India&#39;s parliament on Tuesday passed a new labour law that allows children to work for their families despite concerns by activists that it will hurt their development. 
 
The Lok Sabha or the lower house approved a ban on all children under 14 from working, except if employed in family businesses or in the sports and entertainment industry. 
 
The current law prohibits children under 14 from working only in hazardous jobs, although even this is not properly implemented, according to activists. 
 
The government defended the decision to allow some forms of labour after school hours or during vacations, saying some children needed to learn traditional skills and that families needed a helping hand. 
 
&quot;The purpose of the bill is that we should be able to practically implement it. So we have given some exemptions,&quot; junior labour and employment minister Bandaru Dattatreya told parliament. 
 
&quot;We have enabled many safeguards in the new bill,&quot; he added. 
 
UNICEF decried the new provision in the law, saying the legitimisation of family work would further disadvantage children from poorer families. 
 
&quot;The provision where the child helps his family or family enterprises, which is other than any hazardous occupations... raises serious concerns and is believed to impact the development and protection of the child,&quot; it said in a statement. 
 
Millions of children in India work as domestic servants and in factories, mines and many other areas, according to aid agencies and government figures. 
 
India&#39;s Nobel laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi said he was disappointed by the amended law. 
 
&quot;The Child Labour Amendment Bill 2016 is a missed opportunity to protect our children and generations to come,&quot; he wrote on Twitter. 
 
(AFP) 
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UNICEF decried the new provision, saying the legitimisation of family work would further disadvantage children from poorer families

India's parliament on Tuesday passed a new labour law that allows children to work for their families despite concerns by activists that it will hurt their development. The Lok Sabha or the lower house approved a ban on all children under 14 from working, except if employed in family businesses or in the sports and entertainment industry. The current law prohibits children under 14 from working only in hazardous jobs, although even this is not properly implemented, according to activists. The government defended the decision to allow some forms of labour after school hours or during vacations, saying some children needed to learn traditional skills and that families needed a helping hand. "The purpose of the bill is that we should be able to practically implement it. So we have given some exemptions," junior labour and employment minister Bandaru Dattatreya told parliament. "We have enabled many safeguards in the new bill," he added. UNICEF decried the new provision in the law, saying the legitimisation of family work would further disadvantage children from poorer families. "The provision where the child helps his family or family enterprises, which is other than any hazardous occupations... raises serious concerns and is believed to impact the development and protection of the child," it said in a statement. Millions of children in India work as domestic servants and in factories, mines and many other areas, according to aid agencies and government figures. India's Nobel laureate and child rights activist Kailash Satyarthi said he was disappointed by the amended law. "The Child Labour Amendment Bill 2016 is a missed opportunity to protect our children and generations to come," he wrote on Twitter. (AFP)

Indian parliament passes controversial child labour law

The number of&nbsp;children&nbsp;who do not attend school is rising, child marriage has not dropped in decades and millions of young&nbsp;children&nbsp;will die mostly preventable deaths by 2030 if global poverty is not addressed, the&nbsp;United Nations Children&#39;s Emergency Fund&nbsp;(UNICEF)&nbsp;said in a bleak report issued on Tuesday.

Poor&nbsp;children&nbsp;are twice as likely as rich&nbsp;children&nbsp;to die before age five, and poor girls are more than twice as likely to become child brides in signs of troubling&nbsp;inequality, said the annual report by the United Nations&#39;&nbsp;children&#39;s agency.

Noting some progress in halving global mortality rates for&nbsp;children&nbsp;under five&nbsp;since 1990 and boys and girls attending primary school in equal numbers in 129 countries, the report said such developments have been neither even nor fair, with repercussions for global turmoil.

&quot;Some of the big challenges that we now face, like refugees and migrants, are connected within equality&nbsp;and poverty,&quot; Justin Forsyth, Undine&#39;s deputy executive director, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Narrowing that inequity &quot;is good for those&nbsp;children, but it&#39;s also good to stop future crises&quot;,&nbsp;he said.

The report called for stronger efforts to educate the&nbsp;world&#39;s&nbsp;children, noting that on average each additional year of education a child receives increases her or his adult earnings by about 10 per cent.

Also it said for each additional year of schooling completed on average by young adults, a nation&#39;s poverty rate drops nine&nbsp;per cent.

About 124 million&nbsp;children&nbsp;do not go to primary and lower-secondary school, a number that has increased about two&nbsp;million since 2011, it said.

Children&nbsp;born to educated mothers are almost three&nbsp;times less likely to die and more likely to go to school, delay marriage and postpone child bearing, said the report, entitled &quot;State of the&nbsp;World&#39;s Children&quot;.

