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<ul><li>Globally, human trafficking is a $150 billion industry, and India has lost 1.2 million of its children to this.</li><li>Already, 40% of Indian women in the sex trade are children, and added to that 66% of the revenue generated from trafficking comes from sexual exploitation.</li><li>Child porn is an $8 billion industry for content creation only. </li></ul> (Disclaimer: This interview was originally published on Business Insider in July 2019) Most of India’s lost children end up in brothels. Already, 40% of Indian women in the sex trade are children, and added to that 66% of the revenue generated from trafficking comes from sexual exploitation. Unfortunately, this is only increasing as children are also being extensively used for child porn as well, which has exploded in the era of high-speed internet. “In India, short films are produced while the children are being raped. If the girl is a virgin or being gang raped by a group of boys, such a blue film is sold at a higher price,” <keyword id="377475" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kailash-Satyarthi">Kailash Satyarthi</keyword> tells Business Insider in an interview. Since there is a premium on the ‘age’ of such victims, younger and younger children are roped into this trade. Globally, human trafficking is a $150 billion industry, and India has lost 1.2 million of its children to this. Many such children end up in Internet chat rooms where they are put in obscene situations as well, making child porn the root of many ills. Some children are either brainwashed or medicated to take part in this ugly industry. And, this business extends across borders and it’s large. Globally, only content creation of child porn is $8 billion industry. Chat rooms &amp; blackmail The Nobel laureate has been working for enslaved and trafficked children, is also waging a war against child porn. Satyarthi has been demanding a legally binding UN convention from world leaders which can monitor the activities and also have enough teeth to prosecute offenders across borders. “The reason it is proliferating; is that it is a profitable business for those without a conscience. There are no costs; all the source material is either trafficked or hacked into! And payments are not traceable, because they use either cold cash, or crypto-currencies or some such mind boggling currency,” he explains. Porn and crime Porn has two sinister faces where child victims are used to create them, and some of its consumers are children too. Today, thanks to telecom revolution and cheap data, children across hinterlands of India wield smart phones. Unfortunately they access videos with graphic content which glorifies rape, gang rape and violence, seeding such thoughts into young minds. Satyarthi tells the disturbing story where four boys aged between 12 and 15 who were heavy consumers of porn. “One of them had a 7 year old sister. One day, when the parents were not home; the boy brought on gang rape on his own sister! They gang raped that girl. Such exposure erodes our sense of morality,” he laments. Prosecution The problem is deeply entrenched into the fabric of the society. Yet, the government too is playing its part to eradicate it. In the last one year, the number of prosecution against criminals in trafficking has increased five-fold. But, freeing such children from the industry is only one side of the coin. To help them, government formed a victim compensation scheme, but it has a few loopholes. The victims are not entitled to the compensation until the summary trial begins, and activists are working on ways where the rehabilitation process starts faster. In the case of child prostitutes, psychological, social integration is a challenge. This is also true with victims of rape, where society places stigma on the victim and the family. “It’s a shame that, the victims are always treated as culprits, they are stigmatized. It’s a sickness, this is the dirt in our minds and we should clean it,” says Satyarthi.

This Kailash Satyarthi interview is a reminder that the worst form of child labour is child porn — an $8 billion industry

