act 2016 (5-14 prohibition + 14-18 adolescent + family enterprise exception), POCSO Act 2012/2019, JJ Act 2015.
• Mains GS-I + GS-II: Vulnerable sections, education access, social justice, vulnerable to trafficking.
• Interview: Personal opinion on family enterprise exception + domestic workers.