India, this developing country has became an economical superpower in Asia or even the world however a big problem is bugging this country, and that is Child Labor. Child Labor is so prevalent in India that it has the largest number of child laborers under the age of 14 in the whole world and child labor can be found in almost all the economical sectors of India. Human Rights organizations had criticized India for using child labor and the Indian government had also tried to stop this situation, but there is not much use.
The human rights organizations claimed that child labour is a violation of child rights, 1) non-discriminatory 2) best interest of the children 3) promote development 4) children are to have a say. Child labour in deprives the child from education and development. Child labour is also a form of abuse to the children, both physically and mentally. Long hours of work, abuse from employers, these are all abuses to the child.
Although the fact that child labour is indeed harmful to the development of the child, it is unfair to the child, but people who criticize India’s child labour policy do not realize that the Indian government had put in a great amount of effort to put an end to the child labour issue. There is also a law that bans all children below the age of 14 to be working in hazardous occupation. However, with a population of about 1,179,660,000, which is the second largest in the world and that 43% of the population is below the international poverty line, child labour is indeed hard to eradicate.
The Indian government has promised free education to all the children between 6 and 14; however India is such a big country, such an overpopulated country, how is it possible for the Indian government to take care of all the children in the country.
The Indian government, like the human rights organizations has been also putting great efforts into this issue. There has been a decrease in the numbers of child labourer, through the years.
The root of child labour un-employment and poverty, so to eradicate child labour these two problems has to be eradicated. However, I personally think that if there is no exploitation of the child, meaning no abuse, reasonable salary, and reasonable time for labour, child labour should be allowed. Instead of putting these poor children into rehabilitation homes when sometimes the situation is even worse, as the poor are even poorer, as there is lesser income provided, so what is the result, they still have to rely on child labour.
Basically, I think that if poverty and un-employment these two major problem cannot be eradicated, child labour should be allowed, or else by forcing children to stop working would only make matters worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment