World Day Against Child Labour 2026: CSR and Corporate Action for Indian Companies
- Marpu Foundation
- 9 minutes ago
- 9 min read
Every year on June 12, the world pauses to recognise World Day Against Child Labour.
The day, established by the International Labour Organization, exists to draw attention to one of the most persistent challenges in the global economy and to mobilise action that ends it. In India, the issue has both legal and social dimensions. The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act has been amended over the decades to strengthen protection for children. The Right to Education Act guarantees free and compulsory education for children between six and fourteen. Government schemes including the National Child Labour Project and integrated child development services work to address the systemic causes. And yet, despite this framework, child labour continues to affect children across the country, particularly those from low-income households, marginalised communities, and regions with limited educational access.
For Indian companies, World Day Against Child Labour is more than an awareness day. It is a moment to take stock of how the company itself contributes to the broader effort to end child labour. This contribution has two distinct dimensions, and both matter.
The first dimension is the company's own supply chain. Ensuring that no child labour exists within the company's direct operations, its supplier base, and its broader value chain is a fundamental corporate responsibility. This is supply chain due diligence work, governed by labour law, supplier codes of conduct, audit frameworks, and regulatory disclosure under frameworks such as BRSR. It is not CSR. It is a baseline responsibility every company carries.
The second dimension is the company's contribution to the broader societal effort to address the systemic causes of child labour. This is where corporate social responsibility under Section 135 of the Companies Act 2013 plays a role. By funding programmes that address poverty, support education, strengthen child welfare, and create alternatives for vulnerable families, companies can contribute meaningfully to a future where child labour no longer exists. This dimension is what this article focuses on.
Both dimensions are necessary. Strong supply chain due diligence ensures the company does no harm. Strong CSR investment helps eliminate the conditions that make child labour possible in the first place. World Day Against Child Labour is the right moment to recognise both.
This article is a practical guide to CSR programme ideas Indian companies can fund to address child labour, aligned with World Day Against Child Labour 2026.
The Systemic Causes That CSR Can Address
Child labour does not exist in isolation. It is rooted in conditions that CSR programmes can directly address. Five conditions consistently appear in the research on child labour in India.
Poverty and household economic distress. Families in extreme poverty often depend on children's income to survive. Programmes that strengthen household livelihoods can break this dependence.
Limited access to quality education. When schools are inaccessible, of poor quality, or unaffordable in terms of supplies and uniforms, children are more likely to leave for work. Programmes that improve education access and quality keep children in school.
Lack of social protection. Households without access to social protection schemes, healthcare, or emergency support are more likely to send children to work during crises. Programmes that strengthen social protection awareness and access build resilience.
Gender and caste-based discrimination. Children from marginalised communities and girls face heightened vulnerability. Programmes that address gender equality and inclusion reduce this risk.
Migration and urban informal economy. Families that migrate often place children in informal work. Programmes that support migrant families and improve conditions for children of migrants reduce this exposure.
CSR programmes that address these causes contribute to the broader societal effort to end child labour. Below are 10 programme categories that fit the Indian CSR context.
CSR Programme Ideas to Address Child Labour
1. Education Access and Retention Programmes
Strong education access is one of the most documented protective factors against child labour. CSR programmes can strengthen this.
What education-focused CSR can include:
→ Support for government school infrastructure and quality→ Scholarships and learning support for children from low-income households→ Mid-day meal and nutrition support to improve attendance→ School uniforms, supplies, and transport support→ Bridge courses for out-of-school children to re-enter the formal system→ Adolescent education and life skills programmes→ Career counselling for older children
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 2 (education and skill development).
2. Vocational Training for Adolescents Above Working Age
For adolescents above the legal working age who have left education, vocational training provides a structured alternative that builds skills for dignified livelihoods.
What vocational training CSR can include:
→ Trade and technical training programmes→ Digital skills training→ Entrepreneurship development→ Apprenticeship and placement support→ Continuing education combined with vocational training→ Life skills and financial literacy
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 2 (skill development).
3. Livelihood Support Programmes for Vulnerable Households
When household livelihoods are strengthened, children are less likely to be required to work.
What livelihood CSR can include:
→ Skill development and livelihood training for adult earners→ Self-help group and women's collective support→ Livelihood diversification programmes→ Microenterprise development support→ Financial literacy and inclusion programmes→ Awareness on social protection schemes
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 1 (eradicating poverty), activity 3 (women empowerment).
4. Child Welfare and Protection Programmes
Direct programmes for child welfare and protection address the immediate safety and wellbeing of vulnerable children.
