how long has child labor been going on
Child labour Child labour has existed to varying extents, through most of history. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many children aged 5â€“14 from poorer families still worked in Europe, the United States and various colonies of European powers. These children mainly worked in agriculture, home-based assembly operations, factories, mining and in services such as news boys. Some worked night shifts lasting 12 hours. With the rise of household income, availability of schools and passage of child labour laws, the incidence rates of child labour fell.[9][10][11]
Child labour in India As per the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, amended in 2016 ("CLPR Act"), a "Child" is defined as any person below the age of 14 and the CLPR Act prohibits employment of a Child in any employment including as a domestic help. It is a cognizable criminal offence to employ a Child for any work. Children between age of 14 and 18 are defined as "Adolescent" and the law allows Adolescent to be employed except in the listed hazardous occupation and processes which include mining, inflammable substance and explosives related work and any other hazardous process as per the Factories Act, 1948.[8] In 2001, an estimated 1% of all child workers, or about 120,000 children in India were in a hazardous job.[9] Notably, the Constitution of India prohibits child labour in hazardous industries (but not in non-hazardous industries) as a Fundamental Right under Article 24.[10] UNICEF estimates that India with its larger population, has the highest number of labourers in the world under 14 years of age, while sub-Saharan African countries have the highest percentage of children who are deployed as child labourers.[11][12][13] The International Labour Organisation estimates that agriculture, at 60 percent, is the largest employer of child labour in the world,[14] while the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates 70% of child labour is deployed in agriculture and related activities.[15] Outside of agriculture, child labour is observed in almost all informal sectors of the Indian economy.[16][17][18]