Other girls work from home. No one knows, for instance, how many under-14 girls are domestic workers in Bombay. Patsy Khan, a social worker, believes the number could be 200,000. According to a study, at least 500,000 under-15 children in India are sex workers. Groups concerned with children s rights differentiate between child labour and child work.
Child labour is that form of work which is detrimental to the growth and development of the child.
Family work which interferes with a child s education, recreation or physical, mental or moral health, is also considered child labour. Most working girls in India would, by this definition, be classified as child labourers. Estimates of the number of child labourers in India vary from 20 million to 100-odd million. The Union Labour Ministry claims only 20 million children under 14 work in the country. The Operations Research Group, an NGO, put the figure at 44 million in 1983.