Child labour yields Rs 1.2 lakh crore black money in India

New Delhi, Jun 13: In spite of the various campaigns by government sensitizing the public on the booming child labour problem in India, the problem is still seeing an upswing. According to a report by an NGO, there were an estimated 6 crore child labourers in the country. If that was not all, approximately Rs 1.2 lakh crore is generated as black money through child labour every year in India.

The report presented by an NGO, Bachpan Bachao Andolan stated government estimates claiming that Rs 15 is spent on a child labourer per day with the equivalent cost of an adult worker is Rs 115 per day according to the National floor wage. Bhuwan Ribhu, a lawyer with the NGO commented, “That is a difference of Rs 100 per labourer. With the average number of working days in a year being about 200, the employers profit by Rs 1.2 lakh crore by employing child labour."

Explaining the magnanimity of the issue, the report added that considering the children worked for approximately 200 days a year bringing the total amount to somewhere close to Rs 18,000 crores annually.

The study by the NGO, 'Capital Corruption: Child Labour in India' states, "The greed for maximisation of profit fuels the demand for child labour, with children as cheapest form of labour. Child labour, corruption and flow of black money, fuel and sustain each other in an illicit nexus that only profits the employers and the middlemen."

Calling the money that the employers illegally save by employing children amounting to black money, the report divulges the method of calculations and adds, “The amount so calculated is Rs 18,000 crore in a year. Now, if these six crore child labourers can be substituted with the six crore adults with an average floor wage of Rs 115 per day, one labourer would generate Rs 1,38,000 crore. The difference between these two amount amounts to Rs 1.20 lakh crore."

OneIndia News