Child Labour Prohibition — Basic Structure

Basic Structure

Use age, activity and conditions as the decision sequence. Under the Act, a child has not completed fourteen, subject to its reference to a higher age under the educational law; an adolescent has completed fourteen but not eighteen. Section 3 addresses child work, while section 3A prohibits adolescents in the specified hazardous occupations and processes.

The family exception is conditional. It concerns help in the family or family enterprise outside the prohibited hazardous sphere after school hours or during vacations. The relationship alone does not answer the legal question. A child missing school for a relative's enterprise cannot rely merely on the claim that the work is within the family.

The artist exception is separate. It concerns specified audio-visual entertainment or sports activities, excludes the circus and remains subject to prescribed safeguards and protection of schooling. A production schedule or parental agreement does not replace those conditions. Operational requirements in rules should be checked rather than invented from memory.

Article 24 concerns employment below fourteen in factories, mines and other hazardous work. The amended statute supplies a broader and more detailed framework, including adolescent protection. The 2016 changes took effect on 1 September 2016. Enforcement and education support must work together: removal from unlawful work does not by itself establish sustained school participation or protection from return to exploitation.