Children and the law: child labour, education, sexual abuse, adoption and child marriage - Law and Social Transformation in India

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1. The framework
2. Child labour
3. The right to education
4. Sexual abuse and exploitation of children
5. Adoption
6. Child marriage
7. Institutional machinery
How this is examined

Cases checked to exist. Read the judgment before quoting a holding.

Every case cited here has been checked to exist — the citation resolves and names the right parties. The propositions attributed to each case have not been verified line by line against the judgment. Case names link through to the full judgment: read it before quoting a holding in an examination answer, and never carry a proposition from notes into court on trust.

The examinable core. “Analyse the issues and concerns relating to child labour” (2024); “legal response to child labour and sexual exploitation of children” (2023, 2021); “national and international legal instruments on child labour / sexual abuse” (2012, 2013); adoption (2010, 2013, 2014); the right to education (2015, 2019); child marriage (2010). Read child labour, education and child marriage together: the child who marries early or works is the child out of school.

1. The framework

Constitution. Article 15(3) (special provisions for children); Article 21A (free and compulsory education from six to fourteen, Eighty-sixth Amendment, 2002); Article 23 (forced labour); Article 24 (no child below fourteen in factories, mines or other hazardous employment); Article 39(e) and (f) (children not to be abused or forced by want into unsuitable work; opportunities to develop in freedom and dignity); Article 45 (early childhood care below six, as substituted in 2002); Article 51A(k) (parents to provide opportunities for education).

International. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), ratified by India in 1992, with its four general principles: non-discrimination (Article 2), best interests (Article 3), life, survival and development (Article 6) and respect for the child's views (Article 12). Article 32 protects against economic exploitation and Article 34 against sexual exploitation. The Optional Protocols on the sale of children and on children in armed conflict (2000). ILO Convention 138 (Minimum Age, 1973) and Convention 182 (Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999), both ratified by India in 2017.

2. Child labour

Causes. Poverty and debt bondage; the demand for cheap and docile labour in carpets, matches, fireworks, brick kilns, domestic work and agriculture; caste (most child workers are Dalit, Adivasi or from minority communities); lack of schools; and social acceptance of children's work as training.

The law. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 banned children from listed hazardous occupations and regulated them elsewhere. The 2016 amendment renamed it the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act and:

prohibits employment of children below fourteen in all occupations and processes, with exceptions for helping the family or family enterprise after school hours (outside hazardous work) and for work as an artist in audio-visual entertainment;
prohibits adolescents (fourteen to eighteen) in hazardous occupations;
makes offences cognizable and raises penalties.

The Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 (which punishes exploitation of a child employee) and the Right to Education Act 2009 complete the scheme. Working conditions of adolescents now also fall under the Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025.

The courts. In M.C. Mehta v. State of Tamil Nadu, 1996 INSC 1454, concerning the Sivakasi match and fireworks industry, the Court directed that an offending employer pay Rs 20,000 per child into a Child Labour Rehabilitation-cum-Welfare Fund, that the State contribute or find employment for an adult family member, and that the fund's income support the child's education. Bandhua Mukti Morcha v. Union of India, 1983 INSC 203, opened the bonded labour cases, and the same petitioner's later case on the carpet industry (1997) dealt with child labour. People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, 1982 INSC 67 (the Asiad workers' case), held that construction work is hazardous employment under Article 24.

Issues and concerns (the 2024 question). (1) The family-enterprise exception permits much of the work that actually occurs, and is hard to police. (2) The list of hazardous occupations was narrowed by the 2016 amendment, which critics say leaves dangerous work open to adolescents. (3) Most child labour is in agriculture and the informal sector, beyond inspection. (4) Rescue without rehabilitation returns children to work. (5) Prosecutions are few. The reform agenda: enforcement through the education system (an out-of-school child is a likely working child), cash support to families, and linking with anti-trafficking law.

3. The right to education

The Court found the right in Article 21 before the Constitution said so: Mohini Jain v. State of Karnataka, 1992 INSC 186, then Unni Krishnan v. State of Andhra Pradesh, 1993 INSC 40, which confined the free right to children up to fourteen. Article 21A and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 followed: neighbourhood schools, no capitation fee or screening, no detention and no expulsion till elementary education is completed (the no-detention policy was modified in 2019), and 25% of entry-level seats in private unaided schools for disadvantaged and weaker-section children. Society for Unaided Private Schools of Rajasthan v. Union of India, 2012 INSC 169, upheld the 25% quota except for unaided minority schools; Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust v. Union of India, 2014 INSC 362, held the Act inapplicable to all minority schools, aided or unaided. The changing dimension (2015 question): from a directive in Article 45, to a judge-made right, to a constitutional right with a statute, and now to questions of quality and learning outcomes.

4. Sexual abuse and exploitation of children

The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 is gender-neutral, defines penetrative and non-penetrative assault, aggravated forms and sexual harassment, makes reporting mandatory (section 19, with penalty in section 21), requires child-friendly procedures and special courts, and shifts the burden by presumption (sections 29 and 30). The 2019 amendment added the death penalty for aggravated penetrative sexual assault and offences on child pornography. Earlier, Vishal Jeet v. Union of India (1990) issued directions against child prostitution and devadasi dedication, and Gaurav Jain v. Union of India, 1997 INSC 547, ordered separate rehabilitation for children of women in prostitution. Independent Thought v. Union of India, 2017 INSC 1030, harmonised the IPC with POCSO by reading down the marital rape exception for wives aged fifteen to eighteen.

5. Adoption

Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act 1956: adoption by Hindus, with full transfer of the child to the adoptive family.
Guardians and Wards Act 1890: for others, only guardianship was possible until the JJ Act route.
Juvenile Justice Act 2015 (amended 2021 so that District Magistrates, not courts, issue adoption orders) and the Adoption Regulations 2022 framed by CARA: adoption open to any person regardless of religion. Shabnam Hashmi v. Union of India, 2014 INSC 111, upheld this as an optional secular law, while declining to declare adoption a fundamental right.
Inter-country adoption: Lakshmi Kant Pandey v. Union of India, 1984 INSC 26, laid down safeguards against trafficking (preference for Indian parents, licensed agencies, court scrutiny), which led to CARA. India ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption (1993) in 2003.
Problems: long waits in the CARA system, a preference for infant girls or boys, illegal adoption through hospitals and middlemen, disruption of adoptions, and the absence of a single adoption law.

6. Child marriage

The Child Marriage Restraint Act 1929 (the Sarda Act) only penalised. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006 keeps the ages at eighteen for girls and twenty-one for boys, makes a child marriage voidable at the option of the child party, void in cases of trafficking or force, and appoints Child Marriage Prohibition Officers. Karnataka amended the Act in 2016 to make child marriages in the State void from the start. In Society for Enlightenment and Voluntary Action v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 790, the Court issued guidelines for enforcing the Act and urged Parliament to deal with child betrothals. A Bill to raise the girls' age to twenty-one lapsed.

7. Institutional machinery

The Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act 2005 created the NCPCR and State commissions, which monitor the RTE Act and POCSO. Child Welfare Committees and Juvenile Justice Boards work under the JJ Act. Sampurna Behura v. Union of India, 2018 INSC 125, directed States to make these bodies functional.

How this is examined

Essays: issues in child labour; adequacy of laws against child labour and sexual exploitation; national and international instruments; adoption and the protection of the child. Short notes: child labour, children and education, child's right to education, law as an instrument to eradicate child marriage, adoption problems. Cite the CRC articles and the two ILO conventions in every international-instruments answer.