<P> In 2012, a German news investigative report claimed that in states like Karnataka, non-governmental organisations had found up to 15,000 children working in the 1,100 silk factories in 1998 . In other places, thousands of bonded child labourers were present in 1995 . But today, after UNICEF and NGOs got involved, child labour figure is drastically lower, with the total estimated to be fewer than a thousand child labourers . The released children were back in school, claims the report . </P> <P> Siddartha Kara finds about 20% of carpets manufactured in India could involve child labour . He notes, "determining the extent to which the hand - made carpet supply chain from India to the U.S.A. is tainted by slavery and child labour requires an additional exercise in supply chain tracing ." Kara's study also finds variation in child labour practices between ethnic and religious groups . Kara and colleagues report highest level of child labour in Muslim community carpet operations, and the presence of debt bonded child labourers in Muslim villages . </P> <P> Official estimates for child labour working as domestic labour and in restaurants is more than 2,500,000 while NGOs estimate the figure to be around 20 million . The Government of India expanded the coverage of The Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act and banned the employment of children as domestic workers and as workers in restaurants, dhabas, hotels, spas and resorts effective from 10 October 2006 . </P> <P> Despite laws enacted in 1952, prohibiting employment of people under the age of 18 in the mines primitive coal mines in Meghalaya using child labour were discovered and exposed by the international media in 2013 . </P>

Statement of the problem of child labour in india