Many a times we succumb to comprehend what we essentially crave for. Take for instance, Gorkha people are agitating for a different state, but is it really the issue they are obsessed with and would they actually be obliged after getting a new state? If that truly is the case, Sikkim would have been the Tokyo of India.
Similar is the case with Child Labor. I observe people emphasizing the significance of its abolition. Consequently the pertinent question is – what do they have to offer in return? Answer to this question is known to nobody. Let’s be specific. Various NGOs continually demand the abolition of child labor from microscopic/macrosopic levels. They want that no child below a certain age should do any sort of forced labor. Instead they all should go to schools and acquire education just like any other child born with a silver spoon in its mouth
Before raising protests to this proposition, let me make my stand very clear. I don’t support forced labor of any sort for any age group. I strongly abhor the ambience in which a poor child is being brought up in developing countries. I am an ardent supporter of endowment of equal prospects to every one irrespective of the financial inequalities existent in society. Giving a hale and hearty childhood to just-born-buds is crucially vital. I would let you know how. Consider 2 children, one properly nourished in a good environment and the other who lived a typical slum life; now at a later stage both are jobless due to illiteracy. Who do you think would resort more easily to social crimes to earn money? Considering this, our effort should be to give all slum children a life which is full of values and opportunities
Coming to my objections, first of all, I don’t think that doing some work is labor of any sort but its excess definitely is. In developing countries, children undertake work either to support their family or to act as substitute by virtue of the cheap labor they provide. A child if enforced to do a work which is totally devoid of learning like sweeping in trains, then that really is a case of child labor. But if a child is working as a mechanic/operator or even at a tea stall for that matter, then it is really adding some future value to it. He is learning either some skill or basics of business. Once the child is grown enough, at least he won’t be in the league of those well educated unemployed who are waiting endlessly for some firm to come and recruit them (They undertake entrepreneurship only after their job eligibility gets expired). He is standing on his own legs and has some genuine practical skill, more fructifying than the bookish knowledge that our institutes, in general, impart.
Secondly, believing that our present education system is even near to education is another blind absurd supposition. If a child attends 6 hours long boring bookish lectures and thereafter joins a 2 hour duration tedious tuition carrying a bag which is heavier than his aspirations from life, then that too is a type of child labor and all those who demand the poor children to go for schools leaving work should seriously reconsider their definitions. The way a child is forced to mug and memorize things he doesn’t like is a type of exploitation too. We should stop children from doing labor since they wish to go to school, but at the same time we should stop our children from going to those persecution centers (which we refer as schools) too as no child wishes to spend his 15 valuable years in the closed cubicles where creativity and originality is murdered by educated rich parents (Why to blame the poor always?) and fit-for-no-other-job teachers. Irony is that now neo social reformists ruminate that our education system lacks in expertise imparting. You drag a child to school compelling him to think bookish way and then in schools you ask him to think out of the box and develop proficiency giving no exposure to the outside world
Thirdly, ours is a developing country. So less are the opportunities that lacs of aspirants fight for a job opening of just few hundred. Are we willing to make those children a part of this crippled league? That would be like playing with the emotions of the child – at first you ask them to go for schools so that they get equal opportunities and later you turn your back when they look for a living. Seriously, that is the reason why a poor father still thinks that engaging his child in a family business is a much safer/reliable bet. A child well versed with any sort of skill would atleast not beg for job in front of MNCs and think innovatively of setting up a business of its own if provided support. He is the type of entrepreneur our country needs
Fourthly our Indian culture too believes that studies and work go hand in hand. In ancient gurukul system, apart from Vedic knowledge, a ward was imparted various skills such as archery/wrestling/business planning/politics along with basic skills like preparing one’s own food for which the disciples used to go to the woods to collect fuel for fire etc. A disciple wasting his entire day in forest doing hunting for his survival wasn’t looked upon as exploitation. In fact it made him stronger and exposed him to the outside world.
Since I firmly believe that we should be a part of solutions instead of merely being complaining dissatisfied brats. I propose a 3 faceted approach as a solution to this issue. I suppose if we focus on values, opportunities and skills, then we can go far beyond in getting sensible prodigies.
Firstly, our education system seriously lacks in its spirit of inculcating values in the souls of young India. Many of the good things are taught so bookish way that no surprises, we all today take them likewise and don’t dare to improvise them in our lives. The magnitude of ethics and team building is unfortunately taught in business schools and not while primary schooling. The stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata are taught to students in the backdrop of them being a myth, how can you expect anyone to learn anything from it. Extra load of useless subjects should be removed. No child should be devoid of toys to play and a Bat to bat in Cricket. Healthy childhood is what assures that no grudges against system are left in the sub conscious mind of the ward. Healthy childhood and skill learning can certainly go hand in hand
Secondly, equal opportunities should be there for everyone. No matter a child is born in a cot of gold or with a family of five to feed, our system should encourage everyone to be a part of it in the way they prefer. Financial discrepancies in the society can’t be removed overnight but definitely our education system shouldn’t be in the handcuffs of capitalists. Unfortunately, our government schools provide easy education but it seriously lacks in quality and couldn’t groom a ward for the outgrowing competition.
Thirdly and most importantly, we should be focused more upon inculcating skills in our education system. Basic Mathematics and basic Science only should be stressed at primary level. Rest all should be practical and realistic focusing more on identifying the true caliber of the ward. In this process if a child has to do some work, I found no problem with it. To all this, I put four restrictions:
1. The child’s age should be more than at least 12 years
2. The child shouldn’t be forced to do what he detests
3. His input in the form of work should only be for 2 – 4 hours
4. Work conditions should be ideal, not like the one you find in glass factories.
Anything more than that is exploitation.
Even the daughter of Bill Clinton use to sell newspapers to fetch more pocket money. That is not exploitation but a learning process where you discover to stand on your own and face the real world. One of the possible solutions could be making schools more inclined towards practical learning after abolishing child labor completely, but I would say the more a ward is exposed to the outside world, the better
