New study based on court data differs from NCRB, more child labour cases in six states
As per NCRB data, 1,329 cases were recorded under the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (CALPRA), in these six states between 2015 and 2022
The report, “The Possibilities of eCourts Data for Advancing Research on Law Implementation” was launched on Thursday by former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur (Archive)
There are nearly eight times more child labour cases in six states — Maharashtra, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh — than recorded by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), revealed a recent study on child labour by Enfold and CivicDataLab based on judicial data from the e-Courts platform.
As per NCRB data, 1,329 cases were recorded under the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (CALPRA), in these six states between 2015 and 2022. However, data collected from eCourts showed 9,193 trials (close to eight times the NCRB number) in that period.
The report, “The Possibilities of eCourts Data for Advancing Research on Law Implementation” was launched on Thursday by former Supreme Court Justice Madan Lokur at the India International Centre (IIC) in Delhi. The eCourts Mission Mode Project is a pan-India project, monitored and funded by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, for district courts across the country. It is an online platform where case details, such as pendency, next date of hearing and stage, can be found.
The latest report elaborates how eCourts helped them arrive at their conclusions from a dataset of 10,800 child labour cases from these six states.
While the NCRB is the primary source of information on crime data in the country, it follows what is called the “Principal Offence Rule”. As per this mechanism, only the most heinous crime (maximum punishment) is considered as a counting unit among multiple offences registered in a single FIR case, the report revealed. Thus, the report stated, when minor crimes are clubbed with serious offences, the minor offences are not reflected in the data.
While releasing the report, Justice Lokur said the “justice delivery system is facing a crisis…”
“Let’s face it,” he said. “There are lakhs of cases pending. For example, look at the cheque bounce cases. There are lakhs of these pending (in courts). What is pending can only be identified via data.”
Story continues below this ad
Justice Lokur emphasised that judicial data was meant not only for litigants but for academicians and researches to study policy issues and this data can be “utilised to improve the justice delivery system”.
“Crimes committed against children are three times the number of crimes committed by juveniles,” he said, emphasising the importance of data to understand the larger picture.
“You need data to know what the trends are… only when data is available, will research… and solutions become easier.”
Nirbhay Thakur is a Senior Correspondent with The Indian Express who primarily covers district courts in Delhi and has reported on the trials of many high-profile cases since 2023.
Professional Background
Education: Nirbhay is an economics graduate from Delhi University.
Beats: His reporting spans the trial courts, and he occasionally interviews ambassadors and has a keen interest in doing data stories.
Specializations: He has a specific interest in data stories related to courts.
Core Strength: Nirbhay is known for tracking long-running legal sagas and providing meticulous updates on high-profile criminal trials.
Recent notable articles
In 2025, he has written long form articles and two investigations. Along with breaking many court stories, he has also done various exclusive stories.
1) A long form on Surender Koli, accused in the Nithari serial killings of 2006. He was acquitted after spending 2 decades in jail. was a branded man. Deemed the “cannibal" who allegedly lured children to his employer’s house in Noida, murdered them, and “ate their flesh” – his actions cited were cited as evidence of human depravity at its worst. However, the SC acquitted him finding various lapses in the investigation. The Indian Express spoke to his lawyers and traced the 2 decades journey.
2) For decades, the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been at the forefront of the Government’s national rankings, placed at No. 2 over the past two years alone. It has also been the crucible of campus activism, its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political parties of all hues and thoughts. The Indian Express looked at all court cases spanning over two decades and did an investigation.
3) Investigation on the 700 Delhi riots cases. The Indian Express found that in 17 of 93 acquittals (which amounted to 85% of the decided cases) in Delhi riots cases, courts red-flag ‘fabricated’ evidence and pulled up the police.
Signature Style
Nirbhay’s writing is characterized by its procedural depth. He excels at summarizing 400-page chargesheets and complex court orders into digestible news for the general public.
X (Twitter): @Nirbhaya99 ... Read More
