Meeting child labour goals a distant dream for India

"I WAS CARRYING bricks and laying cement for twelve hours a day when I was 13 years old," recalled 16-year-old Ravi (name changed), who survived trafficking from a village in Prayagraj to Mumbai for road construction work.

- SREYA DEB

"We were expected to work from 7 am to 7 pm; the employers did not provide any food. We got only a 15-minute break all day," he recounted the horror to FE. Ravi was rescued and brought back home last year, after three years of bonded labour and abuse. However, there are lakhs of other children not so lucky.

The United Nation's sustainable development goal 8, target 8.7, reads eradication of all forms of child labour by 2025. However, as the world marks World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, India is nowhere close to the goal, with some states even extending the deadline by a year or two. As per Indian law, children under 14 years of age are prohibited from working in any occupation, while those between 14 and 18 are forbidden from hazardous occupations as per a 2012 amendment.