In India, working children are a common sight. I always encourage such children and never cease to marvel at the fact that they learn so many more useful things at work than they ever could at school.
I was therefore pleasantly surprised to read Sunanda K Dutta Ray’s column expressing similar sentiments.
Yes, we could sack all our young domestic servants – but what then will be the fate that befalls them?
However, Dutta Ray is not being consistent when he says:
“Kailash Satyarthi justifiably won the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Award with his crusade for carpets to carry a label saying they had not been made by children.”
Why not encourage these children who KNOW how to make carpets? Why not encourage carpet buyers to buy carpets made by children?
Why not treat them as “child stars” – just as there are many such child stars in the film industry?
Doesn’t the child who weaves carpets beautifully learn something useful – an art that he can practice his entire life?
And isn’t the schools system a “teenage wasteland”?
Teenagers were never wasted in older times. Babar conquered Samarkand when he was just 13. And the Honourable East India Company recruited many great civil servants when they were anywhere between 13 and 15. These were not “boys” – they were “young men.”
In a poor country, where life expectancy is low, it is CRIMINAL to waste precious years of youth in 12 years of schooling. This makes children dependent for long, delays their entry into professions (where they could compete with adults), and delays marriage too.
A question that all anti-child labour activists should ask kids is:
Do You Enjoy School?
I am sure they will be surprised at the answers they get.
And do read my earlier post: “Practical Catallactics For Kids.”
So, would you allow YOUR children to work for,say, ten to fifteen hours a day for a miserable stipend and equally miserable working conditions, rather than spending those hours in a "teenage wasteland?"
ReplyDeleteAnd how about girls that get married off at a tender age; should we consider them as learning to be "working wives?"
Most working kids in India are not working out of free choice but are compelled to do so. They'd rather be playing cricket rather than making carpets. Do you not believe that basic schooling would provide literacy & soft skills, elementary math and sometimes vocational/technical courses that would help their professional careers?
ReplyDeleteNote that coercion is an actionable tort anyway, as is, of course, physical torture. So these are illegal.
ReplyDeleteIn the case of my only son, I have always encouraged him to drop out of studies and get a job, get some other skills. He now works, pretends to study for a useless bachelor's degree, and he plays the guitar very well indeed. I am happy. At least he hasn't destroyed his mind by mugging up all the bullshit they teach.
Note that I do NOT say that children should not learn.
I say that the schools system of today is too long drawn out a process, and vocationally useless.
The kids of today need a short cut to the market, not the long road to a high school diploma.
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ReplyDeleteAgree that the school systems are a long drawn out process but many urban schools/institutes in India (at least in my city Pune) do have a lot of vocational courses that prepare students directly for commercial/technical jobs. But again, these are after secondary school only and not for ages below 14.
ReplyDeleteSo IMHO, basic schooling should be guaranteed, and only then vocational subjects be given as an option. Also, care must be taken that the policies dont raise social questions like Rajagopalachari's Kula Kalvi Thittam system had.
why is it that everybody wants to be a guardian angel for everybody else...and who says that most children in India are not working out of free choice...did you go and ask each one of them...or conduct some type of analysis...or did you just read the statistics given by the government and believed it....why is it that i cannot choose for my child...why is it that your choice is better than mine...is it because your choice follows the prevalent social order....who says that children should get a basic schooling...isn't working in a particular trade schooling by itself...leave it to me and my child to decide...
ReplyDeleteif we have to save everybody...lets just ban marriage...there are so many abuses against women and sometime against men...so lets not allow anybody to marry...there is no way that a married woman or man would be tortured...i can go down a list to find out what needs to be banned and i will guarantee you today that most of it will be on the table to prohibit...somehow everybody has got the right to force me into following a social order followed by everybody else...somehow i am not given a chance to decide and thus, leading to oppression...how should i fight against it...? and who said that marrying young is marrying at a tender age...why is it that the government or to better put it you to decide that it is a tender age...i think i can decide better for my child than you...and in the same way you can decide better for your child than i can...
torturing somebody is against liberty...so there is no question of allowing that...
@hushang: Unless you have statistics to show that most children are indeed working out of free choice, I'd rather believe the opposite. Firstly lets clarify 'free choice'. When I said 'compelled', I did not necessarily mean coerced or forced. A child could be compelled work to aid the family income and would be pulled off school so it is not necessarily "free choice".
