NEW DELHI—Ten-year-old Sonu sits forlornly on a plastic chair in a ramshackle street food stall in New Delhi, taking a break after serving customers tea.
A ban on child labor in households, restaurants, hotels and resorts came into effect in India on Tuesday but nothing has changed for the tired-looking boy, dressed in scruffy blue jeans and a faded green shirt.
Sonu, whose father also works in a food stall, says he'd rather be in school.
"But what to do? This is necessary," said the boy, reality teaching him an early and harsh lesson in life.
Sonu comes from a poor family from a New Delhi slum and is one of the millions of children who work in roadside food stalls or in the homes of India's upper and middle-class.
Officials hope the new ban, which will apply to children under 14, will protect underage workers from psychological and sexual abuse as well as from strenuous working conditions.
On the eve of the ban, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warned of "firm action" against violators but appealed to Indians to give up the practice voluntarily.
Under the country's existing Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986, children under 14 are already banned from working in industries deemed "hazardous" such as fireworks, matchstick-making, auto workshops, or carpet weaving.
Activists say they have their doubts about how authorities will implement the new ban, given their past record.
"This ban on child domestic labor is a welcome step, but changes on paper are not enough," Zama Coursen-Neff of New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Less than three miles from India's labor ministry, 10-year-old Shehzad is covered with grime and dust as he uses a foot pump to inflate the tire tube of a scooter belonging to a policeman, who watches him impassively.
Shehzad does not know that children have been banned for a decade from working in workshops but says it does not make a difference.
"I can't go to school as my father can't afford to buy books for me," the son of a rickshaw-puller said, while picking up a plastic container of spare parts.
The new ban for children in food stalls and working in homes is aimed at providing legal protection to millions more children. Those found violating the law could face up to two years in jail, a maximum fine of 20,000 rupees ($435), or both.
The labor ministry says there are 12 million children under 14 years old working in India, but activists say the number could be as high as 60 million.
"This is a good tool for us to fight child labor. Now we have a legal instrument to take it on," said Kailash Satyarthi, head of the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement).
Authorities say results from the new ban will not come overnight, as many Indians do not see the age-old practice of employing children from impoverished families as a crime. Activists say the new ban will expose the problems faced by child servants—whose living and working conditions are not exposed to public scrutiny—including loss of childhood and sexual exploitation.
"These children are very vulnerable. Their employment is an invisible form of slavery," Satyarthi said.
Even though local authorities have been asked to prepare to accommodate thousands of children expected to be freed from raids conducted on homes and restaurants by police, activists say there has been little provision for rehabilitating the freed children.
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