What child welfare CSR can include:
→ Support for child welfare committees and child protection systems→ Rehabilitation programmes for children rescued from child labour→ Counselling and psychosocial support for children→ Awareness on child rights in communities→ Support for child helplines and reporting systems→ Safe spaces and after-school programmes for vulnerable children
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 3 (gender equality and reducing inequalities), activity 1 (welfare of children).
5. Girl Child Education and Empowerment Programmes
Girl children face heightened vulnerability to dropping out of school and entering work. Programmes focused on girl children produce significant impact.
What girl child CSR can include:
→ Scholarships and learning support for girls→ Menstrual hygiene awareness and access programmes→ Safe transport to school→ Adolescent girl development programmes→ Awareness against early marriage and dropout→ Mentorship and role model programmes
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 2 (education), activity 3 (gender equality, empowering women).
6. Community Awareness and Sensitisation Programmes
Long-term change requires community-level awareness about child rights, education, and the harms of child labour.
What community awareness CSR can include:
→ Awareness campaigns on child rights and child labour laws→ Engagement with community leaders, panchayats, and local institutions→ Awareness on government schemes and entitlements→ Parent and family engagement programmes→ Media and creative awareness campaigns→ Peer-to-peer awareness through youth networks
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 3 (reducing inequalities), activity 2 (education).
7. Health and Nutrition Programmes
Children working in unsafe conditions face health risks. Strong health and nutrition programmes protect vulnerable children regardless of their work status.
What health and nutrition CSR can include:
→ Health check-up and screening programmes→ Nutrition support for children in vulnerable communities→ Immunisation awareness→ Maternal and child health programmes→ Adolescent health awareness→ Mental health support for at-risk children
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 1 (healthcare, nutrition, hunger eradication).
8. Support for Migrant and Out-of-School Children
Children from migrant families and out-of-school children are at heightened risk. CSR programmes that address their specific situations create targeted impact.
What migrant and out-of-school CSR can include:
→ Mobile learning centres for migrant communities→ Bridge education to re-enter the formal system→ Documentation support so children can access schools and entitlements→ Identification and outreach for out-of-school children→ Family support programmes for migrant households→ Coordination with destination-state child protection systems
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 2 (education), activity 1 (welfare of children).
9. Support for Government Programmes Addressing Child Labour
India has government programmes specifically targeting child labour, including the National Child Labour Project. CSR can support these government efforts and multiply their impact.
What government programme support CSR can include:
→ Capacity building for government child protection workers→ Infrastructure support for special training centres→ Awareness on government schemes for vulnerable families→ Support for rehabilitation and re-integration→ Documentation and data systems support→ Training for school teachers on identifying at-risk children
Schedule VII alignment:Â Activity 2 (education), activity 1 (poverty eradication), activity 3 (reducing inequalities).
10. Employee Engagement and Awareness Programmes
Employee engagement on child rights and child labour issues amplifies awareness and contribution.
What employee engagement can include:
→ Awareness sessions on child rights and child labour for employees→ Volunteering opportunities in child welfare programmes→ Skills-based volunteering for child-focused nonprofits→ Mentorship programmes for vulnerable children→ Family-inclusive child welfare activities→ Internal awareness on identifying child labour signs in supply chains
Schedule VII alignment:Â Multiple, depending on activity focus.
How to Design a Child-Labour-Focused CSR Programme
A few principles help when designing CSR programmes that genuinely address child labour rather than producing one-off awareness activity.
1. Plan for sustained engagement, not single-day activities
World Day Against Child Labour is a moment, not a programme. A campaign on June 12 produces visibility. Sustained programmes throughout the year produce change. Use the awareness day as a launch or recommitment moment, not as a standalone activity.
2. Address systemic causes, not symptoms
Programmes that address poverty, education access, livelihood, and household resilience produce lasting change. Programmes that focus only on direct rescue without addressing systemic conditions tend to produce limited long-term impact.
3. Work with experienced child welfare partners
Child welfare programmes require specific safeguarding expertise, including child protection protocols, qualified personnel, and trauma-informed approaches. Partner with implementation organisations that have this expertise built in.
4. Pair CSR with supply chain due diligence
CSR investment in child welfare is not a substitute for keeping the company's own supply chain free of child labour. Strong corporate responses include both dimensions, tracked and reported separately.
5. Document for disclosure and impact
CSR programmes addressing child labour should document outcomes for CSR-2 disclosure and BRSR reporting. Child-focused programmes often feed into BRSR principles on community engagement, human rights, and inclusion.
