Its shameful to know that India as an emerging market or power has rampant growth of child labour as well. Tourism in India is booming…. growing…. scaling new heights…country is earning well in foreign exchange but there is dark side to this story. As per the International Labour Organisation, 13 million children are employed in tourism sector in India which is gross violation of law and illegal.
The law has banned child labour in all forms in India, but the issue is out of control in tourism sector in India and is growing as quickly as the tourism industry. Children working in tourism sector are out in the open for sexual exploitation and abuse and are mostly because of being in contact with strangers. Most of the children work in hotels, restaurants, dhabbas as helpers, bell boy, cleaners, waiters, baggage attendant, laundry cleaners and car cleaners.
Many children are found selling newspapers, flowers and other goodies at most historic monuments frequented by tourist all over India. Most of the children employed in the tourism sector in India are below 12years. The law says that children below 14 should not be employed in any form. The children are exposed to sexual abuse and human trafficking. Many cases of human trafficking is reported in India and its up to labour and police department to completely eradicate this issue for ever as its sad to see children being subjected to extreme hardship.
The Essay on The Travel and Tourism Sector
Tourism has been around for many years, ever since people have had some form of transport such as boats or chariots (later changing to horse-drawn wagons), which allowed people to move around (Sharpley, 1999a). The history of tourism can be seen all over the world. Dating back to the Egyptian and roman times, evidence has been found in Egypt where the Egyptians would visit the pyramids either for ...
The officials figure states the figure at 13 million but NGOs they refuse to take this figure as they say that the actual figure can be as high as 60 million and situation can go out of hand if the government does not act on this issue. The government notification issued in October 5, 1993 has prohibited from employing children in slaughter house/abattoirs, printing, tourism sector, cashew nut scaling and processing and soldering. The law states that children below age of 14 years should not be employed but the law requires proper implementations.
The day we have such laws implemented properly with firm hand and violators punished with their licenses cancelled permanently then only we can say that tourism industry in India is growing in real spirit and not on the blood of children who slog it out to earn their daily bread. The tourists should also keep a watch on such issue as they should avoid any visit in India – business or pleasure with people and places who employ children. This will help the cause of eradicating the child labour from India completely.
