My Dear Friends,
Good Afternoon. I think we all must be hearing for years on end that the Govt. is trying to ban child labour. Okay, if that is the case then from where are the poor parents going to have a little bit of extra income that these children bring in for them. No parent would like to send their little ones out to work if they could help it. Is the Govt. going to help on this or just words and only on paper, nothing practical?
Now you decide for yourself whether what I have penned down speaks out for itself or not. To be poor is a curse by itself.
Cheers!
Child Labour’s root cause is poverty
It is an effective step taken by the Govt. to ban child labour but the Govt. forgets the root cause of child labour is poverty. India is such a big country and it is the lack of money which forces the poor parents to send their child for work. The Govt. should firstly find some measures to remove poverty from their lives then only the evil of child labour will be removed, otherwise the legislations banning child labour would be of no use and they will be seen only on paper and they won't have any implementation. In order to earn day's living, the poor parents send their children to do menial works, which in turn affects their overall development. They are engaged in working as labourers and they do not get time to go to school to get education and so they remain uneducated for whole of their life. But the Govt. has now started providing facilities like free and compulsory education and mid-day meal scheme which would be helpful for the poor children to be educated. But this can only benefit them when they actually come out of the evil of poverty, which hinders them to go to school.
One has to understand the economics of survival to properly understand the reason why the child labour is so rampant in India. Poor families send their children to work not by choice but by compulsion. As the per capita income is low in India, they are forced to send their children to work and add to the family income.
There are so many NGOs and intellectuals who make hue and cry over child labour but they do nothing to alleviate the conditions of poor in the country. In fact, they are more interested in filling their coffers by grants and aids then doing anything meaningful for the poor in India.
The Govt. should not ban child labour. Though it does sound idealistic and we all would like it to happen someday but not before some alternative arrangements are made for the poor to remain alive, with integrity.
Child Labour is the practice of having children engage in economic activity, on part or full-time basis. The practice deprives children of their childhood, and is harmful to their physical and mental development. Poverty, lack of good schools and growth of informal economy are considered as the important causes of child labour in India. The child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.
Indian law specifically defines 64 industries as hazardous and it is a criminal offence to employ children in such hazardous industries. An estimate of 1% of all child workers, or about 120,000 children in India are in a hazardous job. Notably, Constitution of India prohibits child labour in hazardous industries (but not in non-hazardous industries) as a Fundamental Right under Article 24.
The term 'child labour', is best defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, or work whose schedule interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or work that affects in any manner their ability to focus.
Some child rights activists argue that child labour must include every child who is not in school because he or she is a hidden child worker. UNICEF, however, points out that India faces major shortages of schools, classrooms and teachers particularly in rural areas where 90 percent of child labour problem is observed. About 1 in 5 primary schools have just one teacher to teach students across all grades.
For much of human history and across different cultures, children less than 17 years old have contributed to family welfare in a variety of ways. It is also noted that in rural and impoverished parts of developing and undeveloped parts of the world, children have no real and meaningful alternative.
Bonded child labour is a system of forced, or partly forced, labour under which the child, or usually child's parent enter into an agreement, oral or written, with a creditor. The child performs work as in-kind repayment of credit.
The presence of a large number of child labourers is regarded as a serious issue in terms of economic welfare. Children who work fail to get necessary education. They do not get the opportunity to develop physically, intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. In terms of the physical condition of children, children are not ready for long monotonous work because they become exhausted more quickly than adults. This reduces their physical conditions and makes the children more vulnerable to disease.
Children in hazardous working conditions are even in worse condition. Child labour has long term adverse effects for India. The town of Sivakasi in South India, known for its fireworks and matchsticks industries, has been reported to employ child labour in the production of fireworks.
To keep an economy prospering, a vital criteria is to have an educated workforce equipped with relevant skills for the needs of the industries. The young labourers today, will be part of India’s human capital tomorrow. Child labour undoubtedly results in a trade-off with human capital accumulation.
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.
First many children leave their homes so as to avoid abuse that they are victims of from their parents. To prevent this bad treatment, the Government should get volunteers who could help to council the parents about child labour and consequence that are faced by the children, who run away from home and are living like homeless children on the streets. Another option is to build home for these children so that they are saved from child abuse that they have to face while staying on the streets. These homes can provide them education and and make a career for their lives and have a better future. But there are times when these children are so used to staying on the streets and turn to begging that they don’t want to go these homes as they lose their freedom from doing whatever they want to. This also leads to crime as these children may be recruited by illegal crime agencies which are coming up everyday for committing crime all over the world.
Child Labour and hunger is one of the principal social illnesses in our country. There are many institutes, organisations, public departments and international organisations whose main objective is to prevent child labour. They have many steps to prevent it and have some ideas that can help. Child labour is a very serious problem in our country or maybe globally too. The Government should seriously think of remedies instead of just make rules that child labour is banned. The Politicians need to really get together and find a solution for these children as you know that the children are the future of all countries globally.
Children are one third of our population and all our future, they hold the promise of India and other countries all over the World.
Children are our most valuable resource."
-Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States
Parsan Narang
19th August 2016
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