By Yoshita Singh United Nations, Jun 12 () The COVID-19 crisis may push millions more children into child labour, including in countries like India, Brazil and Mexico, reversing progress made over the last 20 years during when it was brought down by 94 million, according to a new report. According to the new brief from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNICEF titled 'COVID-19 and child labour: A time of crisis, a time to act' released on Friday, child labour decreased by 94 million since 2000, but that gain is now at risk. "Millions more children risk being pushed into child labour as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, which could lead to the first rise in child labour after 20 years of progress," the agencies said. The report, released on the occasion on World Day Against Child Labour marked on June 12, said that children already in child labour may be working longer hours or under worsening conditions and more of them may be forced into the worst forms of labour, which causes significant harm to their health and safety. The report noted that children are often the most available labour in households and when families need more financial support, they turn to children. "Parental unemployment due to economic shocks in Brazil has led children to step in to provide temporary support, for example. Similar effects have been documented in Guatemala, India, Mexico and the United Republic of Tanzania," the report said. Evidence is also gradually mounting that child labour is rising as schools close during the pandemic, the agencies said adding that temporary school closures are currently affecting more than one billion learners in over 130 countries. "Even when classes restart, some parents may no longer be able to afford to send their children to school," they said. As a result, more children could be forced into exploitative and hazardous jobs. Gender inequalities may grow more acute, with girls particularly vulnerable to exploitation in agriculture and domestic work, the brief says. "As the pandemic wreaks havoc on family incomes, without support, many could resort to child labour," ILO Director-General Guy Ryder said. "Social protection is vital in times of crisis, as it provides assistance to those who are most vulnerable. Integrating child labour concerns across broader policies for education, social protection, justice, labour markets, and international human and labour rights makes a critical difference." According to the report, COVID-19 could result in a rise in poverty and therefore to an increase in child labour as households use every available means to survive. Some studies show that a one percentage point rise in poverty leads to at least a 0.7 per cent increase in child labour in certain countries. "In times of crisis, child labour becomes a coping mechanism for many families," UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said. "As poverty rises, schools close and the availability of social services decreases, more children are pushed into the workforce. As we re-imagine the world post-COVID, we need to make sure that children and their families have the tools they need to weather similar storms in the future. Quality education, social protection services and better economic opportunities can be game changers." The agencies noted that vulnerable population groups – such as those working in the informal economy and migrant workers – will suffer most from economic downturn, increased informality and unemployment, the general fall in living standards, health shocks and insufficient social protection systems, among other pressures. The brief proposes a number of measures to counter the threat of increased child labour, including more comprehensive social protection, easier access to credit for poor households, the promotion of decent work for adults, measures to get children back into school, including the elimination of school fees, and more resources for labour inspections and law enforcement. The ILO and UNICEF also said they are developing a simulation model to look at the impact of COVID-19 on child labour globally. YAS AMS AKJ AMS AMS

COVID-19 may push millions more children into child labour, reversing decades of gains: UN

Amidst all the celebratory din on the clearing of the GST bill, the <keyword id="6377229" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Child-labour">Child Labour</keyword> (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2016 passed both the houses of Parliament without the attention it deserved. The Bill amends the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 which had banned the employment of children, that is those below 14 years of age, in 83 specified occupations/processes. The amendment prohibits engagement of children, which it now defines as 14 years or as specified by the Right to Education (RTE) Act, in all occupations except in family or family-based enterprise (after school hours or during vacations) and in the audio-visual entertainment industry or sports activity. It also created a new category of “adolescent”, which includes those between 14 to 18 years of age, and prohibits their employment in hazardous occupations, or hazardous processes. 
 
There have been widespread criticisms of the exceptions for family or family-based enterprises since it was cleared by the Cabinet in May last year. The government did away with the blanket ban on child labour, proposed when the bill was first introduced in 2012, to strike “a balance between the need for education for a child and reality of the socio-economic condition and social fabric in the country”. 
 First, if the reality of the socio-economic condition is forcing parents to keep their child working, this situation can’t be expected to improve anytime soon if status quo remains and children keep missing out on their education. And since, according to a study, parents are the reason for a child’s employment 62% of the time (Syed et al. 1991), the status quo would persist. There is much to be lost if India can’t capitalise on its demographic dividend being unable to tear itself away from the shackles of an uneducated population. The bill does restrict working hours to after-school timings, but where would the child have the time for any effective learning of things taught at school if he is at work later? Secondly, these exceptions have enough loopholes to nullify the amendment itself. They are not even restricted to the child’s immediate parents but extends to his/her “brother, sister and father’s sister and brother and mother’s sister and brother”. Any employer could claim to be a relative and it would be difficult to prove otherwise. Even the <keyword id="6355940" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Standing-committee">Standing Committee</keyword> recognised this issue and suggested removal of exceptions and prohibition of employment in all occupations. The recommendation was ignored. 
 
