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Poverty creates many problems such as child labour, prostitution, corruption, robbery, increased unemployment, poor living conditions, malnutrition. Poverty influences children in
many social ways, for instance that malnutrition can affect health and education which in turn may impact a child’s long term development.
The consequences of poverty and inequality are very significant for children. Children experience poverty differently from adults; they have specific and
different needs. While an adult may fall into poverty temporarily, falling into poverty in childhood can last a lifetime – rarely does a child get a second
chance at an education or a healthy start in life. Even short periods of food deprivation can impact children’s long-term development. If children do not
receive adequate nutrition, they grow smaller in size and intellectual capacity, are more vulnerable to life threatening diseases, perform worse in
school, and ultimately, are less likely to be productive adults. Child poverty threatens not only the individual child, but is likely to be passed on to future
generations, entrenching and even exacerbating inequality in society. Ortiz et al.2012:1
Practically, poor people faces inadequate basic needs such as food, clothing, health facilities etc. People who live below poverty line, live in sever housing conditions and poor
sanitary and hygienic conditions. Many of them live in slums or poor residential areas and some of them lack hosing, health care and nutrition sufficiency. Although illiteracy is far
more prevalent among poor people, many of them lack education or they drop out of school because of high cost of schooling. In general, poor people earn little and in such cases parents
are not able to take care of all the responsibilities of their children and they oblige their children to work to increase household’s income.
2.5 Child Labour
Child labour has been a complex rural problem, as well with children helping out in the farm with their families. The vast majority of child labour is involved in agriculture.
Generally, throughout the world rural children were more likely to be engaged in economic labour activities compared to urban children, because poverty is more prevalent in rural areas
especially among those who depend on agriculture. Poor rural families considers making
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their children work in farms, may increase household’s income. It is as a recent survey conducted by the International Labour Organisation in The Elimination of Chils Labour
Whose Responsibility? 2003 that: Out of these 61 per cent are in Asia, 32 percent in Africa and 7 per cent,
India has the largest number of child labourers. It is also true that child labour in India is more of a rural phenomenon with more than 90 per cent
children working in agricultural and allied activities in the village.
Child labour is a kind of child worker who work hard something difficult or do some hard physical work. Child labour refers to the employment of children in any work that
deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. It is as Pramila H.
Bhargava 2003:23 mentions in The Elimination of Chils Labour Whose Responsibility? that:
The definition of child labour constitutes any act where children between the age of 5 and 14 years are directly or indirectly forced to work at home
or outside it. As a consequence, children are not only deprived of their dignity but also their freedom to play, and their scope to develop physically,
mentally and emotionally is lost.
Not all work are done by children should be classified as child labour that is to be targeted for elimination. Children’s or adolescents’ participation in work that does not affect
their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, is generally regarded as being something positive. This includes activities such as helping their parents around the
home, assisting in a family business or earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays. These kinds of activities contribute to children’s development and to
the welfare of their families; they provide them with skills and experience, and help to prepare them to be productive members of society during their adult life.
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2.6 Socio-economic factors related to child labour
