The news that the global fashion company GAP has been indirectly involved in child labour while producing children’s clothing in India is hardly surprising. Local vendors and middlemen, working for foreign consumer companies make poor children work, often forcefully, for a tiny amount of money.

Most of the children used are trafficked from the poorer states of the country. The government might have introduced tough laws to put an end to this modern scourge, but it lacks the political will to sincerely implement in every corner of this vast country.

One of the main reasons which leads to child labour in our country is poverty. Despite being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, poverty is widespread in the second most populous nation of the world.

Children from the rural areas of India are more prone to child labor compared to the urban areas. Poverty and lack of education in mostly agriculture oriented rural families force the children of those families to work out of desperate necessity.

Another important factor that forces children into unnecessary work is family debt. Very often it is seen that family debts are passed into next generation forcing children into bonded labour. Bonded children are not able to end the cycle of debts further spreading the web of the problem.

Lack of education or more precisely, the lack of educational infrastructure has made the situation more hopeless. As a result the attitude of illiterate parents have not improved. They think that children should work from a very young age to develop their working skills.

Furthermore child trafficking has played a major part in increasing child labour. Corrupt businessmen and the Indian mafia make billions of dollars by smuggling poor children from the rural areas to work in some of the consumer stores, restaurants, leather shops, etc.

Even government officials and law enforcement agencies are involved in child trafficking which further make it difficult to look and work for a permanent solution for the age old problem.

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