Did you know that India has about 215 million children ages 5-17 that are engaged in child labor? And that about 27 million children are born each year, but half don't attend school? If you want to know more about child labor in india, read on!
Storified by EmilyP112 · Mon, Dec 07 2015 01:44:37
Article #1: In this first article about child labor in India, Beriberi Dario, talks about how most kids in india are ending up working in the fields,factories etc. And how they can't get education, a normal life, and what the government is doing about it. Because India is such a widely populated area, it has 200 million people in hunger and most kids don't even get to go to school. Although child labor in india is declining a little less than 5% of children, when looking at the absolute numbers, more children are faced with forced labor, which denies them of having a normal childhood. As the country develops economically, more people are becoming aware of this problem. And the national child labor program has come to an understanding that bringing government agencies, unions and NGOs, is their best shot to tackle this problem. So why are more children working on the fields instead of getting education? This is because people get underpaid. Which affects the parents. Some families are forced to put their child to work because by not doing so, it would mean that they wouldn't have food to for everyone. Schools in India also tend to teach things that aren't really useful for kids once they get back home. So the parents don't feel justified to send their kids to school unless they see the beneficial results. But things are slowly changing as the government is trying to upgrade the quality of schools, as well as making their program more practical and relevant to the children lives. In general, laws and government bans against child labor has had very limited impact and in some cases agitated the poor families into becoming even more poor. By law, India protects every child under the age of 14 against the threat of forced labor. In the 1990s, government programs offered to pay such children a small amount of money ($2/month) in exchange for attending school. The NFE (non-formal education) program came to the acknowledgement that fighting child labor wasn't an easy task because it required to take in account the lives and livelihood of the poor. So, the program was set up so that children could both work and go to school at the same time. In this program, classes happened after regular hours so that working children could attend them after working in the fields. But there are also unexpected consequences that arise when governments get zealous of promoting education. For instance, many parents make sacrifices to be able to send their kids to school when they really can’t afford it. Which ends up putting their healths at risk. However there is a different solution in ending child labor. Parents education. Besides from making schools cheaper and giving them more resources, educating the parents can make a huge difference in helping them understand how important education is in one’s life. Quite understandably, the more you study, the more skills you can gain in order to climb up the social ladder and get better jobs. This article was helpful in acts of answering my research question because it told me a lot about the causes of child labor, and what we can do to stop it. This article is definitely reliable as the website is part of a big organization, and the author has a PHD. So, What will you do in order to stop child labor?
For more information look at the article yourself!
This picture is about child labor in india. As you can see the kids are in fact very young.
Article #2: In this second article, by ILO (international labor organization), it talks about how we can help prevent child labor, and how they need to develop an integrated policy and program worldwide to provide education that is important to children that don't have a lot of money. As child laborers come from the poor. It has been shown that by providing basic illiteracy and numeric skills through non-formal education, it does not guarantee that the children will be permanently withdrawn from their work. Which is why educating students with special needs in regular classes during specific time periods based on their skills, is important . Social systems are also a reason why kids are kept out of school and pushed to work. In order to give access to education to people who are poor, we need to build more schools in India, more teachers need to be recruited and trained, and more educational materials need to be made. Another possibility should be developed to provide education for the children when geographical conditions pose obstacles or the community’s lifestyle involves mobility. School admission retention policies, should allow the entry or re-entry of children into schools by providing another possibility of placement options and independent learning approaches, with guidance and support for over-aged children or children who re-enter school. And we should allow the education of children and their families on children’s rights and child labour. Girls should be educated as well and treated equally and paid the same amount as the boys. In a nutshell, by doing this, it would prevent child labor by a great deal as they are getting educated, and when they are finally fully educated, they could rise up the social status, get a job, and earn more money. This article is reliable as it is a HUGE organization that has been here helping to prevent child labor since 1996-2015.
For more information, look at this article!
In this picture, indian students hold signs agains child labor on May 1st 2015, national labor day.
This is the picture of the global goals. What is a global goal you say? Well, a global goal is a list of 17 proposed sustainable development goals to make our world a better place. Many world leaders have committed to achieve them before 2030. India can relate to few of these goals such as quality education, zero hunger and no poverty. Because the cycle of poverty leads to child labor, organizations and governments are working together trying to end poverty and child labor by giving them better quality education. But for these goals to be reached, everyone has to do their part. Either being a president, being part of a government, or people like you, start by telling everyone about them!
Check out the official website!
Question Time!! Have you been paying attention? 1. What laws were made to prevent child labor? 2. What can you do to prevent child labor? 3. What is your opinion about all this? Do you think its bad? If so, why? 4. If you were taken from your home and forced to work in a factory, what would you do? 5. Why do you think child labor is such a big deal?
A documentary of child labor in india