The exceptions also make the law weaker than the earlier one when the purpose of amendments are the exact opposite. Earlier, a child weaving carpets was a blatant violation of the law. Now, it must first be determined who he is working for; if it is for his family in after-school hours, he is legally entitled to carry on. The bill has effectively legalised employment of children in home-based units rolling bidis and making aggarbattis. This makes the bill highly regressive in nature and tougher to implement. It is an uncomfortable relaity that it has passed both houses of Parliament with hardly any public scrutiny. 
 
Some other issues with the Bill are its various inherent contradictions. The Juvenile Justice Act puts the age of a child at 16 years while the RTE Act, which this bill has tied itself with, fixes it at 14. There is a need for clarity on the definition of a child. Moreover, the Bill is in contradiction with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as it fails to define the number of hours a child can work. Another issue of contention was that of provisions for the employment of adolescents. The Standing Committee recommended that the meaning of hazardous occupations and processes be widened to include all occupations/processes that may jeopardise health, safety and morals of adolescents, in line with the ILO Convention 138. Again, the recommendation was ignored. 
 A group of organisations and activists have raised their voices against these amendments time and again with no avail. Back in March, Kailash Satyarthi wrote in a letter to <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> that a complete abolition of child labour would attract more global investment as reports of their products being made by children tarnish their image. For instance, Gap was caught in an embarrassing scandal in 2007 after an Observer investigation found its products being manufactured by children in Delhi, despite Gap’s rigorous audit systems. The company claimed that it contracts out work to various vendors in India and it becomes difficult to keep track on each one of them. Therefore, a better child labour law in India which is easy to implement would diminish such problems. In fact, it would act as a double-edged sword cutting down on child labour along with improving investment prospects. Perhaps the country should pay more heed to the child-rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner it takes so much pride in! 
 
About the author: The article is written by <keyword id="209438" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amit-Kapoor">Amit Kapoor</keyword>, in collaboration with <keyword id="1914448" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Chirag-Yadav">Chirag Yadav</keyword>, researcher with Institute for Competitiveness, India 
 
<a href="http://cdn.shareyouressays.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/child-labour-causes.jpg">Image source</a>

Failing our children

<ul><li>Schools under CBSE and state board will initiate interventions on ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’. </li><li>“We don’t have age appropriate sex education for young people,” says Nobel prize winner Kailash Satyarthi. </li><li>“Sex education should not just address possible victims but also probable offenders,” says activist Harish Iyer. </li></ul> A large section of India’s children are vulnerable to many forms of sex offences. Unfortunately, few of them are aware of these threats and the way to handle them. Of late, the Indian government is waking up to the importance of sex education. The numbers of cases of child<a href="https://www.ibtimes.co.in/5-minor-boys-plan-gang-rape-8-year-old-girl-uttarakhand-after-watching-porn-775171"> rape went up</a> by 82% to 19,765 in 2016 from the year before, as per National Crime Bureau data. Smriti Irani, the Minister of Women and Child Development said that schools will soon educate the country’s 430 million children of the ills surrounding them. “All the schools under CBSE and state board will initiate interventions on ‘good touch’ and ‘bad touch’,” Irani told the Lok Sabha. Not just about sex but sensitization Experts feel that <keyword id="2466119" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sex-education-in-India">sex education in India</keyword> needs a rapid upgrade. Currently, Indian sex education is relegated to a single lesson in 10th standard where reproduction is explained without details on the act of sex. However, topics like unsafe sex, sexually transmitted diseases and contraceptives are introduced. “We don’t have age appropriate sex education for young people, where children can learn about their bodies and how to protect their bodies. They should learn this in schools,” Kailash Satyarthi, who won a Nobel prize in 2014 for helping eradicate child labour, told Business Insider India. Harish Iyer, a Mumbai-based activist and a child abuse survivor whose testimony was read out in the Lok Sabha, believes that sex education should go beyond bad touch and safe sex. “We should call it sensitivity education where children should be taught about sexuality and sensitize them. We should address probable offenders as well as possible victims,” Iyer told Business Insider India. Start with the parents Child activists are also concerned about the ease at which child and other forms of porn are available online. Satyarthi wants Indian homes to recognize the ill-effects of such exposure. However, few Indian parents have a heart-to-heart chat with their children, and topics like sex are left out of dinner conversations. He believes that parents should be taught about the importance of sex education first. “This is still a social taboo. Parents and teachers don’t talk to their children on these issues. Youngsters in villages are not exposed to new age consequences. It is easy for a predator to click the picture of an unsuspecting child, modifying it and then blackmail them,” Satyarthi says. In India, young girls receive some form of sex education from aunts, mothers and grandmothers while boys are left out of the equation. There’s also twist to home-grown sex education — the advice to not have sex at all. “Sex education should not be about abstinence only. It should include safe sex practices, and parents should educate children about the right age to try sex as well,” says Iyer.

