A recent study by leading child rights NGO, Child Rights and You (CRY) titled ‘Child Artists in India, An Exploratory Study in Mumbai’ reveals that a child below the age of 15 years in the entertainment industry in India, works for more than 12 hours a day and casting agencies are violating The Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act (CALPRA) that prohibits engagement of children in all occupations. The study further reveals that the overall number of child artists is estimated to be between 6,059 and 12,334 based on Media and Entertainment Skills Council estimates for 2017 and Census of India 2011 respectively.
While it is clearly mentioned in CALPRA, 1986, that no child shall be allowed to work for more than five hours in a day, and for not more than three hours without rest. The study has found that the work shift stretches to 12-13 hours for six days a week by production houses because guardians often do not interfere in the scheduling. “Contracts drawn between parents and producers have clauses that do not allow the parent or the child artist to refuse shooting for 12 hours straight. If the child is the protagonist of the film, she/he is required to shoot for 25 days out of the 30-day shoot schedule. It was observed that parents too did not have many reservations about letting their children work overtime. This is also evident from their (parents’) willingness to have their children available for odd shooting hours and skip school days. Often, these child artists are the sole breadwinners of their families which leads to increasing their vulnerabilities/exposure to facing exploitation in the work set up,” said the report.
The provisions of CALPRA also state, at least 20 per cent of the income earned by the child from the production or event is to be directly deposited in a fixed deposit account in a nationalised bank in the name of the child which may be credited to her/him on attaining majority. However, the study states the money is being utilised completely on the families. In cases where the child artist is the sole breadwinner of the family or the family has come from outside Mumbai, keeping 20 per cent of the payment in a fixed deposit is highly unlikely.
Extremely long and erratic working hours with hardly any rest, lack of concern about education and parental disregard for regular schooling, often in pursuit of quick money and fame, are some of the salient elements that harm children working in the entertainment sector, according to the study conducted. The study focuses on qualitative data and estimates made on child artists in Mumbai, as collated from secondary data.
Commenting on the study findings, Kreeanne Rabadi, Regional Director, CRY (West) said, “Child artists are often the invisible victims of child labour. They enter an adult world without the requisite support, care and safeguards that should be in place and are ignored by all stakeholders, including parents. Having laws in place for these children is futile, unless there is a commitment from all stakeholders to ensure the rights of these children. It is time to seriously look at the conditions of children working in the entertainment sector and to ensure they are protected, even while their talents are allowed to flourish.”
There are no precise statistics available on the estimate of child artists in the country. A sample of seven casting agencies that contained a total of 41,392 profiles of artists online (across India), suggested that 24.9 per cent were classified as child actors (i.e., under the age of 15) was included in the study. There were nearly 3,752 profiles of female child actors listed on these casting agency portals, and 4,642 profiles of male child actors. The portal search also suggests that 8.7 per cent of all male actors are child actors, and 15.7 per cent of all female actors are under the age of 18, the study reveals.
Cine and TV Artistes’ Association (CINTAA), is governed by an elected committee that works on an honorary basis and it has a register to maintain a log of complaints and they have come across cases where the parents have discontinued formal education of child artists. Since education is looked at as the means to get employment in the future, when child artists get employment at a young age, their parents feel that it is their craft as an artist that needs to be worked on rather than their formal education.