Important: CSR Is Not a Substitute for Supply Chain Responsibility
This point is important enough to repeat.
CSR programmes that address child labour in communities, valuable as they are, do not replace the company's responsibility to ensure its own operations, suppliers, and value chain are free of child labour. These are two separate corporate responsibilities, governed by different frameworks, tracked separately, and reported separately.
Supply chain due diligence is the work of identifying and eliminating child labour from the company's direct operations, supplier base, and broader value chain. This is governed by labour law, supplier codes of conduct, third-party audits, grievance mechanisms, and BRSR disclosure. It is a baseline responsibility, not an optional contribution.
CSR is the work of contributing to the broader societal effort to end child labour by addressing systemic causes through philanthropic investment in communities. This is governed by Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 and reported through CSR-2.
A company that funds excellent child welfare CSR while tolerating child labour in its own supply chain has not addressed the issue. A company that ensures its supply chain is clean but does nothing to address systemic causes has done less than it could. Strong corporate action requires both.
Common Mistakes Companies Make
A few patterns separate strong child-labour-focused CSR programmes from weak ones.
Treating the awareness day as the whole programme. A campaign on June 12 produces visibility but not change. Sustained programmes do.
Confusing CSR with supply chain due diligence. These are distinct responsibilities and must be handled separately.
Underestimating the safeguarding expertise required. Working with vulnerable children requires trained personnel, established protocols, and rigorous oversight. Programmes without these can cause harm.
Generalising the issue. Child labour has specific causes in specific contexts. Programmes designed for general impact often produce shallow results. Focused programmes addressing specific causes in specific communities produce real change.
Skipping community engagement. Sustainable change requires community ownership. Programmes imposed without community engagement often fail.
What Strong Child Labour CSR Looks Like
Five characteristics consistently appear in programmes that produce real impact.
Sustained intervention over multiple years. Programmes that operate over years produce measurable change rather than awareness-day visibility.
Focus on systemic causes. Programmes that address poverty, education access, livelihood, and household resilience produce lasting outcomes.
Strong safeguarding expertise. Programmes delivered with trained personnel and established child protection protocols protect the children they aim to help.
Community ownership. Programmes that engage communities build sustainable, locally-owned change.
Clean documentation and disclosure. Programme outcomes captured for CSR-2 disclosure and BRSR reporting from day one.
Schedule VII Compliance Notes
Child labour focused CSR spans multiple Schedule VII categories: activity 1 (poverty eradication, healthcare, nutrition), activity 2 (education, skill development), activity 3 (gender equality, reducing inequalities, welfare of children), and activity 5 (rural development).
Key compliance points:
The implementation partner must be eligible. Section 8 companies, registered societies, or registered trusts with valid Form CSR-1 filings.
Documentation must be audit-ready. Beneficiary records, programme reports, photographs taken with consent and respect for child dignity, and impact data.
Child protection protocols must be in place. Any programme working directly with children requires established safeguarding standards, qualified personnel, and rigorous oversight.
Spend classification must be clean. Programme costs paid to the implementation partner are typically eligible. Internal company costs are typically not.
Reporting feeds into multiple disclosures. Child-focused CSR feeds into CSR-2 and BRSR Core principles on community engagement, human rights, and inclusion.
How Marpu Foundation Supports Companies on Child Welfare CSR
At Marpu Foundation, we work with companies across India to design and implement CSR programmes that address child welfare and the systemic causes of child labour.
What we offer:
We help you identify CSR project areas that align with your CSR goals and the specific child welfare challenges you want to address.
We design and implement programmes across education access and retention, vocational training for adolescents, livelihood support for vulnerable households, child welfare and protection, girl child empowerment, community awareness, health and nutrition, support for migrant and out-of-school children, support for government programmes, and employee engagement.
We handle end-to-end execution with safeguarding protocols, qualified personnel, and trauma-informed approaches for any programme involving children directly.
We provide complete documentation including utilisation certificates, beneficiary records collected with consent and respect for dignity, impact reports, and BRSR-ready data.
Our experience:
We work across 23 states with over 250 corporate partners. We understand the documentation, audit, and reporting standards Indian CSR teams require, and we bring the community engagement and safeguarding expertise that child-focused programmes require to succeed.
If you are designing a CSR programme to mark World Day Against Child Labour 2026, or to address child welfare and child labour systemic causes more broadly throughout the year, write to us at connect@marpu.org.