Published Paper Details:

Child labour is a dehumanizing phenomenon that harms children's bodies, minds, spirits and future. It is a prison that withers both capabilities and potential. Under acute economic difficulty, children are compelled to forsake educational possibilities and take up professions which are largely exploiting them and it affects a number of their rights, most notably the right to health and protection from ill-treatment and abuse and the right to education when the work prevents them from attending school or compels them to drop out. As per the national and international laws every child has the right to express their views, feelings and wishes in all matters affecting their lives. This study is carried out in Dimapur, Nagaland, considered as the 'Gate Way of Nagaland and Manipur' and attempts to closely assess the socio-economic parameters including place of origin, caste and religion, parental occupation and causes as to why these child rag-pickers are engaging in the unhealthful occupation and their conditions as they roam in search of rags across the garbage dumping areas in this glittering world of globalization. Thus, by using both the qualitative and quantitative methods this study assesses the impact of the human rights on child labour abolition and perspectives of working children about child labour and also attempts to seek answer how children justify choices they have made regarding work and whether they were forced to work, or did so, on their own choice out of a sense of moral responsibility.