CBSE Class-12 Compartment Exam 2020 : Question Paper- English Core

Q1. Read the following passage carefully : 

1 For many years now, the governments have been promising the eradication of child labour in hazardous industries in India. But
the truth is that despite all the rhetoric, no government so far has succeeded in eradicating this evil, nor has been able to ensure
compulsory primary education for every Indian child. Between  60 and 100 million children are still at work instead of going to
school, and around 10 million are working in hazardous industries. India has the biggest child population of 380 million in the world,
plus the largest number of children who are forced to earn a living. We have many laws that ban child labour in hazardous industries.
According to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, the employment of children below the age of 14 years, in
hazardous occupations, has been strictly banned. But each State has different rules regarding the minimum age of child
employment. This makes implementation of these laws difficult.    

2 Also, there is no ban on child labour in the non-hazardous occupations. The Act applies to the organised or factory sector and
not the unorganised sector where most children find employment as cleaners, servants, porters, waiters, etc., among other forms of
unskilled work. Thus, child labour continues because the implementation of the existing laws is lax. There are industries
which have a special demand for child labour because of their nimble fingers, high level of concentration and capacity to work
hard at abysmally low wages. The carpet industry in U.P. and Kashmir employs children to make hand-knitted carpets.
Industries like gem-cutting and polishing, pottery and  glass-making want to remain competitive by employing children.
The truth is that it is poverty which is pushing children into the labour market. We have 260 million people below the poverty line
in India, a large number of them are women. Poor and especially woman-headed families, have no option but to push their little
ones into this hard life in hostile conditions, with no human or labour rights. 

3 There is a lobby which argues that there is nothing wrong with children working as long as the environment for work is conducive
to learning new skills, but studies have shown that the children are made to do boring, repetitive and tedious jobs and are not
taught new skills as they grow older. In these hell-holes, like the sweet shops of the old, there is no hope. Children working in
hazardous industries are prone to debilitating diseases which can cripple them for life. By sitting in cramped, damp and unhygienic
spaces, their limbs become deformed for life. Inside matchstick, fireworks and glass industries, they are victims of bronchial
diseases and T.B. Their mental and physical development is permanently impaired due to long hours of work. Once trapped
they cannot get out of this vicious circle of poverty. They remain uneducated and powerless. Finally in the later years, they too are
compelled to send their own children to work. Child labour
 

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Courtesy: CBSE