Here’s why Indian government’s ‘good touch-bad touch’ sex education might not be enough

Someone utters the world ‘<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Slavery+">Slavery</a>’ and one can map a picture of starving men and women in torn clothes made to work recklessly, kept in dark gallows, chained and tortured by their ‘masters’. To us in this day and age, it is more like an issue from a bygone era. Or that it only exists in countries ravaged by war and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=poverty">poverty</a>. Even as such form of bonded labour has been abolished by the Indian law way back in 1976, yet it has manifested itself through the roots branching out to every corner of the Indian society today. It is what we call modern day slavery. 
 Pronouncing India as the 'World’s Slave Capital', the Global Slavery Index last year said that out of 35.8 million people living in <keyword id="1978296" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="modern-slavery">modern slavery</keyword> globally, Asia accounts for 23.5 million victims, and India alone accounts for 14.2 million people. You may want to know what is modern slavery? We say it’s something you and I are not a victim of, but our domestic help may be, a beggar on the street may be, women working in factories mostly are. To be clearer, a universally accepted definition of modern slavery is that it involves one person possessing or controlling another person in such as a way as to significantly deprive that person of their individual liberty, with the intention of exploiting that person through their use, management, profit, transfer or disposal. It occurs in brick kilns, carpet weaving, embroidery and other textile manufacturing, forced prostitution, agriculture, domestic servitude, mining, and organised begging rings to cite a few. 
 
The Index report sheds light on the immense challenges in India's modern slavery. “Across India's population of over 1.2 billion people, all forms of modern slavery, including inter-generational bonded labour, trafficking for <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=sexual+exploitation">sexual exploitation</a> and forced marriage, exist. Evidence suggests that members of lower castes and tribes, religious minorities and migrant workers are disproportionately affected by modern slavery. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Labour+">Labour </a>is particularly prevalent throughout India with families enslaved for generations." 
 
Moreover, there are reports of women and children from India being recruited with promises of non-existent jobs and later sold for sexual exploitation, or forced into sham marriages. In some religious groups, pre-pubescent girls are sold for sexual servitude in temples. Recent reports suggest that one child goes missing every eight minutes; it is feared that some are sold into forced begging, domestic work, and commercial sexual exploitation. 
 
Amid the dismal state of affair, there have been some ongoing efforts to tackle the situation in India: 
 
- In 2013, the government amended the Indian Penal code to include specific anti-trafficking provisions. 
-In 2014, the government expanded the number of police anti-human trafficking units across the country to 215 units, aiming to establish a unit in 650 districts. 
-The judiciary and over 20,000 law enforcement have received training on victim identification, the new legal framework, and victim-centered investigations. 
-NGOs and the civil society at large are actively involved in counseling, supporting and rescuing victims, often taking enormous risks. 
 
However, a lot needs to be done to curb the menace that plagues our society and threatens the freedom of our people. “Traffickers are motivated by high profits and the low risk due to weak law enforcement and low levels of prosecution. To tackle <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=trafficking">human trafficking</a>, prosecution and punishment of offenders must be pursued as well as legal action to seize the assets and profits of traffickers," said the study by the Freedom Fund and Thomson Reuters Foundation. 
 
