“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.
