Child labour in India and its global context: A case study of child domestic workers in Lucknow City

In the current phase of globalization, child labour is linked both positively as well negatively with greater general prosperity and reduced poverty due to economic growth in the developing countries. For some social scientists, economic globalization became symbols of all hope for future improvements and has reduced relative poverty which is the major cause for child labour. However, for some social analyst, who believe that child labour is an outcome of many factors such as social structure of particular communities, societal attitudes towards the child and childhood, various cultural practices, etc., child labour has taken new forms in fast growing and free market economies. Some scholars presume that globalization is the cause of all ills and social injustices and perpetuates the child labour in growing economies.     

In the backdrop of the possible linkages of globalization to child poverty and child labour, this paper discusses the increased child domestic workers in metropolitan cities in India which are mostly invisible in the traditional child labour estimates. The paper will explores the link between the continual growth in material conditions of dual earner families and migration of rural poor for economic betterment in such cities. The paper examines the possible reasons of the rise of child domestic workers. It tries to find out the economic necessities of poor rural migrant families and their supply of labour in unorganized labour market in the form of child domestic workers as one of the major cause of rising child labour in cities which is a direct result of economic globalization. Drawing on the data collected during 2010 and 2011 in Lucknow city in India, this paper talks about the reasons for migration of child worker’s families in the city, well being of these child workers, the nature and significance of children’s work in these families, etc.