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National law and policies on minimum ages – India

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

 

Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/93/Add.5, 16 July 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.10, 7 July 1997
 
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 2nd report
201. [...] the minimum compulsory age of education is 14 years. […]
743. The proposed 83rd Constitutional Amendment Bill, 1997, guarantees the right to free and compulsory education for children from 6–14 years of age. It also makes it a fundamental duty of parents/guardians to provide opportunities for education to children in this age group.
1172. Directive Principles of State Policy indicate that the Government must take measures to achieve the goal of free and compulsory education for children under the age of 14 years.
From initial report
65. Provision of free and compulsory education: Article 45 of the Constitution states that the State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of 10 years from the commencement of the Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children till they reach the age of 14 years.
221. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA), 1992 have perceived education as fundamental to all-round development of children and stipulates free and compulsory education of satisfactory quality to all children up to 14 years of age before the turn of the century.
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
201. [..] The various laws relating to labour prohibit a person under the age of 14 years to work. […]
1171. If the provisions on child labour in international conventions such as the ILO standards and the CRC are compared with Indian standards, it can be said that the Indian Constitution articulates higher standards in some respects. The Constitution of India specifies that a child has a right not to be used in “forced” or “bonded” labour. The Constitution also specifies in its chapter on Fundamental Rights that ‘no child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous work”. […]
1174. The policy of the Government is to ban employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and hazardous employment and to regulate the working conditions of children in other employment.
1180. The Government recently amended the Central Civil Services (Conduct) rules to prohibit the employment of children. According to this, no Government employee shall employ any child below the age of 14 years.
From initial report
65. In accordance with the Constitution, no child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment (article 23).
Labour Law Apprentice Act, 1961: A person is qualified to be engaged as an apprentice only if he is not less than 14 years of age, and satisfies such standards of education and physical fitness as may be prescribed.
Factories Act, 1948: A child below 14 years of age is not allowed to work in any factory. An adolescent between 15 and 18 years can be employed in a factory only if he obtains a certificate of fitness from an authorized medical doctor. A child between 14 and 18 years of age cannot be employed for more than four and a half hours.
Mines Amendment Act: No person below 18 years of age shall be allowed to work in any mine or part thereof.
The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1966: Child means a person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age.
 
Minimum age for marriage
From 2nd report
201. [..] The age of capacity to contract a marriage is 18 years for a girl and 21 years for a boy, for all communities. The Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929, defines a child as a person who, if a male, has not completed 21 years of age, and if a female, has not completed 18 years of age. Under Section 5 of this Act whoever performs, conducts or directs any child marriage shall be punishable with simple imprisonment up to three months and shall also be liable to fine, unless he proves that he had reason to believe that the marriage was not a child marriage. This uniform legislation is an effort to discourage child marriages under personal laws.
From initial report
65. Family Law Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1926: Child means a person who if a male has not reached 21 years of age and, if a female, has not reached 18 years of age.
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
Table 2.1: Minimum legal age defined by national legislation
Age (years)
 
Boys
Girls
End of compulsory education*
14
14
Marriage*
21
18
Admission to employment or work, including hazardous work, part-time and full-time work*
·           Child Labour (Prohibition and
Regulation) Act, 1986
·           Mines Act, 1952
·           Merchant Shipping Act, 1958
·           Motor Transport Workers Act, 1961
·           Apprentices Act, 1961
·           Bidi and Cigar Workers Act, 1966
·           Plantation Labour Act, 1951
·           Factories Act, 1948
 
 
14
18
14
14
14
14
14
14
 
 
14
18
14
14
14
14
14
14
Criminal responsibility*
12
(Section 83 of the Indian Penal Code, according to which, nothing is an offence which is done by a child above seven years of age and under 12 years, who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion. It may be noted that children below the age of seven years are deemed to be incapable of criminal offence as per section 82 of the Indian Penal Code)
Source: *NI/PC/SAP/132/2000/908 dated July 31, 2000, National Institute for Public Cooperation and Child Development, Government of India (GOI)
From initial report
65. Criminal Law Indian Penal Code: Nothing is an offence which is done by a child under the age of seven years. The age of criminal responsibility is raised to 12 years if the child is found to have not attained the ability of understanding the nature and consequences of his act.
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/93/Add.5, 16 July 2003
Initial report: CRC/C/28/Add.10, 7 July 1997