Child labour

I saw a post in Sreekrishna's blog about child labour.

This is one of the subjects that has been in my mind for a long time.The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 (RPT 1986), aims to stop people from employing children below 14 as domestic helps and in the hospitality industry.

Do we really think that the law that prohibits employment for kids who areless than 14 yrs is really doing what has to be done?Enforcing the law may be a success...but is addressing the problemand finding the desired solution a sucess?

This is a social problem that is entwined with so many otherweeds in the society.

Now lets address this from the grass root level

1A. Let us face the truth....these kids are from the lowest strata of the society So where is the food and where are the necessities

1. When a chid enters the world whose responsibility is he/she I have seen umpteen cases where the father absconds as soon the mother becomes pregnant
2. Who has more responsibility...father or Mother Most of the time it is the abadoned mother who lugs the luggage.She is one over-worked exhausted personand educating her kids is the last thing in her mind.

3. What situation are the parents are in They are left with no choice but to let kids go and work if not for money, atleast for their food.

4. What is the Law going to do for the child after it stops the child labour Educate in private schools?

5. I have heard that teachers go from house to house in rural areas and take the kids to school...leading the horse to the water...can they make it drink?

6. Parents are punished....employers are punished....what happens to the child?

7. Which is better child labour or chilld prostitution? Child prostitution is a topic better left undiscussed as it is a classic, fool-proof recepie for giving a lot of us depression with a capital D.

8. What about labour that trains the kids in some skill...so that he/she becomes an entrepreneur later...have'nt innumerable tea-stall owners worked in tea-stalls before?

These are the questions that has to come to ones mind while thinking of child labour.

Lets take education. Are government schools doing justice? Why do the upper-crust employ private teachers to teach Maths and language after school hours? What happens at these expensive, exclusive eminent private schools during school hours...? If such is the case with these highly priced schools..what do we say for Government schools?

8A. What does the Government do for the kids after every erring adult is arrested? They are left with the parents to do what.

The teachers from the school in that area give a strict warning to the parents to send the kids to school. How long does that child go to school?9. The sucess of each child comes from the unit called the family. If not for our parents we would'nt be in a position to think about these unfortunate children. Let us remember that our mothers were always keeping a tab on our studies and activities when we were getting our basic education. Please my friends..visit the nearby slums and see if there are any responisble families?

Show me one man who is not an alcoholic.

Today's position is "your children and my children are playing with our children".

10. So which is the problem we are going to face now?

Now majoirty of these kids are not going to become engineers or easily employable literates. I am not pessimistic, just practical. So how are we going to employ them? Who is going to conduct campus-interviews for them ?( and in which campus)

Instead of alloting huge sums for jail upkeeping is'nt it very important that we alocate money to educate and employ the kids who are employed now . Set up institutions like the christian missionaries do and have a boarding set-up for these kids. Identify the talents in these kids and with the mininum of Govt expense give them vocational training with a skill-set that is immediately employable. I think food industry is one area which needs development and people to work there. Attach these schools to some industry and teach them work.

Let us come to children already in employment.... What should the Govt do? Make the employers prove before an independant efficient body attached to the judiciary that the employment is suited to the child, liked by the child, safe, the needs of the chilld is taken of and there is appropriate compensation that is saved for the child for future self-employment and most important of all there is going to be a permanent future in that particular line of work for the child. Most of all see if the kind of work can be handled by the kids and if there is any learning involved in it.

These may sound like injustice as compared to the affluent children but friends we should accept that in poor countries like ours economic disparity makes all the difference.

Where and to whom a child is born seals the fate of that child.
Last I have to say this about the law "well begun is half done" .

Thanks for showing interest in my thoughts and looking forward to your opinion.