Child Domestic Workers In India: Invisible Victims Of Legal Protection
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 days ago
- 1 min read
Naman Bhatele, Amity University Madhya Pradesh
ABSTRACT
Child domestic workers occupy one of the most precarious and legally invisible positions in India's labour ecosystem. Engaged in cooking, cleaning, childcare, and other household tasks within private homes, these children predominantly girls between the ages of 5 and 14 remain shielded from public scrutiny by the very walls that enclose them. Despite India's constitutional mandate to protect children from exploitation and guarantee free and compulsory education, the domestic sphere has historically been treated as a zone beyond the reach of labour law.
This paper undertakes a comprehensive legal analysis of the framework governing child domestic workers in India. It critically examines the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016, the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, and the Domestic Workers Sector Skill Council regulations, among others. The paper argues that these legislative instruments, while progressive on paper, collectively fail to provide adequate or enforceable protection to child domestic workers due to structural exclusions, definitional ambiguities, enforcement deficits, and a persistent cultural tolerance of child domestic labour as a 'benign' or 'charitable' arrangement.
Drawing upon judicial pronouncements, ILO conventions, comparative jurisdictions, and sociological research, this paper proposes a rights-based framework for reform one that moves beyond criminal prohibition to address rehabilitation, education, and economic empowerment. The paper concludes that India's legal system, as it stands, renders child domestic workers invisible not merely in practice, but in law itself.
Keywords: Child domestic workers, child labour, labour law, India, legal protection, exploitation, Juvenile Justice Act, Right to Education, informal economy, domestic workers.
