CHAPTER VII.- Employment of Young Persons

Section 67. Prohibition of employment of young children. -

No child who has not completed his fourteenth year shall be required or allowed to work in any factory.

Section 68. Non-adult workers to carry tokens. -

A child who has completed his fourteenth year or an adolescent shall not be required or allowed to work in any factory, unless -

• (a) a certificate of fitness granted with reference to him under section 69, is in the custody of manager of the factory, and
• (b) such child or adolescent carries while he is at work, a token giving a reference to such certificate.

Section 69. Certificate of fitness. -

A certifying surgeon shall, on the application of any young person or his parent or guardian accompanied by a document signed by the manager of a factory that such person will be employed therein if certified to be fit for work in a factory, or on the application of the manager of the factory, in which any young person wishes to work, examine such person and ascertain his fitness for work in a factory.

(2) The certifying surgeon, after examination, may grant to such young person, in the prescribed form, or may renew-

• (a) certificate of fitness to work in a factory as a child, if he is satisfied that the young person has completed his fourteenth year, that he has attained the prescribed physical standards and that he is fit for such work;
• (b) a certificate of fitness to work in a factory as an adult, if he is satisfied that the young person has completed his fifteenth year and is fit for a full day's work in a factory:

Provided that unless the certifying surgeon has personal knowledge of the place where the young person proposes to work and of the manufacturing process in which he will be employed, he shall not grant or renew a certificate under this sub-section until he has examined such place.

(3) A certificate of fitness granted or renewed under sub-section (2)-

• (a) shall be valid only for a period of twelve months from the date thereof:
• (b) may be made subject to conditions in regard to the nature of the work in which the young person may be employed, or requiring reexamination of the young person before the expiry of the period of twelve months.

(4) A certifying surgeon shall revoke any certificate granted or renewed under sub-section (2) if in his opinion the holder of it is no longer fit to work in the capacity stated therein in a factory.

(5) Where a certifying surgeon refuses to grant or renew a certificate or a certificate of the kind requested or revokes a certificate, he shall, if so requested by any person who could have applied for the certificate or the renewal thereof, state his reasons in writing for so doing.

(6) Where a certificate under this section with reference to any young person is granted or renewed subject to such conditions as are referred to in clause (b) of sub-section (3), the young person shall not be required or allowed to work in any factory except in accordance with those conditions.

(7) Any fee payable for a certificate under this section shall be paid by the occupier and shall not be recoverable from the young person, his parents or guardian.

Section 70. Effect of certificate of fitness granted to adolescent. -

(1) An adolescent, who has been granted certificate of fitness to work in a factory as an adult under clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 69, and who while at work in a factory carries a taken giving reference to the certificate, shall be deemed to be an adult for all the purposes of Chapters VI and VIII;

(1A) No female adolescent or a male adolescent who has not attained the age of seventeen years but who has been granted a certificate of fitness to work in a factory as an adult, shall be required or allowed to work in any factory except between 6 A.M. and 7 P.M.

Provided that the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, in respect of any factory or group or class or description of factories,-

• (i) vary the limits laid down in this sub-section so, however, that no such section shall authorise the employment of any female, adolescent between 10 P.M. and 5 A.M.
• (ii) grant exemption from the provisions of this sub-section in case of serious emergency where national interest is involved. (2) An adolescent who has not been granted a certificate of fitness to work in a factory as an adult under the aforesaid clause (b) shall, notwithstanding his age, be deemed to be a child for all the purposes of this Act.

Section 71. Working hours for children. -

(1) No child shall be employed or permitted to work in any factory-

• (a) for more than four and a half hours in any day;
• (b) during the night.

Explanation. - For the purpose of this sub-section "night" shall mean a period of at least twelve consecutive hours which shall include the interval between 10 P.M. and 6 A.M.

(2) The period of work of all children employed in a factory shall be limited to two shifts which shall not overlap or spreadover more than five hours each; and each child shall be employed in only one of the relays which shall not, except with the previous permission in writing of the Chief Inspector, be changed more frequently than once in a period of thirty days.

(3) The provisions of section 52 shall apply also to child workers and no exemption from the provisions of that section may be granted in respect of any child.

(4) No child shall be required or allowed to work in any factory on any day on which he has already been working in another factory.

(5) No female child shall be required or allowed to work in any factory except between 8 A.M. and 7 P.M.

Section 72. Notice of period of work for children. -

(1) There shall be displayed and correctly maintained in every factory in which children are employed, in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 108, a notice of periods of work for children, showing clear}y for every day the periods during which children may be required or allowed to work.

(2) The periods shown in the notice required by sub-section (1) shall be fixed beforehand in accordance with the method laid down for adult workers in section 61, and shall be such that children working for those periods would not be working in contravention of any of the provisions of section 71.

(3) The provisions of sub-sections (8), (9) and (10) of section 61 shall apply also to the notice required by sub-section (1) of this section.

Section 73. Register of child workers. -

(1) The manager of every factory in which children are employed shall maintain a register of child workers, to be available to the Inspector at all times during working hours or when any work is being carried on in a factory, showing -

• (a) the name of each child worker in the factory,
• (b) the nature of his work,
• (c) the group, if any, in which he is included,
• (d) where his group works on shifts, the relay to which he is allotted, and
• (e) the number of his certificate of fitness granted under section 69.

(1A) No child worker shall be required or allowed to work in any factory unless his name and other particulars have been entered in the register of child workers.

(2) The State Government may prescribe the form of the register of child workers, the manner in which it shall be maintained and the period for which it shall be preserved.

Section 74. Hours of work to correspond with notice under section 72 and register under section 73. -

No child shall be employed in any factory otherwise than in accordance with the notice of periods of work for children displayed in the factory and the entries made beforehand against his name in the register of child workers of the factory.

Section 75. Power to require medical examination. -

Where an Inspector is of opinion -

• (a) that any person working in factory without a certificate of fitness is a young person, or
• (b) that a young person working in a factory with a certificate of fitness is no longer fit to work in the capacity stated therein, -

he may serve on the manager of the factory a notice requiring that such person or young person, as the case may be shall be, examined by a certifying surgeon, and such person or young person shall not, if the Inspector so directs, be employed, or permitted to work, in any factory until he has been so examined and has been granted a certificate of fitness or a fresh certificate of fitness, as the case may be, under section 69, or has been certified by the certifying surgeon examining him not to be a young person.

Section 76. Power to make rules. -

The State Government may make rules-

• (a) prescribing the forms of certificate of fitness to be granted under section 69, providing for the grant of duplicates in the event of loss of the original certificate, and fixing the fees which may be charged for such certificates and renewals thereof and such duplicates;
• (b) prescribing the physical standards to be attained by children and adolescents working in factories;
• (c) regulating the procedure of certifying surgeons under this Chapter;
• (d) specifying other duties which certifying surgeons may be required to perform in connection with the employment of young persons in factories, and fixing the fees which may be charged for such duties and the persons by whom they shall be payable.

Section 77. Certain other provisions of law not barred. -

The provisions of this Chapter shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, the provisions of the Employment of Children Act, 1938 (XXVt of 1938).