"While prosecutions alone will not bring an end to trafficking, there is immense potential to use legal strategies to deliver justice to victims, deter potential perpetrators and put traffickers out of business," it added. 
 
As the world observes International Day for Abolition of Slavery today, here are some pictures reflecting the disappointing state of slavery in India even 68 years after it came out of the clutches of the British rule: 
 
(Image credits: Reuters)

Shameful! India is the
‘World’s Slave Capital’

In what could be a blot in India’s social progress, the government is planning an amendment in <keyword id="6377229" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Child-labour">Child Labour</keyword> Prohibition Act that would legally permit children below the age of 14 to work in select family enterprises if it doesn't hamper their education. 
 
As per a news report by The Economic Times, bill will retain the proposal of a complete ban on child labour in any organisation, big or small, as proposed by the previous government. A draft provision in the Child Labour Prohibition Act says the prohibition will not apply if children are helping the family in fields, forests and home-based work after school hours or during vacations, or while attending technical institutions. The new norm will also apply to the entertainment industry and sports except the circus, a proposal by the labour ministry says. 
 The ET report confirms, children between 14 and 18 years will not be allowed to work in hazardous industries. According to the <keyword id="259703" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Labour-ministry-official">labour ministry official</keyword>, this provision is in conformity with the ILO convention and is therefore likely to sail through even in the Rajya Sabha where the government is in minority. 
This amendment, brought about by the UPA in 2012 proposed to extend the ban to all industries. It also introduced a new category of adolescents " 14 to 18 years " who were banned from hazardous industries, but allowed to work in other sectors. 
 
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill, 2012, introduced in the Rajya Sabha, recommended a complete ban on child labour until they finish elementary education, guaranteed under the Right to Education Act. 
 
The labour ministry has also finalised the changes to two other archaic laws. "The effort is to push two more legislation in the current session, including the Small Factories Act and amendment to the Employees Provident Fund &amp; Miscellaneous Provision Act," the ministry official told the financial daily. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

Now children below 14 can work,
won’t be considered as child labour

<keyword id="254410" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pandia-Rajan">Pandia Rajan</keyword> knows about child labor – he experienced it firsthand growing up in a village near the town of Tamil Nadu, famous for producing firecrackers. He lost his father at a young age and his community raised him, helping him to complete his education. "I certainly feel the need to give back to society, because of what I experienced growing up," he says. 
 
Rajan also found the perfect business partner in his quest to give back – his wife Hemalatha – and together they spend much of their time studying different models and methods on how to create a sustainable philanthropic organization. 
 
"This analysis gave us a framework over which we started to draw a human dimension," explains Rajan, a member of <a href="http://www.ypo.org/">Young Presidents’ Organization</a> since 2003 in India. "It also made us realize the importance of examining policy at a grassroots level and how political parties can also assist." 
 
The couple has never believed in checkbook philanthropy and wanted to build proper relationships with communities, much like a family would. They established the <a href="http://mafoistrategy.com/">Ma Foi Foundation</a> in 1992 to promote community service and registered the <keyword id="3288238" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sornammal-Educational-trust">Sornammal Educational Trust</keyword> in 1996 to help eradicate child labor in the firecracker industry. In the beginning, the trust adopted one child every month, with Rajan and his wife personally selecting and mentoring them. 
 
 
 
"Our philosophy has always been to improve human development in the areas in which we operate," says Rajan. 
 
This has resulted in the permanent change for the better for thousands of people, mostly children, youth and women. Three different organizations fall under the Ma Foi umbrellas, each with a unique focus: Disha nurtures disadvantaged children to finish school and become employable, Ekam provides holistic healthcare for children between birth and 17 years old, and Sornam provides micro loans to women. 
 
The numbers illustrate the effectiveness of what they have done to date. The Disha scholarship has given educational opportunities to 4,000 children from 120 schools across the state of Tamil Nadu. More than 700 of them are now in college with 280 having moved on into formal employment. The Disha Sports Academy has maintained the participants as state champions in boxing and district champions in football. 
 
