This week there has been a huge row again about a major UK clothing chain using child labour in India. I have a problem with this. It is not possible to judge the rest of the world by Western standards. In some countries childhood is a luxury and ends very quickly, almost as soon as a child is able to contribute to the family income. Even in this country in the not so distant past children were down coalmines and up chimneys, utilising their small stature where it was needed. A series was shown recently on British TV where a group of teenagers were taken to work in the garment producing factories of India. This was designed to show them where their clothes actually came from. During the programme, no doubt prompted by the producers one of the girls went on a campaign to find out if any of the factories were employing children. Eventually she, accompanied by an Indian man who was looking for these children, came across one. She started on a tirade of how awful it was while the boy sat looking frightened and bemused. It was explained to her that if this boy did not work his family would starve, he being the only one able to provide an income. And there we have it. If the young lad worked in England Social Services would provide for him and his family, but he doesn’t, he lives in India. As a child I used to live in Nigeria where youngsters are put to work routinely and I had equal amounts of respect and pity for the children I saw there. While I was free to play and go to school, they had to work. But without an alternative to provide for their family how are they supposed to survive?

From the series I watched it looked as though the Indian authorities were clamping down on the use of child labour, or maybe it was just a charitable group trying to get children into school, but without a living alternative, despite the best will in the world and with a genuine desire that all children be free to play and learn, what choice do these children and their families really have? Maybe someone can tell me.