Although there are may Acts which prohibit the employment of children below 14 years and 15 years in certain specified employments or processes, but there is no procedure laid down in any law for deciding in which employments or processes the employment of children should be banned. There is no law to regulate the working conditions of children in most of the employments where they are not prohibited to work and consequently are working under exploitative conditions.Therefore, the Child Labour (Prohibition And Regulation) Act, 1986 intends to ban the employment of children i.e. those who have-not completed there fourteenth year of age in specified occupations and processes, regulate the conditions of work of children in employments where they are not prohibited from working, lay down enhanced penalties for employment of children in violation of the provisions of this Act and other Acts which forbid the employment of children etc. In our country, Sivaski was once taken as the worst offender in the matter of violating prohibition of employing child labour. As the situation there had become intolerable a public- spirited lawyer, Shri M.C.Mehta thought it necessary to invoke this court power under Article 32 as after all the fundamental right of the children guaranteed by Article 24 was being grossly violated and hence he filed a petition in the court. The court then noted that the manufacturing process of matches and fireworks (for the manufacturing of which also Sivaski is a traditional centre.) is hazardous giving rise to accidents including fatal cases. Subsequently suo moto cognizance was taken in the present case itself when news about an unfortunate accident in one of the Sivaski cracker factories was published.
At the direction of the Tamil Nadu government filed a detailed counter stating, inter alia that number of persons who died was 39. The court gave certain directions regarding the payment of compensation and thought that an advocates committee should visit the area and make a comprehensive report relating to the various aspects of the matter, as mentioned in the order passed by the court on 14-8-1991.Keeping in view the provisions contained in article 39(f) and 45 of the constitution, it gave certain directions as to how the quality of life of children employed in the factories could be improved. The court also felt the need of constituting a committee to oversee the directions given. The committee has submitted its report on 11-11-1991, and the Supreme Court appreciated the commendable work of the committee and gave certain directions to be followed by the states to preserve the interest of children in India.
These directions include that a survey would be made by the states on the type of child labour, which would be completed within 6 months from the date of passing of the order. The court further stated that work could be taken up regarding those employments which have been mentioned in Article 24, which may be regarded as core sector, to determine which hazardous aspect of the employment would be taken as criterion. The hazardous employment may rank first in priority to be followed by comparatively less hazardous and so on. The welfare scheme envisaged by the Supreme Court enshrined in the judgment is really the need of the time. It can be concluded by saying that The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act is an Act, which has been passed to adopt all the international principles as regards child labour, which have been approved by the United Nations. Further, the elucidation and analysis given by the Supreme Court as well as other courts have made the Act an important legislation, which has helped in restricting the evil of child labour to its minimal.
