This paper sheds light on the constitutional safeguards for child labourers in Andhra Pradesh in the backdrop of COVID-19, enumerating various acts and laws in defence of Child labourers. It shows how child labourers are being pushed from safer household enterprises to the hazardous industrial sector, resulting in a marginal shift in the employment pattern of child workers. Another important finding of the study is that involvement of children in the workforce has reduced significantly due to the forced enrolment of children in schools. This study lays emphasis on the importance of the comprehensive measures to be taken in order to safeguard children and other vulnerable groups from being forced into child labour. Social protection measures must sustain the basic needs of the families which are responsible for child labour and address its root causes. While temporary lockdowns and fears of contagion present unique challenges to traditional data collection methods, other types of data gathering, such as telephone and computer-assisted surveys, are already providing valuable information on the crisis. These methods should be expanded, quickly, to detect new and emerging patterns of child labour, and help manage the development of the affected populations and should incorporate questions or modules on child labour.
Keywords: Child Labour, COVID-19, Social Projection, Child Rights, Constitutional Safeguards etc.
