child labour

“you should never lose faith in humanityhumanity is an ocean.if few drops of ocean becomes dirty it does not mean that whole ocean is dirty.”

             The words of mahatma Gandhi ,though takes into account the whole ambit of humanity ,but it’s the dirty drops that hide some deep meaningwhose relevance in contrary can make the whole ocean dirtythese dirty drops can be taken in the form of hopeless future of children not only of this great country but of the whole world.child labour is one of main reason for this hopeless future and its pertinent to look at the abolition of child labour as a mean to achieve a greater end which is a purified ocean of humanity.

                                     Child labour in itself means the employment of children below 18 year age.though 14-18 years age can be considered as safe for even employment alongside education but below 14 year age employment of children is not only a blot on welfare states of today but is also a question mark over education system of our times

                                                  The whole issue of child labour and child rights gain currency with the recent awarding of nobel peace prizes to kailash satyarthi and malala yousafazai.former is known for successful efforts towards abolition of child labour while latter have been a face of motivation for the children wanting to improve upon their life through the nobel medium of education.

                                                                                                                                      The issue of child labour should be examined with the reasons of a child going to a factory for work instead of school for study along with that what steps have been taken by world community in this regard and what needs to be done?

           Poverty is the most important reason  for the children being forced into child labour.whenever a family is not able to meet even day to day minimum living standards then there is no way left for them other than pushing their children for work.nothing can be best example of poverty pushing up the child labour than the world’s largest democracy that is india.as per a recent report of c rangarajan ,35% of rural population and 25% of urban population is always in poverty.this data is at a time when poverty line is incredibly low and inflation is high and painful.due to this ,its no surprising the fact that millions of Indian children are working as street hawkers,domestic workers,in cracker factories and even in child pornography.its not only harmful but also shameful.

                                                                                             Poverty combined withneglect of education makes the existence of child labour only as an alternative.third world nations are suffering from poor quality of education as was even pointed out in recent saarc nation’s education ministers met.for example in india as per a report of pratham ngo,only 30% of children in class5 can read the book of class2.not only this,there is a problem of high dropouts.out of every 100 children enrolled for primary education only 50 continue for secondary education.the most affected strata in this is 11-14 year old girl children who are usually taken out of school and asked to work for milking of cattle or to bring firewood or to perform some household chores.

                                  High poverty and weak education quality are the push factors or only one side of coin while there is also the other side of coin in the form of pull factors.this side is marked with highle unorganized labour market.90% of workforce in the third world nations work in this sectorwhich comprise of  numerically any employment employing less than 10 workers.the most important peculiarity of this type of employment is that nature of workforce can be hidden for making profits.its quite obvious that an employer has to pay more to an adult male than a children woking for same time.no nation is safe from this greed.even usa in the years of great depression faced it so much so that president Roosevelt included abolition of child labour in his new deal policy to counter the unemployment face by young generation.

                                                                             Push factors or pull factors in the menace of child labour would have been easily tackled till now if there have been a smart bureaucracy along with political will.many nations specially of south America got so much disillusioned in their approach to this problem that they have even legalized child labour.disillusionment is visible even when a look is made on our country also.child labour(abolition and regulation) act 1986 strictly prohibits employment of below 14 age children in harmful industries but still there is very less action on ground.not only this our constitution mentions about the abolition of forced labour but that is ignored in practice.honourable supreme court of this country also expressed its disiilusionment when it ordered for a child welfare fund for every child rescued from child labour.

                                                                             This disillusionment comes as a shock when the condition of children from conflict zones are observed.for example recent reports of Islamic state shows that children are not only trained in arms but also made to works in the factories manufacturing arms.refugees from Syria or Palestine has to unfortunately make their children to work in hazardous occupations.this whole trend will become dangerous in future when these disillusioned children will pick up the wrong path dictated by extremists.

                                                                           But as per the age old idiom that where there is a will there is a way,solution to the problem of child labour is also possible.many nations have moved in this direction and many are waking up to move but it’s the humanity which has to move as a whole to counter the menace of child labour.

                                           Poverty abolition should be the first and foremost action in the path to abolition of child labour.this is possible through the equitable distribution of capital like land,money etc.the older mercantilism theory of limited wealth in world is now discarded which means wealth can be created as much as till the last man standing in row has enough to live a life of dignity.there are lots of ways by which it can be done like making shg,cooperatives,financial inclusion,skilling up of young generation,push to new start ups,widening the social security net,institutionalizing micro insurance products and much more.india,china and many other nations have taken poverty fighting on war footing.china is very successful in this regard with poverty rate reduced to only a single digit and so observed a fall in child labour.

                                                    Poverty abolition though makes a child free from the family pressures to go for labour but there needs to be an incentive for children so that they joins school and join workforce as adult skilled worker.its possible only and only if there is quality of curriculum along with its children friendileness.there should always be a practical aspect of curriculum and physical fitness thorugh the medium of sports should be actively pursued.rot learning must not be the aim of education but it’s the true learning which should light the dreams of a children.as mahatma Gandhi expressed it”we took the value of education as a land or share in stock exchange market.the girls,we say don’t have to earn so why should they be educated.as long as such ideas persist ,there is no hope of our ever knowing true value of education.”

                                        The responsibility of abolition of child labour is not only of govt or teachers but it’s the whole society that has to take part in it.society can play its role via the boycott of those products in market which are manufactured with child labour and so accepting only child friendly products.in this regard the work of kailash satyarthi holds importance who started under his bachpan bachao andolan,a scheme to mark the child friendly products.result is steep decline in sale of products manufactured through child labour.but there needs to be quite sincere about the poverty abolition or education quality first because displaced children from factories if not find the adequate means of rehabilitation then they can go back to crime or other exploitation.

                                                                                               These exploitation or achievement by way of poverty abolition or education quality needs to be tackled with the fixing of responsibility in govt depts. As its said that”the buck must stop at the desk of those who have authority to rule.”the most important is the immediate possible execution of this measure.for example fixing responsibility at the district magistrate and ssp to identify and abolish child labour in a district.local bodies should be effectively mobilized in this regard specially gram sabhas and ward sabhas.data monitoring regarding child labour should be done at regular intervals and unforewarned checkings should be done by higher authorities.rescued children should be immediately put to school after a bridge course so that they can move forward with other students.sincere voluntary organizations can be useful as eyes and ears of administration.

                              While in the sphere of international affairs,only way with which child labour’s menace can be adeuquately tackled is with the solution of various disputes going on around the world.but there are temporary solutions also.for example Lebanon nation can be a case in point which is currently housing millions of Syrian refugees.they have started a practice of opening evening schoold which means in the day time ,normal Lebanon children use to study in schools while in evening the same teachers use to teach children of Syrian refugees.this is a humanitarian concept which needs to be reproduced in all conflict zones wherever possible.

                                                                                     Having said that it can be seen that child labour gets its fuel from poverty,poor education quality,high unorganized workforce,lax bureaucracy and tension in conflict zones.it can be tackled effectively through measures aiming at poverty removal,child friendly education,awared citizenry,responsible bureaucracy and humanitarian approach.

                                                                                 Children are the real walth of a nation and abolition of chil labour is needed to make not only their future bright and prosperous but to make the world go in the direction to become a paradise on earth and it needs will of one’s own mind as said by gandhiji”be the change you want to see in the world.”its hopeful that the dirty drops of child labour will be purified and the whole ocean of humanity will gain its essence from those purified drops wwhose index will be a little girl coming out of a school located in an undeveloped area,with a  smile on her face and mind sharper than yesterday.