Essay On Girl Child Labour

Domestic service is one of the world’s oldest occupations, and one in which children, particularly girls, have traditionally played a part. Child labour has many appearances all over the world. Efforts at gender equality and gender justice must start with equality for the girl child. Inequity against the girl child occurs in every strata of society having diverse forms of appearance, but is more visible especially in poverty-stricken families. As girl children have less access to schooling they work at home assisting their mothers in the household tasks of looking after younger siblings, cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. Thus, household work remains stereotyped as “women’s work” and because of the fact that girl children receive such training early in their lives; they are seen as best fitted for the demands of such work. Girl Child Domestic Workers (GCDW) or “domestics” are children

There is no unanimity even about the age of a child labourer. Any child under the age specified by law worldwide works full time, mentally or physically to earn for own survival or adding to family income, that interrupts child’s social development and education is called “Child Labour”. Any child under the age of 15 engaged in activity to feed family or self is “child labour”. International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 138 (C. 138) obligates countries to fix a minimum age for employment that should not be less than the age for completing compulsory schooling and, in any event should not be less than 15 years. According to the U.N.O., a child labourer is a labourer whose age is less than 18 years. Contrary to this, the ILO has defined the maximum age of a child labourer to be 15 years. In U.S.A., the upper age limit is 12 years, whereas in England and in some other European countries it is 13 years. Here in India, the upper age limit of a child labourer is 14