These are the faces we should be seeing everyday no matter where we are in this world. Unfortunately, not all the children are that lucky to be able to put on their smiling faces.In Asia alone, 22 % of children below 18 years are child workers. In Latin America 17 %, and 1% in US, Canada and Europe. In both these continents, only a tiny proportion of child workers are involved in the formal sector and the vast majority is for their families, in homes, in the fields or on the streets. – Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report.
With a little luck, I managed to pick up this latest news.
Five assistant labour commissioners appointed under State Action Plan prepared by Labour and Employment Department
In A bid to eliminate child labour from Gujarat, the government has appointed five additional assistant labour sommissioners under the State Action Plan for Elimination of Child Labour prepared by the Labour and Employment Department. May 16, 2009
People cry for specific reason especially emotion related factors. Hunger does not make people cry, but the bondage of exploitation (physically, mentally and morally) will.Child labour is often mistaken by its nature of work. Young children are seen in hawker centres or night markets helping their parents after school. This is not forced and bonded labour, but family obligation for survival.
But in different parts of Asia or the world, children live differently.
In the Indian subcontinent, which includes India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, there are people living on less than a dollar a day. Poverty drives the children out of home to look for cheap and exploited employment.
The prime cause of poverty derives from the pressure of rapid population growth. With high illiteracy rate, health care and birth control are beyond their understanding. Caste discrimination still prevails, where weak governance and corruption are the added miseries to this marginalized group of people.
The emphasis on education is lost because to work for money to buy food to fill the stomachs is more important than going to school with empty stomachs.
However, to say that the exploitation for cheap labour is despicable is rather contentious because of the excess “manpower”. When there are more mouths to feed, more jobs are in demand, and to be able to hire more it means the wage to pay a single worker is used to pay for a few.
Is this call exploitation or opportunity given to those who are in the dire need to survive? The argument here does not lie in the exploitation of cheap labour, but good governance is missing which subjugated the people to such deplorable condition of living a decent life!
Blame it on corruption and the greed to remove the resources that people are much depended on.
Working for pittance has become a way of life for these unfortunate children. Such vicious cycle can only end when birth rate is controlled and proper education is emphasized by the government.
Such unfortunate children did not ask to be born and yet they are here to live a deprived life. Child labour will not end because the young girls will get married off and the production of the next generation of child labour will continue.
Such young girls will fall prey to child trafficking for sexual exploitation. When poverty and unemployment set in, the legal system provides little legal protection especially for these vulnerable young girls.
The emphasis on education is lost because to work for money to buy food to fill the stomachs is more important than going to school with empty stomachs.However, to say that the exploitation for cheap labour is despicable is rather contentious because of the excess “manpower”. When there are more mouths to feed, more jobs are in demand, and to be able to hire more it means the wage to pay a single worker is used to pay for a few.
Is this call exploitation or opportunity given to those who are in the dire need to survive? The argument here does not lie in the exploitation of cheap labour, but good governance is missing which subjugated the people to such deplorable condition of living a decent life!Blame it on corruption and the greed to remove the resources that people are much depended on.
Working for pittance has become a way of life for these unfortunate children. Such vicious cycle can only end when birth rate is controlled and proper education is emphasized by the government.
Such unfortunate children did not ask to be born and yet they are here to live a deprived life. Child labour will not end because the young girls will get married off and the production of the next generation of child labour will continue.
Such young girls will fall prey to child trafficking for sexual exploitation. When poverty and unemployment set in, the legal system provides little legal protection especially for these vulnerable young girls. There must be a great stride in poverty reduction otherwise the fate of such children will end up like commodity to trade for their survival.
Illiteracy will not give anyone the voice of freedom. Beggars cannot be choosers so to speak. Any unwanted “crumbs” that are offered will be grabbed instantly, and that is the little luxury that makes the difference in their kind of life.
Why me? This is the question that is difficult to answer. Is it their karmic repercussion to be born into poverty or are they here for a purpose – a purpose to be in the league of stolen childhood of deprived children?
Illiteracy will not give anyone the voice of freedom. Beggars cannot be choosers so to speak. Any unwanted “crumbs” that are offered will be grabbed instantly, and that is the little luxury that makes the difference in their kind of life.
Why me? This is the question that is difficult to answer. Is it their karmic repercussion to be born into poverty or are they here for a purpose – a purpose to be in the league of stolen childhood of deprived children?
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