Ekam has created a network of more than 172 doctors and 51 hospitals across five districts, saving a staggering 7,000 infants from death. Another 6,000 children have received their first pair of reading glasses and 3,000 nurses have been recruited to staff local government hospitals. 
 
Sornam has created 4,315 self-help groups for 60,900 women that facilitate lines of credit to help support women in starting their own businesses. 
 
"It gives us immense satisfaction to personally see the growth of people we work with," says Rajan. "The time we spend with staff and beneficiaries of each project are critical to the success of these ventures, and for us too. We understand that ideas do not just appear at the top of the management chain. In many instances, it's the people we work with, or our beneficiaries, that give us ideas." 
 
To ensure sustainability and long-term vision, the couple believes in giving freedom to participants who design projects in which they believe. They recruit people who have a vision of their own and Rajan and his wife are always at hand to incubate these ideas and support them. Ekam came to life in a similar fashion. It began as the idea of a doctor, the couple supported it, and today it is one of the largest NGO's in the region. 
 
"Focusing on impact, rather than project-mode, is another reason we are able to innovate constantly," says Rajan. "We discuss relevance and impact with beneficiaries constantly. This approach keeps the benefits optimized and also helps us formulate new projects and initiatives." 
 
(The article is authored by Grant Schreiber, <a href="http://www.realleaders.media/">Real Leaders</a>) 
 
<keyword id="852310" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="YPO">YPO</keyword> (Young Presidents’ Organization) is a not-for-profit, global network of young chief executives connected through the shared mission of becoming Better Leaders Through Education and Idea Exchange™. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.ypo.org/">www.ypo.org</a>. 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

