The Child Labour (Prohibition And Regulation) Act, 1986 and Rules
THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) ACT, 1986
Objective:The Act aims to prohibit the engagement of children in certain employments and to regulate the conditions of work of children in certain other employments.
Important definitions:
Child: means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age.
Establishment: includes a shop, commercial establishment, workshop, farm, residential hotel, restaurant, eating house, theatre or other place of public amusement or entertainment.
Workshop: Any premises, wherein any industrial process is carried on.
Prohibition of child employment:No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any of the occupations mentioned in Part A of the Schedule attached to the Act or in any workshop wherein any of the processes mentioned in Part B of the Schedule is carried on.
Authorities:
1. Child Labour Technical Advisory CommitteeThe Central Government may, constitute an advisory committee to be called the Child Labour Technical Advisory Committee to advise the Central Government for the purpose of addition of occupation and processes to the Schedule.
2. Inspectors: For the purposes of securing compliance with the provisions of this Act.
The following are the provisions that govern the conditions of the work of children in occupations or processes other than those mentioned in Part A and B of the schedule (where children are permitted to work):
a. No work period of a child shall exceed three hours and no child shall work for more than three hours before he has had an interval for rest for at least one hour.
b. The period of work of a child shall be so arranged that inclusive of his interval for rest, it shall not be spread over more than six hours.
c. No child shall be permitted or required to work between 7 p.m. and 8 a.m.
d. No child shall be required or permitted to work overtime.
e. Every child employed in an establishment shall be allowed in each week, a holiday of one whole day, which day shall be specified by the occupier in a notice permanently exhibited in a conspicuous place in the establishment.
Duties of employers/occupiers:
1. Every occupier in relation to an establishment who employs, or permits to work, any child, in relation to such establishment shall, within a period of thirty days from the date of such employment, send to the Inspector within whose local limits the establishment is situated, a written notice containing the following particulars, namely:-
(a) The name and situation of the establishment.(b) The name of the person in actual management of the establishment.(c) The address to which communications relating to the establishment should be sent; and(d) The nature of the occupation or process carried on in the establishment.
2. There shall be maintained by every occupier in respect of children employed or permitted to work in any establishment, a register to be available for inspection by an Inspector at all times, showing:
(a) the name and date of birth of every child so employed or permitted to work;(b) Hours and periods of work of any such child and the intervals of rest to which he is entitled.(c) The nature of work of any such child; and (d) Such other particulars as may be prescribed.
3. Every railway administration, every port authority and every occupier shall cause to be displayed in a conspicuous and accessible place at every station on its railway or within the limits of a port or at the place of work, as the case may be, a notice in the local language and in the English language containing an abstract of sections 3 and 14 of the act.
Penalties:
a. Whoever employs any child or permits any child to work in prohibited occupations or processes shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three months but which may extend to one year or with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand rupees but which may extend to twenty thousand rupees or with both.
b. Whoever, having been convicted of an offence as above, commits a like offence afterwards, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months but which may extend to two years.
c. Whoever:
(a) fails to give notice as required by section 9; or
(b) fails to maintain a register as required by section 11 or makes any false entry in any such register; or
(c) fails to display a notice containing an abstract of section 3 and 14; or
(d) fails to comply with or contravenes any other provisions of this Act or the rules made there under, shall be punishable with simple imprisonment which may extend to one month or with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees or with both.
The provisions of this Act and the rules made there under shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, the provisions of the Factories Act, 1948, the Plantations Labour Act, 1951 and the Mines Act, 1952.
THE CHILD LABOUR (PROHIBITION AND REGULATION) RULES, 1988
Every occupier of an establishment, where children are legally permitted to work, shall maintain a register in respect of children employed or permitted to work, in Form A. The register shall be maintained on a yearly basis but shall be retained by the employer for a period of three years after the date of the last entry made therein.rupees.