One word: tsk.
There are 5 lakh formal schools for a population of 239 million; 14% have no school building; 38% have no blackboards; 30% have only one teacher for the whole school; 58% have no drinking water. The result 4 out of 5 children don t even enter a school and 70% of children drop out before they enter Class IV.
http://www.wm.edu/SO/monitor/spring98/docs/ChildLabor.html
As a developing country, India is faced with a multitude of social problems. One such problem, child labor, has disgraced the entire subcontinent giving it the distinction of having the largest number of child laborers in the world. [1] While many are willing to admit that a child labor problem exists, very few people are willing to accept responsibility for the problem. [2] The first step in arriving at a solution is to first recognize the causes of this dilemma: these include poverty, burdens on the family to pay off standing debts, the general Indian attitude toward child labor, the irrelevant and often inaccessible education system, and the inefficiency of protective legislation for working children. [3] A solution to this predicament can be achieved through educational improvements which will therefore overcome the other factors influencing the Indian child labor crisis.
Poverty is one of the most widespread reasons for the child labor system in India. Indian children are often forced to work out of necessity. [4] As Laura Green states, Globally, most employed children come from poor families and generally from rural communities. Family poverty forces children into the workplace. [5] A parent whose children worked on the looms remarked, What is the use of keeping them with us and seeing them die? Let them earn a living, let them eat. [6] Many of the children wish to further their education, yet must work for survival. As Pomabhai, a twelve-year old child laborer, stated, I want to continue my education, but first, we have to eat. [7] Part of the child labor problem rests upon the burdens caused by the large family, which is in itself an underlying cause of poverty. [8] A Washington Post columnist stated in 1996 that the single most important factor in reducing child labor is economic growth. [9] Although poverty a main catalyst of the child labor problem, it is not, however, the only cause.
A second factor contributing to the labor situation is family debt. Often family debts will be passed on to the next generation forcing young children into bonded labor. [10] As the CRY (Child Relief and You) organization states, a study in Sivakasi match factories found that even ...the child in the womb is pledged to the factory, and consumption and maternity loans are obtained on the undertaking that the child born, girl or boy, would work for the factory.'" Molly Moore, a Washington Post journalist, reported on a specific incident in Dewari: Eleven-year-old Dinesh Devran crouched before a loom in a dim, oven-hot mud hut, where he knots carpets ten hours a day- his sweat the interest payment on loans taken by his family. [11] Bonded children have no way of ending the cycle of debt created by their parents; their labor seems only to incur more debt as their master controls their fate. [12] This cycle perpetuates with children being bonded to their masters to repay even eight-generation old debts. [13] The young also work involuntarily to pay off debts incurred when adults borrow money to pay for life-cycle events like weddings. [14] Although, in 1976, the Indian national government attempted to end the bonded labor system through the passage of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, bonded labor continues as the act is greatly ignored.
The general Indian attitude toward child labor presents a third factor in the continuance of this social problem. Found in this culture s view of the social order and the hierarchical caste system, this attitude consists of feelings of indifference and helplessness towards child labor. This position is best represented through the unfortunate death of an eight-year old orphan named Shiva who was caught escaping and then beaten and scorched to death by his employer. [15] When Shiva was reported dead on June 29, 1993, the parties involved were questioned as to the boy s death, yet no one seemed willing to accept the blame. Shiva s parents claimed they had to send Shiva to work or else their family would have starved; the employer said that he was doing the family a favor by giving their child a job, and the government stated that these things happen...it's not a major problem in this country; it is a way of life. The reticent bystanders who watched silently the repeated beating of the child argued that there is nothing we can do, really... this is a harsh reality. Maybe it s wrong in principle, but it s probably inevitable where there is extreme poverty. [16] While all of these parties maintained their innocence, the death of Shiva was a result of a combination of all their attitudes toward the child labor system.
A fourth problem, the irrelevant and often inaccessible education system in India, has led to an increase in child labor. In 1996, Carol Bellamy, director if the United Nations Children s Fund, released the annual State of the World s Children report citing education as the single most important step in ending child labor. [17] Bellamy s report went steadily further saying that with innovative programs- which, for example, may pay families a small stipend to make up for the lost wages of children- developing nations can burnish their future prospects while rescuing today s children. That should be a focus of foreign aid as well. [18] Provisions were made in the Indian Constitution to allow for the education of India s youth. [19] Although these provisions were made, many children still find themselves illiterate, uneducated, and driven to work. As CRY states, most often the lack of schools and facilities leaves work as the only option for children. A recent survey found the following:
there are 5 lakh formal schools for a population of 239 million; 14% have no school building; 38% have no blackboards; 30% have only one teacher for the whole school; 58% have no drinking water. The result 4 out of 5 children don t even enter a school and 70% of children drop out before they enter Class IV. [20]
Studies have shown that improvement in education leads to diminishing child labor. An example is found through comparing education vs. child labor in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh (table 1). In Kerala, where virtually all children attend school, exists the lowest incidence of child labor; in Andhra Pradesh, with one of the lowest school attendance percentages, the highest occurrences of child labor throughout India are found. [21]
Viewed in terms of child labor, Kerala has the lowest incidence of child labor and Andhra Pradesh the highest. Andhra is well below the mean on literacy rates and on primary and middle school enrollment. [22] This is best presented through the words of the Los Angeles Times editor who stated, Poverty is what forces children into the workplace. Education is a way out. Give them a chance instead of a hoe or a needle and thread. [23] Therefore, improvement in education presents a possible solution for the child labor problem in India.
A final factor in the issue of Indian child labor rests in the inefficiency of protective legislation for working children. Although the government has made attempts to eradicate child labor, these provisions are greatly ignored and the industry continues. [24] As Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, chief architect of the economic liberalization program, told reporters at an annual budget briefing, We have laws [prohibiting child labor], but the government has found it s not always possible to enforce them in a country as large as India. [25] Following Carol Bellamy s State of the World s Children report, in 1996, the Indian Supreme Court made attempts to end child slavery in the many industrial factories. [26] One problem with this legislation is that much of it fails to completely define the term child labor. Another complication lies within the country s vast population as their ignorance of the law and illiteracy prevent the enforcement of such proposals. This ignorance could be prevented through the establishment of a universal Indian dialect and a higher standard of education throughout the countryside.
Child labor is caused by a multitude of problems including poverty, forced bondage, the general Indian attitude toward child labor, the irrelevant and often inaccessible education system, and the inefficiency of protective legislation for working children. In order to overcome these obstacles, India must first recognize that a child labor crisis exists and then address each of its sources individually. Someone must be willing to accept responsibility for this injustice if it is to be eradicated. R.K. Misra, who studied child labor in the sari industry of Varanesi, once said that the child laborers were like caged-birds ... condemned from their very birth to be captive workers. [27] For now, the world must wait anxiously for these caged birds to be set free.