[uRmad]

Appeal for Total Abolition of Child Labour

In an Exclusive article for PaGaLGuY.com, Padmashri & Magsaysay Awardee, Dr.Shantha Sinha of M.V.Foundation makes a convincing case for abolition of child labour, in all its forms.

For the complete article, check out the portal

[Apurv]

Nice read! A very compelling argument against common misconceptions on child labour by a very distinguished Indian involved since years in this field.

To have an article written by Dr Shantha Sinha is also a big step for our portal!
Kudos to Subbu and PG for arranging this

Apurv

[uRmad]

Originally Posted by Apurv

Nice read! A very compelling argument against common misconceptions on child labour by a very distinguished Indian involved since years in this field.

True !! And in a language that can be understood by one and all !!

It was really nice of her to have taken the time out from her busy schedule and written this article for us She was very hopeful that all of us here would contribute in our own little way in spreading the message..

Originally Posted by Apurv

To have an article written by Dr Shantha Sinha is also a big step for our portal

Amen !! Indeed is a big step for the portal ....The clinching factor in this case was how the Hydie junta had been constantly interacting with MVF over the last year...Infact, she, and all others there, were very pleasantly surprised that our membership now crosses 25K !!! Coz the last figure she recalled was the one we told her in our first meeting (approx 3-4K iirc)

Cheers

[DesiGuru]

This is a great idea!!!
The friendly neighbor hood poolice is gonna have a great time taking bribes from the already poor family carpet makers!!! Yes i agree the salary for these poolice is very low anyways...

If u want further comments let us know the following too...

What age constitutes a child. So should this law be for under 15, or under 12 or under 18...

How will some indigenous businesses and small enterprises be affected by this... Give me in real terms, how many real people (children included) will lose their livelihood? How many businesses will shut down? Will some of india's traditional forms of art or handicraft die because of this?

If actually all the children started going to school will we have enough schools? Is it possible practically to spend so much more money and also lose money because of lost work. If we spend more money on this what should we cut back on...

American kids work at places like McDonalds etc... Some part time, some full time. So children from the developed world are allowed to work... They have school dropouts all over the place just like us... How are we so different that we absolutely disallow our children to work?

Why should someone lose the right to work? Cant he keep the right to work as well be 'almost' forced to study? Why more rules, regulations and laws which expose possibly more exploitation of the poor?
Why stop someone from working when 10% people refuse to work and another 10% do not find employment however hard they try (with all the education)... and another 10% die of hunger???

Let me know... I will let you know whether i agree or not...

K

[estranged_gnrs]

nice article.and as myself being a critical virgin...i have the following queries :

1> What constitutes child labour? the children who are working with their own free will at some restuarants or dhabas or the childeren who are exploited by the owners 24/7 without basic human rights?

2> Support poor parents and their battle for schools... how?

the authoress says this...
Thus with a change in the social milieu where everyone speaks in one voice that children must not work and must all be in schools, with everyone participating in caring for the child there is a protection of child rights and strengthening of democracy...
but we elbonians need some more directions on micro level...

3>Do we have a support system in place which guarantees these children that they will have better jobs and earnings once they complete their education?
What "we" can do about it...to make this happen?
give them a guarantee..that yes..dear child..once you comeplete your education,you wil be earning more money,pride,security for your family than what you are earning as a table mopper in this restuarant?

I hope these doubts are taken constructively and I iwll get directions on how to pursue this matter further.

Rohit

[uRmad]

Originally Posted by DesiGuru

Why should someone lose the right to work? Cant he keep the right to work as well be 'almost' forced to study? Why more rules, regulations and laws which expose possibly more exploitation of the poor?
Why stop someone from working when 10% people refuse to work and another 10% do not find employment however hard they try (with all the education)... and another 10% die of hunger???

Let me know... I will let you know whether i agree or not...

K

All these days, I had a gut feeling that you were just being the devil's advocate in a lotta threads...But now, thanks for proving me wrong !! This post, coupled with some of the master-pieces on this (career in mass communication) thread prove beyond doubt that you have sent whatever little of cerebral mass is left in your brain on a hike !! Would appreciate if you start a go-slow on your flame-baits !!

Take the pains to help yourself to understand something if at first you seem puzzled !! If you cant make the effort, dont expect others to do your laundry !!

[DesiGuru]

Originally Posted by uRmad

All these days, I had a gut feeling that you were just being the devil's advocate in a lotta threads...But now, thanks for proving me wrong !! This post, coupled with some of the master-pieces on this (career in mass communication) thread prove beyond doubt that you have sent whatever little of cerebral mass is left in your brain on a hike !! Would appreciate if you start a go-slow on your flame-baits !!

Take the pains to help yourself to understand something if at first you seem puzzled !! If you cant make the effort, dont expect others to do your laundry !!

Well these are my views... Thanks for your comments on my views...
Another one of my views says you should find a better job maybe... Ofcourse its just a view...
As we all very well know... I could be wrong...

K

EDITLATER: Infact unless the Dr. comes up with some real answers to some of the questions i have put forward, the solution is for the government and NGOs to get together to pull down on the forced exploitation of children as hinted by estranged... among other things... Encouraging all children to go to and finish school is already a national policy and more efforts could go into it ofcourse...
A blanket abolition of child labour altogether looks like a terribly bad idea right now to me...

PSLATER: (couldnt resist the joke) This is india, you can always expect others to do your laundry...

[amitkr]

Great....

What can be better than seeing all the children in India enjoying the comfort and relaxation of childhood. A very noble cause I must say.

But and a big BUT...We need to question ourself.

Why abolish child labour?

Ok, I will try to answer this question and I dont think my views will be any different from others. For me its the birth right of each child that family he is born in(offcourse he never wanted to be born in a poor family) doesnot decides his destiny. Without any implication of his family status he gets the chance to to relish the beauty of childhood. He too get a chance to play with children of his age. He too gets good food. He too gets good education. He too get all, which theoritically, are considered as building blocks of a civilized individual.

Yes, exactly each and every child has the right to get all this. And since child labour eludes a child from all this, yes it needs to be abolished.

Before making a judgement and going further we need to answer another question.

What are the prerequisites to provide all what a child requires?

Not taking too many things into consideration I jus take the basic required.

And what i feel is required, is an infrastructure which provides guranteed education, food and employment opportunities for these children when they turn adult(and I take an under 18 as a child, becoz if i look back in my own life I realize that at 18 with jus an HSC degree as my highest qualification, I cant earn a living for me, forget abt my family).

Now there are two sources who can provide this infrastructure: Private and Govt. Private as we all know is open only to those children who are lucky enough to be born at the right place. And for those whose fate makes them take birth in a poor deprived family, govt. is the only source. (Here I dont want to go into various Public Private Partnership models becoz they are still in state of infancy).

So, I conclude this question by saying that prerequisite for a child develpoment is right Infrastructure, not a fundamental right in the constitution and a policy on "Free and Compulsory Education" (as we all know how effectively policies are implemented in our country).

Third question which obviously arises is:

Are we ready with such an Infrastructure?

And I dont think that this needs deep insight to find the state of our present infrastructure, what to talk about an infrastructure which caters to mentioned 100 million children.

Now a days we talk a lot about sustainable develpoment. Do we think that presently we have devloped a road map where we see that we can first create and then sustain such infrastructure in the long run.

If the answer to third question is "Yes", we should go ahead all out for the abolition of child labour. And if the answer is "No" we need to introspect.

Is it advisable to put in costly, high speed vehicles without roads to run them on. What will it do. For me it means waste of my money and still not getting better productivity.

This is exactly the case here. Though humanly child labour is a curse and it needs to be abolished, but what makes a better case. To first abolish it without any means to sustain the lives of million of those kids who already have enough to suffer(but still have some respite by earning their meals). Or to choose the second option (which for me makes better sense) of first creating infrastructure and then strive for abolition of child labour.

Amit

[assignus]

after reading the article i had a feeling that this thread will be full of posts like "great article" "way to go pg.com" and a lot of other congratulatory messages. it started on similar lines but DGs here to rescue with his queries.

when i read the article same questions popped into my mind. waiting for someone to clarify.

[calvin_123]

My opinions about child labor:fficeffice" />>>

Child labor is justified in most situations by saying that the children are poor and they do not have enough money to go to school etc. My question is, why do their parents have kids when they do not have enough money/capability to support them? Why can’t the father/mother think: “when I can’t support even myself, why should I have kids and make them suffer too?”. The reason why these people do not think is because they are illiterate. The ultimate solution would be enlightening the parents that they should not bring some life into earth and leave it on its own to take care of itself. Considering India’s current population, this approach is not going to do any harm to the country.

>>

My opinions about the article:>>

Though this article speaks a lot about child labor and appeals for abolishing, it doesn’t seem to have any clear mention about what we can do (any practical means) to achieve it. Well, I am just getting a feeling of reading yet another article in Hindu supplementary. Why not the author give details about what the foundation is doing and in what ways we can help them in eradicating child labor? To me, it just seems this article seems like yet another noise we make about some social issue and forget about it later on.