The rate of child marriages among the&nbsp;world&#39;s&nbsp;poorest&nbsp;girls has remained unchanged since about 1990, and 15 million girls are married as&nbsp;children&nbsp;every year, it said.

If nothing is done, it said 69 million&nbsp;children&nbsp;will die before age five&nbsp;from mostly preventable causes by 2030, and nearly of half of them will be from sub-Saharan Africa.

Nine out of ten&nbsp;children&nbsp;in the same region will be living in extreme poverty, which means living on less than $1.90 US&nbsp;per day, it said.

Battling such poverty and equality and promoting education for&nbsp;children, particularly girls, were among the UN&#39; s Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals adopted last fall to tackle an array of global woes by 2030.

Educating&nbsp;children&nbsp;is particularly critical given the global conflicts fueled by decimalization, Forsyth added.

&quot;There is a direct link between&nbsp;children&nbsp;for many, many years missing out on education and then the ability of more extremist elements to organize,&quot; he said.

(Reuters)

The report paints a grim picture of two different worlds for kids that keep growing further apart

The number of children who do not attend school is rising, child marriage has not dropped in decades and millions of young children will die mostly preventable deaths by 2030 if global poverty is not addressed, the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) said in a bleak report issued on Tuesday. Poor children are twice as likely as rich children to die before age five, and poor girls are more than twice as likely to become child brides in signs of troubling inequality, said the annual report by the United Nations' children's agency. Noting some progress in halving global mortality rates for children under five since 1990 and boys and girls attending primary school in equal numbers in 129 countries, the report said such developments have been neither even nor fair, with repercussions for global turmoil. "Some of the big challenges that we now face, like refugees and migrants, are connected within equality and poverty," Justin Forsyth, Undine's deputy executive director, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Narrowing that inequity "is good for those children, but it's also good to stop future crises", he said. The report called for stronger efforts to educate the world's children, noting that on average each additional year of education a child receives increases her or his adult earnings by about 10 per cent. Also it said for each additional year of schooling completed on average by young adults, a nation's poverty rate drops nine per cent. About 124 million children do not go to primary and lower-secondary school, a number that has increased about two million since 2011, it said. Children born to educated mothers are almost three times less likely to die and more likely to go to school, delay marriage and postpone child bearing, said the report, entitled "State of the World's Children". The rate of child marriages among the world's poorest girls has remained unchanged since about 1990, and 15 million girls are married as children every year, it said. If nothing is done, it said 69 million children will die before age five from mostly preventable causes by 2030, and nearly of half of them will be from sub-Saharan Africa. Nine out of ten children in the same region will be living in extreme poverty, which means living on less than $1.90 US per day, it said. Battling such poverty and equality and promoting education for children, particularly girls, were among the UN' s Sustainable Development Goals, a set of 17 goals adopted last fall to tackle an array of global woes by 2030. Educating children is particularly critical given the global conflicts fueled by decimalization, Forsyth added. "There is a direct link between children for many, many years missing out on education and then the ability of more extremist elements to organize," he said. (Reuters)

UNICEF finds growing inequality between world's poorest and richest children

Twenty five children were reportedly killed in air strikes that hit heavily crowded areas in a town in eastern Syria, the United Nations children&#39;s agency (UNICEF) has said. 
 
Quoting reports from its local partners in Syria, UNICEF said health workers were reported to have pulled bodies of children from under rubble in the town of al-Quria in Deir al-Zor province, which is mostly under Islamic State control. 
 
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported on Saturday that air strikes carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed dozens of people in al-Quria. 
 
Deir al-Zor province links Islamic State&#39;s de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory it controls in Iraq. 
 
&quot;Three attacks reportedly hit heavily crowded areas including a mosque during prayer time,&quot; UNICEF said in a statement. &quot;UNICEF deplores these attacks and calls on all parties to the conflict to keep children out of harm&rsquo;s way.&quot; 
 
(Reuters)&nbsp;

'Three attacks reportedly hit heavily crowded areas including a mosque during prayer time'

Twenty five children were reportedly killed in air strikes that hit heavily crowded areas in a town in eastern Syria, the United Nations children's agency (UNICEF) has said. Quoting reports from its local partners in Syria, UNICEF said health workers were reported to have pulled bodies of children from under rubble in the town of al-Quria in Deir al-Zor province, which is mostly under Islamic State control. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported on Saturday that air strikes carried out by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed dozens of people in al-Quria. Deir al-Zor province links Islamic State's de facto capital in the Syrian city of Raqqa with territory it controls in Iraq. "Three attacks reportedly hit heavily crowded areas including a mosque during prayer time," UNICEF said in a statement. "UNICEF deplores these attacks and calls on all parties to the conflict to keep children out of harm’s way." (Reuters)

25 children killed in air strikes in eastern Syria: UNICEF

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