Child labour is the practice where children engage in economic activity, on part or full-time basis.

The practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and growth of informal economy are considered as the important causes of child labour in India. India's Census 2001 Office defines child labor as participation of a child less than 17 years of age in any economically productive activity with or without compensation, wages or profit. Such participation could be physical or mental or both. This work includes part-time help or unpaid work on the farm, family enterprise or in any other economic activity such as cultivation and milk production for sale or domestic consumption. Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act, 1986 was the culmination of effort and ideas that emerged from the deliberations and recommendations of various committees on child labour. Significant among them are the National Commission on Labour (1966-69), Gurupadaswamy Committee on Child Labour (1979), Sanat Mehta Committee (1984) and others. The basic objective of the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act 1986 is to ban employment of children below the age of 14 years in factories, mines and hazardous employment's and to regulate the working conditions of children in other employment's. The Act: - Bans the employment of children, i.e. those who have not completed their 14th year, in specified occupations and process; - Lays down a procedure to make additions to the schedule of banned occupations or processes; Regulates the working conditions of children in occupations where they are not prohibited from working; - Lays down penalties for employment of children in violation of the provisions of this Act, and these Acts which forbid the employment of children; - Brings out uniformly in the definition of "Child in related laws.