Labour Law Relaxations during COVID-19 and Child Rights Concerns with Special Reference to Child Labour in India

Abstract

Any country’s present and future economic progress is directly proportional to adequate human resource development in the forms of proper education to children and young adults, safety measures, legislative safeguards against exploitation and crimes and a holistic environment for their growth. However, with the onslaught of difficulties that were beyond prediction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, adversities like financial deceleration, reverse migration, cash crunch etc are at an all-time high, multiplying dilemmas for families with mouths to feed but no source of income. This combination of negative factors has caused the issue of child labour to take forefront again due to the massive rise in its numbers. Another major problem that worsened the employment apathy is the sudden change in labour laws, causing a return to the exploitative and unreasonable conditions of olden times where rights were all but theoretical. This article is an attempt to understand the parallelly-operating issues of child labour and labour law reforms’ adverse effects, comprehending the interplay of colliding factors like government impositions, operational stagnancy etc, highlighting reasons for the soaring issues, studying their impact on present and future conditions as well as providing possible suggestions to counter the troubles.

Keywords: Child rights, Human Resource Development, Pandemic, Negative Factors, Child Labour, Labour Law Reforms, Adverse Effects, Impact, Suggestions, education.