October 9, 2006

Child Labour Eradicated!!! Or is it?

Kudos to those who have taken this step. Child labour is one of the greatest crime our country was witnessing! There are 13 crore children out there, losing there childhood, future in the Quaarys, hotels, cracker factories, tea stalls, platform stalls, cycle shops, automobile mechanical shops, you name it..everywhere except the place where they have got to be. School.
The number is 13 crores. If you had missed it, it should be almost a 25% of the population less than 30. All of us, Indians, got to pat ourselves on the back !! "WE HAVE SUCESSFULLY RUINED A GENERATION!!"

The Order!
Well, I am not a fool to say that today child labour is gone from the country! But for every citizen of the country who know that spitting on the road is an offence, trespassing in the railroad is punishable, bribing is punishable for both the beneficiaries, please also know that Employing and support Child Labour is also a punishable offence. 3-12 months Imprisonment and upto 20,000 rupees.

Lets come to the implementation part of it.
If one kid is earning around, a 500-1000rs per month. it is going to be an immediete loss of Rs 13,00,000,000 to all those persons who are investing on them. Whooping! So no one is going to STOP this! Probably in the cities, in some urban towns it may stop. What about those from Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and other north eastern states ?
For instance my college in Jharkhand had kids of 9-14 working in the stalls around. Even though we complained of Child labour, they were amused to see some of us are actually protesting rather than appreciating the very fact that the child is earning for his family at this tender age!

Well, Whats the solution ?
Make people understand that indeed schooling is important ??
Ensure a family gets atleast two quarters meal a day ??
All simple things that is very very easy to say...!! I have said it.. there are a lot who are saying it..! But one to execute it ? No. No ONE can do this. Only WE can do this.!
Can we ensure that the India we are leaving to the future is better?

Smile, (lost!)
Balaji

5 comments:

P.R.A.D said...

Your article has one assumption that Schooling and Education makes a person better.. Hmm.. May be true.. but not in all the cases.. It depends totally on the quality of the schools in which these kids will be put into.. And in these days, quality comes ONLY with money.. I mean ONLY, If u had missed it.. So in case u send these kids to cheaper schools, a major chunk, say 90% will ony end up as some unemployed bachelor degree holders [ some B.A., BSc n crap .. dis is the best possible scenario] . This in turn will cause a lot of communal disharmony due to the possibility that these poor bachelor degree holders will be misused by money to get them involved in anti social activities.. I appreciate ur concern for eradicating child labour. But putting them into a school does not resolve this problem..

And did u give a thot about how much business n money are involved in this.. Inspit of knowing that all the matches we use are being manufactured by those little fingers, did we stop using them.. Don;t we celebrate diwali by bursting crackers knowing very well who is behind it..??? Not jus those business men who are dependent on these children can do away with this, even WE [ U n I included] can't!!

Hmm.. have u given a thought what happends to this "child" after he or she actually grows up into an adult ? Is there any comparision reports that shows that a child sent to some cheap crap gov schools has become a better man/woman than these ex-child labours?? Well, all of dis depends on what "better" is defined as.. if it is making money, my ex-child labout has already made loads of it, if it is about feeling good abt helping the family, then my boy scores more in that aspect as well..

Even if someone "saves" these children from child labour and sponsor them, did we give a thought about the psychological chnage that these children might go thro? We are making them into a dependent beggers from a self employed person!!

By all dis, I'm by no means supporting child labour.. But my point is, without having a clear cut idea about what we can do to these children. More importantly, being a part of the system, u cannot blame it..!!

My humble opinion ;)

Good Blog da aane kutti!!

Pradeep

Balaji said...

My point is complete literacy for sure., but educating with the current system of education is equally suicidal...there has got to more and more job oriented courses, skill identification,facility based education...!I can go on and on , about the educational reforms but this is not the forum..Sense of pride in earning money ? i dont know may be that can be there for a kid who is a bit grown up..But for a kid who wants to go to school, may be to play.,may be to paint.,If there is no school in a Nation., then whats the point in trusting the system just because we are part of it ?
Finally, when money rules education...and those who are ready to educate their wards needs a lot of MONEY., there is something TERRIBLY wrong with the Nation that they belong to !

Anonymous said...

Dei pannada nee elavu post panna edum kedaikama etho magazine la irundu potathku pradeep oru serious comment nee aduku oru seriuos reply.....

ana blog nalla than irukku....sari sari vaya mudu...
kadaisiya oru kelvi nan yarunu kandupidi...

Balaji said...

@anonymous : thanks first of all...!!Jan 31than neee...mathi illai...KarthikRaj illai...!vjva irukalam..but enda pera solla enna unakku ?

Rohit Bedida said...

Population is the root cause to all these. Family planning programs should be conducted and an awareness should be brought..

This is how it goes..

Population>Poverty>Child Labor!!

You can visit my blog http://www.heyyindia.com/2009/08/child-labor-should-be-eradicated.html and read an article on this.
Rohit Bedida