India's new labour rules would put kids at greater risk of exploitation: Nobel laureate

India has seen a big decrease in the number of full-time child workers over the past decade, but a Nobel Prize-winning rescuer of working kids says loopholes in new legislation could actually make exploitation easier.

As the proposal edges closer to becoming law, children's rights advocates like Kailash Satyarthi are stepping up their campaign to see the law either rewritten or withdrawn.

"I cannot accept any regressive law about children," Satyarthi said in an interview with CBC News. "It's a serious danger."

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One of the proposed changes to the Child Labour Act that activists oppose is actually something they have demanded for a long time: A ban on the employment of children under 14.

The problem, they say, is the proposed amendments allow for two exceptions: children working in the entertainment industry, and those working in their family's home- or field-based business.

In a country where even the prime minister was forced by poverty as a child to help his father sell tea, the government says its proposals are in keeping with India's "social fabric and socio-economic conditions."

"In a large number of families, children help their parents in their occupations like agriculture, artisanship etc. While helping the parents, children also learn the basics of occupations."

'No monitoring'

But Satyarthi says the amendments don't specifically define "family" as parents, which leaves a lot of room for self-serving interpretation by a much wider group of people.

Satyarthi, founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Childhood Movement, has rescued some 85,000 children over the years. About a fifth of them, he says, were employed by so-called "uncles" or "brothers" or other people who claimed to be family.

"No monitoring is possible in those remote areas that the children are confined and trapped into slavery by the so-called relatives," he says.

"Children can be allowed to learn or help the families, but these families should be defined as parents … There should not be an element of force in doing it. Even in case of the parents."

The potential loophole threatens the progress that's been made to reduce the number of child workers, he says, and could also hurt India's attempts to lure more businesses to manufacture their products in India.

The government of India estimates there are 4.5 million full-time child workers in the country. Most work in farming and manufacturing.

Some children's rights advocates believe the number is actually much higher.

In a report released just days after the amendments were introduced in parliament in early March, Save the Children India said preserving traditional skills is important, but it's "also important that children from these families are provided with quality education."

The group says allowing children to work full time contradicts laws that protect their right to education until the age of 14.

The existing regulations allow children under 14 to work, but subject to specific rules about conditions and the number of hours.

The law prohibits children from working in 83 hazardous jobs and "processes" deemed too dangerous or harmful.

The proposed changes would loosen the definition of hazardous and cut the number of prohibited jobs and tasks from 83 to just three.

That means teens between 15 and 17 would be allowed to work in industries such as embroidery, for example, which can harm the health and eyesight of children and adolescents.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet approved the changes last year. Satyarthi says the new rules would hurt Modi's much-touted "Make in India" campaign.

'We want strong laws'

"If the children are found working in hazardous conditions and Indian laws are weaker than the international standard … then the vulnerability will always remain there," he says. "So we want strong laws."

In a local television interview in March, Satyarthi made a public appeal to Modi to reconsider the changes.

"We are so proud that a chaiwalla has become the prime minister. It's a great accomplishment for any Indian," he said.

"But how many chaiwallas are going to help India become Digital India, or Skill India, if they are not given full-time, good quality education?"