Child Labour in India a Historical Anaysis, an Introduction

The problem of child labour is a global phenomenon. Even today it is not confined to the third world countries. It is more or less prevalent everywhere in the world, the difference, if any is only of degree of kind. It is saddening to note that India is the largest employer of child labour in the world and has earned a dubious destruction of exploiting this human resource. We have yet been able to escape with this shameful menace.
The problem of child labour is a global phenomenon. Even today it is not confined to the third world countries. It is more or less prevalent everywhere in the world, the difference, if any is only of degree of kind. It is saddening to note that India is the largest employer of child labour in the world and has earned a dubious destruction of exploiting this human resource. We have yet been able to escape with this shameful menace. It is a simple approach to analyse and evaluate the child labour problem in India through the ages in a historical manner.
There can be see violation of child rights from the ancient time. The activities of students in Gurukula can not be assessed as child labour in modern sense. As it was a residential education system by staying in guru’s home, helping their guru was also a part of their day to day life. But we can see several indications related to child labour from ancient texts like Arthashastra of Kaudilya. There are also some notes regarding child slave labourers in medieval times. Due to the existing social arena, the rulers of the time never take up the problem as a humanitarian issue. The number of child workers increased with the introduction of modern industries in India during colonial time. Committees and commissions which were formed to discuss the labourers issues just given some hints towards the child labour issues.
The present paper discusses the existence of child labour in India from ancient time and its growth through the ages. It also tries to trace the present child labour