A Family Link to the Past is a Bridge to the Future

I take the Delhi Metro to work every morning. The subway system allocates one out of six or eight carriages exclusively for the use of <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword>, in the interest of safety. The remaining carriages are mostly occupied by men - I would venture to say anywhere between 80% and 90%, based on rudimentary calculations. This is usually the case all the time. It’s a stark and daily reminder of just how far India has to go in terms of solving its gender inequality problem. A recent<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Global%20Themes/Gender%20Equality/The%20power%20of%20parity%20Advancing%20womens%20equality%20in%20Asia%20Pacific/MGI_Power-of-Parity-Asia-Pacific_Report_April-2018.ashx"> report on gender equality </a>by the Mckinsey Global Institute (MGI), the consultancy’s research division, shows that India is one of the lowest-ranked countries in the Asia-Pacific in terms of labour force participation by females and the contribution of women to GDP, based on figures from 2016. Around 18% of India’s GDP is accounted for by women, while the share of females in the country’s labour force is 25%. Only Pakistan ranks lower than India on both counts- with women contributing a mere 11% to GDP and comprising 22% of its labour force. It has a lot to gain by unleashing the productive potential of its women- who have, up until this point, been a underused resource. MGI estimates that India’s GDP, if everything were to carry on as usual, could increase by $770 billion, or 18%, by 2025 by giving women access to equal work opportunities as men. Around $550bn, or 70% of this increase, would come by just increasing the share of females in the workforce by 10%. The remaining portion of the increase in GDP would be achieved by improving the quality of work given to women and the hours worked. Too often, the report notes, women are engaged in unpaid care work or low-quality, low-paying work like cleaning. A staggering 97% of all female workers are engaged in informal sector work that isn’t regulated and doesn’t offer adequate remuneration based on hours put in. Additionally, the amount of time spent doing unpaid, household chores is lengthened by a lack of easy access to amenities such as cooking fuel and clean water. A lot of women find themselves unable to enter the formal sector due to a low level of <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="education">education</keyword>. A <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/ten-charts-gender-inequality">report last year in the Wire</a> showed that despite achieving strong enrolment rates for females in primary schools, as a result of the Right to Education Act, the government was not able to translate this into improved rates for secondary and tertiary enrolment. A girl’s higher education is looked at as an opportunity cost. Why send her to school when she can start helping her mother take care of the house or drawing an income from manual work? Inequality in formal sector The lack of female representation in the formal sector also has a lot to do with how upper classes in Indian society function. The MGI report explained that women’s workforce participation follows a “U-shaped curve”. While women from low-income families are forced to work out of necessity, the level of female employment gets progressively lower the wealthier a family gets, owing to the fact that there is a lower need for a woman to work for pay. MGI says that this effect can be reversed if companies step up their hiring of women and give women more leadership opportunities. In most cases, the hiring practices of Indian companies reinforce the <keyword id="6484133" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="labour-participation">labour participation</keyword> gap. According to <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/548581522089881652/pdf/WPS8379.pdf">a working paper by the World Bank, </a>an analysis of over 800,000 Indian job postings showed that there was an explicit bias towards men, especially in blue-collar sectors. Further still, professions that have greater representation by women - such as teaching, health and business process outsourcing - actually paid men significantly more. A lack of legal protection and political representation India does not have any laws in place to ensure equal pay for men and women. While the government passed a law mandating 26 months paid maternity leave in April last year, it made no provision for financial support to small-and-medium sized businesses. At the time, experts felt that the law would only serve to exacerbate <a href="https://qz.com/943639/proof-that-indias-new-maternity-leave-law-could-make-it-even-harder-for-women-to-get-a-job/">discriminatory hiring practices against women.</a> The government also excluded the unorganised sector from the purview of the law, thereby offering no protection to women in temporary, self-employed or contractual roles. Worse still, the law did not make any mention of paternity leave, deciding once and for all that child-rearing was the sole responsibility of the mother. The percentage of women in India’s lower house of Parliament is tragically low, at 11%. The Women’s Reservation Bill, which reserves 33% of the seats in both houses of Parliament and state legislatures for women, has been languishing for 22 years, despite being passed in the upper house in 2010. No surprise there. Why would the leaders of a male-dominated legislature be okay with ceding their seat to a woman? The Northern states fare a lot worse There seems to be a regional aspect to India’s <keyword id="6372584" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gender-equality">gender equality</keyword> problem. While states in the northeast and south of India, like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Sikkim, report strong female workforce participation rates, Northern states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jammu &amp; Kashmir, fall significantly behind. Unsurprisingly, the level of female workforce participation was lowest in states with lower levels of adult literacy. This highlights the problem as primarily one of access to good education. In mapping out a strategy to improve gender equality in India, the government would do well to focus on states in the North first. Some progress has been made, however This is not to say that India hasn’t made any progress in curbing gender inequality. Over the past decade, it has reduced maternal mortality rates from 280 for every 100,000 births to 174. The female-to-male adult literacy ratio has also increased by 0.10 points to 0.87 while the prevalence of child marriage has declined. Financial inclusion is also being achieved, gradually, through the Jan Dhan Yojana Scheme, which has given around 300 million women access to bank accounts and savings schemes, and the Mudra Yojana microcredit programme, under which more than 6 million female entrepreneurs have received loans. But a lot more needs to be done So what does that India needs to do to unlock the potential of its women and achieve the aforementioned increase in GDP? Firstly, according to the MGI, the government needs to leverage the digital inclusion and internet penetration wave. Greater access to computer skilling and by extension, to the internet means greater access to information - educational courses, learning resources, job postings and networking opportunities. It also means access to online banking, which in turn, means access to credit and savings instruments. Secondly, there need to be skilling and vocational training programmes tailored to industries where women have the highest potential for greater participation- healthcare, hospitality, textiles and electronics assembly. Thirdly, the government needs to encourage gender diversity-focused hiring policies in the companies. Fourth, given that women do ten times more unpaid work than men, the government can help reduce the time spent on unpaid work by providing households in rural area with electricity, closer access to clean water and subsidised childcare services. Fifth, increasing the level of women in legislative bodies in India will set a good example for other industries and could kickstart a shift in societal norms. Women are an <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Politics/PyQ7hlxIkiyXlsUqq7JbOL/The-growing-importance-of-women-as-an-electoral-constituency.html">increasingly influential electoral group</a> and deserve adequate representation. Last, but most important, it needs to stimulate private investment and create enough jobs in the economy to accommodate the increase in female workers - an issue that merits its own feature story. The increase in the female labour participation rate is not low-hanging fruit that the government can pluck and qualify as a win. It transcends election cycles and requires long-term, structural reform and a broad shift in societal attitudes. It’s a massive undertaking, but with a worthy payoff. Wouldn’t it be great if there were two compartments for women in the Delhi subway? Or better yet, each compartment was equally comprised of men and women?

