The Census 2011 data has thrown up some alarming details: around 78 lakh Indian children are forced to work, even as they attend schools, while 8.4 crore children don’t go to school at all. The report by the Times of India states that although the percentage might be smaller in comparison to the entire student population, the actual number is alarmingly high.
The ‘working students’ population consists of 57% of boys and 43% girls. Some of the students are as young as six years old and nearly 68% are into marginal work, labour which is less than 6 months of work and without much economic productivity.
The other disturbing number is that nearly 20% or 8.4 crore children, covered under the Right to Education Act, don’t go to school at all.
Of the 8.4 crore, only 19 % go to work, the rest it can be assumed might be working in either domestic chores or be into some other such odd line of work.