ReplyDeleteMy point was basic schooling should (note that I dont say 'must') be made available to all children because it provides a better platform and more opportunities to work truly 'free of choice'.
If you can say for sure that your basic schooling was a waste and you'd had rather been making carpets, then fine, I accept your point.
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ReplyDelete@salil...i don't have statistics...but rather believe nothing than something that can be biased...i have no trust on any government especially the indian government...if you do want to cite statistics given by the government then please be my guest...it is upto you to decide what you want to believe....for me believing in statistics given by the government is nothing more than believing in religion...it has no basis (even though they try to show it)...
ReplyDeleteas to aiding one's family is upto the child and his/her family...i see nothing wrong...and yes, i do feel that most of my schooling even though i studied in one of the finest shools in mumbai was a waste....i learn't through experience...i learn't through family values....not from most teachers and definitely not from politicians and leaders of our country...i learn't from very, very few teachers and from those who taught me individuality and personal responsibility...
if a child believes that he/she needs to help his/her family then that can be called compulsion but that is still free choice...the child freely chose to work for his/her family...but if the child chose to go to school but was coerced to work then that is not free choice....
if basic schooling does need to be made available then the people who think that such a need is a must should donate....but please do not ask me or anybody to forcefully donate money in the form of taxes for the so called betterment of the society...i do what i want to do with my hard earned "property"....when the state comes and usurps my "property" it is tyranny....it's just basically telling me that the country is the bully and i am weak boy who needs to pay when the hafta is demanded...which in our case is every year....
Frankly, I think children who go to school in India are worse off than children who go to work. They learn nothing. And, what is worse, their minds are systematically destroyed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe if our The State is kicked out of education things might improve.
As of now, my message to all children is: STAY AWAY FROM SCHOOL. Take a short course in English. Learn how to use a calculator. And get yourself an apprenticeship in any area of your choice, from music, to cookery, to motor mechanics.
And as far as Varuna's totalitarian idea of jailing the parents of working children goes:
ReplyDeleteBaby! There aren't enough jails for them! Their numbers are too large. Even if you released all the criminals, there wouldn't be enough space for all the poor mothers and fathers whose children work.
Think before you make a permanent comment on this blog.
@hushang: Ok, neither of us has statistics, so either we do our own research or agree to disagree on our beliefs :-).
ReplyDeletePersonally I dont believe that my schooling was a waste: besides learning to read, write and speak, I got to play sports, got access to a good library and made a lot of good friends. But thats my personal opinion.
I also agree that the State's influence on education should be curbed. In fact, most people, rich or poor, prefer to send their kids to private schools. But I dont agree with Sauvik's message to "stay away from schools". Schools need to be reformed for sure, not dispensed with.
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ReplyDelete@salil...i agree that schools should not be dispensed with...and that it should be left to people to decide as to whether they want to attend school...but i also don't agree with the fact that a child and their parents should be forced to follow certain social norms that we think is right...and rightly said, state intervention in schools should be totaly and completely abolished...it has no business in what i want to learn and what my children should learn...that is my personal decision...
ReplyDelete@varuna...if you so want to be the savior of such kids please be my guest...but please don't come knocking at my door waving your flag to collect some taxes...if you so want to help these kids please join an NGO or a charity or a educational institution...but don't push the responsibility on to us because i don't believe that i am responsible for them...i might myself try to help them but i don't think i am responsible for anyone of them....for a long time people like you did not get the majority to push the concept of "children" and "child psychology" on to people...but since a few a years y'all have got the chance...
i don't think that Sauvik meant to ban schools...all that he was trying to relay was his opinion as to the schooling in India...and to that matter anywhere else in the world...he was trying to convey that it should be left to the children and the families to decide...not government...i have read an article in TOI that the kids, that were working as servants in a home in mumbai and for some reason saved by the government from so called child labor, were complaining about not being allowed to work...they felt responsible for their family and chose to work but now the government somehow overrided their personal decision...isn't this tyrany...if the government came to you and and asked you to stop fast food because it hampered your health how would you like it....(here i am assuming that you like fast food just to make a point)...