As extreme poverty returns, India sees surge in child slavery https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/9/2/as-extreme-poverty-returns-india-sees-surge-in-child-slavery Among many gains lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, child labour shows resurgence, worsened by inadequate rescue efforts.
As the economic crisis compelled impoverished families to resort to desperate measures, evidence slowly emerged of a rise in the incidence of child labour in India.
In 2020-21, the number of children rescued and rehabilitated under the National Child Labour Project rose despite the lockdowns and restrictions on operating industries.
India’s Minister of State for Labour and Employment Rameswar Teli told the parliament that the number of children rescued was 58,289 in 2020-21, an increase from 54,894 in 2019-20, 50,284 in 2018-19 and 47,635 in 2017-2018.
India’s last census, held in 2011, pegged the total number of child labourers in India at 10.1 million.
Asked if the pandemic had caused a spike in child labour, Priyank Kanoongo, chairman of India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, told Al Jazeera that children cannot be viewed or protected in a silo.