Comments - Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Amanda5356

Harsha

Harsha — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

well.. the problem is that though indian economy is doing well, the benefits of the same are yet to reach all classes of society. Poverty and illetracy are the major evils in rural india and it leads to many unsocial practises, one of which is what u quoted above. Efforts are begin made to help them, but the our country is too vast and too populated for things to change in a short period of time.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Forcing child laborers out of their occupations is tyrannical as this will take away the only source of their livelihood. Many of them will have to literally starve and die due to acute malnutrition. They have some assurance about the next meal only because they are employed. What needs to be done is to raise the income levels of their illiterate poor parents so that they will stop sending the kids to work. This is no easy task in India.

Amanda Thomas

Amanda Thomas — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I am glad to read your comment R.M. It is uncomfortable for us in the West to see children work but we cannot ignore the fact that it they don’t they will die. It is not as simple as saying ’This is shocking, these children should be in school’ without offering a real living solution. Every single civilisation has or is at some time or another employing children. Evolution cannot be rushed unless you can put in it’s place real workable alternatives, only time, as in all other civilisations, will take care of this problem.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

”Every single civilisation has or is at some time or another employing children. Evolution cannot be rushed unless you can put in it’s place real workable alternatives”

You are perfectly correct. The pitiable condition of women and child workers in the mills, mines and factories of Britain could be brought to an end only after the prosperity ushered in by new inventions and the social reforms that followed the industrial revolution. The poor that lived in squalor slowly came out of it after a series of Acts enacted by the British parliament in the course of the 19th century. Let us only hope that India will do similar things for its under-privileged women and children. But till that is achieved, people like those in the board of Primark need to be a little more considerate.

Amanda Thomas

Amanda Thomas — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

But would those families think Primark more consdierate if they took away the work that they and their children relied upon to live? It is a painful problem, and it is peoples real everyday lives where a child’s labour means the difference between eating or starving, however wrong the principle of children working may be.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

By taking away their work, and as a result their only source of reliable income, Primark has only come to be seen as inconsiderate of their real problems. I think it is the ignorance of the Primark executives that made them cite the rules which cannot be implemented fully under the social and economic conditions here in India.

Grace Calderon

Grace Calderon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

While the UN has a body of laws that legislate against child labor, the real issue in child labor, especially in developing countries, is child labor in hazardous conditions.

Children may earn their next meal but not at the expense of their safety and health.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Programs aimed at emancipating the poor parents and making them capable of earning a livelihood without having to bolster their meager earnings with the help of the toil of their little ones are urgently needed.

Amanda Thomas

Amanda Thomas — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

That is definitely what everyone should be aiming for and we would all love that day to come. But in the mean time, people have to live and sadly, it seems, children have to work. Perhaps the emphasis should be on protecting their health and safety at work while this work remains an economic necessity for so many families.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Yes. Ensuring better economic conditions for the parents would take a long time to do. Protecting the health and safety of the children in the work place needs to be given priority.

Grace Calderon

Grace Calderon — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Giving parents livelihood so they spare their children from working to put food on the table is easier said than done. That just can’t happen in an impoverished country where children have to work, in the first place.

What can be done, and what is actually done, is to have pertinent laws that go after those who exploit children, and have child workers in dangerous and exploitative conditions.

Such dangerous conditions include presence of chemicals, no proper ventilation at work places, extended working hours, and all other labor and employment rights infringements.

R.M.Paulraj

R.M.Paulraj — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It is a mutual agreement between the employers and the employed. The employed are at the mercy of the employers as the jobs are not under the category of organized labor.

Employers say, the parents of the children want them to be employed and volunteer to put the children to work. This is largely true.

The exploitation proceeds from the human greed to make more money while paying little to the laborers. The same greed was responsible for slavery of adults, even entire communities, in many parts of the world.

Bijoy

Bijoy — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The issue of child labour apart, I think the fundamental of ECONOMICS is more appropriate to explain the cause behind this ... The rich is getting richer and the poorer is getting poorer.