Child Labor and Economic Development in India

Child labor has been a controversial issue in India, and that is due to the prevailing attitudes toward it. There are many arguments for and against the employment of children in India, due to competing perceptions of the labor and economic value of children involved. However, child labor tends to happen at a very young age, with even three-year-olds working for very small amounts of money, mostly in jobs that employ very low level skills, which is characterized in work of a menial and repetitive nature. Thus, the low level jobs that they do are not of a significantly productive nature, as they do not involve much skill and do not contribute to their development, but instead stunt their development, hindering their chances of finding more productive employment, which requires more skill, but will enable India's economy to develop further. In addition, child labor widens the gap between classes, which tend to be along caste lines, thus closing off opportunities to the children in question. This is despite the view of some that working children are an asset to the family and enable them to learn job skills and to prepare them for the world of work.

Such an opposing view is especially prevalent among members of India's lower castes, for example the Chamaars[1] as mentioned by Mistry in dealing with the child working at a tannery, and objects to such work. Child labor also carries some overtones hinting at relatively entrenched caste-specific attitudes, especially when Omprakash's mother objects to her son doing "such dirty work"[2], in which Narayan told her that a Chamaar's daughter shouldn't regard leather working as dirty work. Such a view permanently consigns children from lower castes to their fate, precluding them from advancing in society. Such caste differences preclude people from lower-caste backgrounds from fulfilling their potential, and serve as a barrier to economic development as large numbers of people are effectively consigned to menial, lower-end jobs. This goes in line with Weiner's findings that child labor "represents the persistent role of the child as a worker."[3]