Introduction:
Hanging loose and idle: bubbling with zip and energy. The brat is eleven with nothing to do.
So how about doing something useful eh?
Well, like what mum?
Maybe earn some pocket money?
Doin’ what?
I’d deliver newspapers, doing morning rounds if I were you, maybe pick up a few bucks along the way…
Ughs
The kid thinks, hey why not, and mum says, hey why not, so off he goes, each morning at crack of dawn on his bicycle pedaling six blocks delivering newspapers and collecting a fee from the press ed’s office for the chores.
Now the boy has a shining new speedometer he bought with his own income.
His parents are beaming.
She is nine and mopes, twiddling thumbs.
Ma, she says as she stares at the TV, switching channel to channel aimlessly, I’m so fed up…
Well, if I was you, I’d chip in with some work and maybe some extra dough for housekeeping. After all, your dad works eighteen hours non stop, and me, just look at me, feeding, clothing and schooling six kids
Come on ma, what can I do?
You can if you want to you know, chip in your mite…just get your two sisters along and make some lemonade – set up a counter on the yard and vend the cool stuff to people who drop by or drive along. Maybe you could fix some cookies too for your school fete?
So the little moppet in pigtails and her two siblings stand in the sun, selling ade and do-nuts and pastries and pies to passers by. And she buys the Barbie doll she so badly wanted, with her own money. Mum’s real proud.
I scream, stop this nonsense right now. This is child labor, exploitation of the innocent…this against all canons of civil and labor law…child abuse, that’s what this really is…
The children and their parents turn towards me and stare, open mouthed.
Hold it buddy, this isn’t India ya’ know. This is the US of A. Here it is called keeping idle children occupied, here we make them do chores to earn their own pocket money, here it is educating the kids on dignity of labor – everyone works, all able bodied… ...no free lunches here mate.
How come, I wonder, when children do the same stuff in Asia we called it child labor…here in the land of free enterprise it is chipping in for the ‘home piggy bank’.
Here in the US, it is service, but when its yonder Asia it is slavery to Americans, servitude…….
Strange……really strange…this logic, this rationale...…this Brave New World
Close
Dear sir,
Picture this:
If the news paper boy,lemonade stand girl etc. had to keep doing that 18 hrs a day under applaing conditions, were taken away or sold away from their homes and handed over to heartless exploiters who also used his/her body for pleasure and punishment what would be the reaction of the US Govt? Child emloyment is allowed there but only with strict conditions.............we ran a automotive business in the US (Virginia) which could not employ children but supermarkets were allowed but only for light jobs, no carrying heavy loads, no long hours etc. and all that was monitored by the local authorities. Childen could complain and even misused that law to get back at parents...........that is the other extreme!! This is really not to do with Western ideas imposing themselves on us, as some folk seem to think................and what the heck! if we can get fat, munching burgers and pizzas from US brands in India, why not also adopt some good stuff like looking into our own child labour laws?
Just my opinion
lakshmi
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dear lakshmi,
thanks for the inpout: somehow, the deabte has turned into one bewtween those who oppose and those who approve child labor - this isnt the issue in my blog. The crux of my beef is how laws can be interpreted in different social milieus. To example, each one of us, every Indian has with an external debt of Rs,7,218. We are bonded to western nations, financially, even at birth. This economic enslavement is what worries. No one wants a child of five to slog at kilns or ovens. that wouldnt be condoned in any society, even here. Unscrupulous exploit innocents, and that is everywhere, including in developed nations.
And as a personal example, I have also espoused, quite often at differeent fora, the fight against the economic hegemony is what will finally liberate us. Wehave adequate and stringent laws against child labor: yet, you see childen hawking brushes or plastic flowers at every traffic junction in MG Road or Brigade Road, the IT captal and Silicon Valley. Poverty is root of all evils
I wish for a fre India where every child is going to school, and enabled to earn through education, to become equal partners in helping this third world country of ours - reach its rightful place among the comity of nations
regards, ixedoc
Reply | Report Abuse
dear lakshmi,
thanks for the inpout: somehow, the deabte has turned into one bewtween those who oppose and those who approve child labor - this isnt the issue in my blog. The crux of my beef is how laws can be interpreted in different social milieus. To example, each one of us, every Indian has with an external debt of Rs,7,218. We are bonded to western nations, financially, even at birth. This economic enslavement is what worries. No one wants a child of five to slog at kilns or ovens. that wouldnt be condoned in any society, even here. Unscrupulous exploit innocents, and that is everywhere, including in developed nations.
And as a personal example, I have also espoused, quite often at differeent fora, the fight against the economic hegemony is what will finally liberate us. Wehave adequate and stringent laws against child labor: yet, you see childen hawking brushes or plastic flowers at every traffic junction in MG Road or Brigade Road, the IT captal and Silicon Valley. Poverty is root of all evils
I wish for a fre India where every child is going to school, and enabled to earn through education, to become equal partners in helping this third world country of ours - reach its rightful place among the comity of nations
regards, ixedoc
Reply | Report Abuse