India would be US$550 billion richer if it just increased its share of women in the labor force by 10%

<keyword id="377475" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kailash-Satyarthi">Kailash Satyarthi</keyword>’s nondescript office in a dusty, poorly paved street in Kalkaji in New Delhi seems to camouflage the enormity and significance of the work he has done since 1980 when he launched <keyword id="6372314" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Bachpan-Bachao-Andolan">Bachpan Bachao Andolan</keyword> (<keyword id="6356026" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="BBA">BBA</keyword>). The forum, which he initiated as a grassroots-level people's movement to end the exploitation of children, especially <keyword id="6377229" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Child-labour">child labour</keyword> and child trafficking, has acted to protect the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries over 35 years. Today BBA has over 80,000 individuals and 750 organisations as members, who advocate and act for the protection of <keyword id="102345" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Child-rights">child rights</keyword>. In an era when frivolity is seen as a better value than compassion, it is not a surprise that in India where even junior Bollywood actors effortlessly hog the limelight, the 60-year-old Satyarthi has almost remained an unknown name till he bagged this year’s Nobel Prize for Peace along with Malala Yousafzai. 
 
Satyarthi gained prominence as a tireless voice for millions of voiceless children who are battered in smoke-filled factories and tiny shanties amid horrendous working conditions in developing countries across the world, when he organised Global March Against Child Labor in 103 countries in 1990s. The march was aimed at freeing millions of children abused worldwide and led to an International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on child labour. He is also credited with establishing Rugmark, now known as Good Weave, a widely known international scheme that tags all carpets made in factories that are child-labour free. 
 
Child labour is possibly as old as flesh trade as a means of exploitation, dating back centuries. For much of human history and across different cultures, children less than 17 years old have been forced to work, which has unfortunately been the only means of sustenance for thousands of impoverished families across the globe. According to ILO, among the key factors driving children to harmful labour is the lack of availability and quality of schooling. In many communities, there are no schools or they are far away; also, schools are often unaffordable or quality of education is so poor that parents wonder if sending children to school is worthwhile. 
 
An increasing number of child labourers is an economic issue too. Child labourers are denied opportunity for education, and development physically, intellectually and psychologically. This translates into losses for the economy compared with the cost benefits that would have resulted had they been educated and skilled with enhanced ability to support industrial, business and economic activities. Children who are denied educational opportunities and remain illiterate also fail to take care of their own well being and that of the family and community they belong to once they grow up. As children as not fit for long hours of work, hazardous labour makes them sick, proving a drag on overall social cost as monetary resources meant to be spent on development activities are then required to be diverted to treating and taking care of the diseased. 
 
Despite India passing legislation that prohibits solicitation or use of labour by children, in 1977, bonded child labour—a system of forced labour under which a child or his/her parent enters into an agreement with a creditor offering the child as a labourer—continues unabated. 
 
Even as the news of Satyarthi becoming the seventh Indian to bag the prestigious Nobel Prize was spreading, media reports highlighted Child Welfare Committee (CWC)’s efforts to help rescue hundreds of child labourers from small-scale jari factories in and around Mumbai. Such stories about operations rescuing children from bonded labour remind us that India, along with the entire developing world, needs to do a lot more to eliminate child labour which continues to be a clear blemish on its socio-economic fabric which is otherwise poised to flourish in the years to come. However, the work done by people like Satyarthi encourages one to hope that the country, and its peers across the globe, will be able to wash the blemish sooner than expected. 
 
Image: indiatimes

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