INDIA

An estimated 4.1 percent of children ages 5 to 14 were counted as working in India in
2000. Children work in hazardous conditions in numerous activities. They also work in a number of service sector jobs. Save the Children estimates that India may have as many as five million child domestic workers.

Estimates made by NGOs suggest that between 20 and 65 million people are working under conditions of bonded labor in India, including a large number of children. The vast majority of bonded laborers are from the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of India. In addition, human rights organizations estimate that many of the 100,000-300,000 children believed to be working in the carpet industry are doing so under conditions of bonded labor.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children occurs across India, as an estimated 15 to
40 percent of prostitutes in India are under 18 years of age. Most trafficking of children in India is internal, as children are trafficked mainly from rural to urban areas for sexual exploitation and forced or bonded labor.

National Child Labor Projects (NCLPs), which have been established in districts with a high incidence of hazardous labor to rehabilitate children withdrawn from work. The NCLP model includes the establishment of special schools that provide non-formal education, vocational training, stipends, and nutrition supplements for children withdrawn from hazardous work. NCLPs are present in 150 districts with a plan to increase to 250 districts by 2007. So far more than 320,000 children have been withdrawn from hazardous work and placed in NCLP schools across the country.

* From US Dept. of Labor’s 2005 Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor