Articles

Child labour in my view  is a spiritual disease, infact an epidemic that is caused and even spread

 because of the lack of compassion. All the activities, those of which can degrade the future and 

motivational levels of children to a considerable extent come under the meance of child labour 

and it  needs to be curbed at an exponential rate to transform our developing nation in to a superpower.

It has been a major hurdle for our country since the time of independance and the inefficient 

methodologies adopted for the past several decades resulted in an impotent workforce needed to bulid the 

nation in the new century.

Child labor usually means work that is done by children under the age of 15, which restricts or 

damages their physical, emotional, intellectual, social, or spiritual growth as children.There are 

many reasons for the existance of child labour in our country.Majority of child labour hail from 

the rural,tribal and slum areas of our country and are forced in to labourage  because of poverty

and worst economic conditions of their families and by failure to realise the importance of 

education by their parents. Also child labour is encouraged by some vested interests in order

to get cheap labour.
 

Child Labour is the mother of many ailments such as poverty,illetracy,inequalities and poor 

workforce. For the elimination of poverty in our country, education is the primary weapon 

which can only be promoted by rooting out child labour.We have to realise that child labour 

and poverty are inevitably bound together and if we continue to use the labour of children as

the treatment for the social disease of poverty, we will have both poverty and child labour to 

the end of time.

On the humanatarian side , it is an utter injustice that the education and fututre of a child depends 

on the economic condition of the family he is born in to rather than his own vices and virtues. 

Children do not constitute anyone's property: they are neither the property of their parents nor

even of society. They belong only to their own future freedom.It is time for parents to realise that

education for children is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for their families 

and for the country. 

The problems of child labour if listed can fill in terabytes of memory, for everything is a problem 

in the country with the existance of technology and illeteracy(  fruit of child labour ) side on side.

Child labour in our country has two faces - One face is the with regard to the children who were 

labouraged in the fields of rural,tribal and slum areas and the other face is regarding children who

were undergoing labourage in the name of education in schools and colleges.These two need to

be tackled at an alarming rate for providing assured results for our future generations.
 

Face One

According to the statistics only around 64%[optimistic view] of child population are enrolled in

schools in our country. Many of them are being forced into work from a very early age of 8 years 

to support their families.The result of decades of child labour is clearly visible at present in the 

form of poor economy that resulted because of poor agricultural economy, backbone of our nation.

Child labour infact cretaes a vacuum, for the cyclone of destruction to sweep the whole nation .

It is not “ a problem “ but rather “ the problem” as it can give rise to many more inequalic disturbances. 

Any major problem in our country is intertwined with child labour and all steps for tackling those 

problems can go futile unless this menace is curbed off to the most possible extent.

The emergance of black markets for basic commodidtes is also a branch of child labour as the 

illetrate farmers are taken advantage of by the middle men whose pose themselves as the mediators

 between rural and urban areas.The  illetracy of farmers is not only a bane for them but also for the

 urban people who buy basic commodities at the whim of these middle men.The tree of child labour 

is turning our farmers  in to poor peasants and then into daily workers as they enter into slavery norms 

of stingent money lenders who advantage their backwardness to their own greeds. 

The low agricultural productivity in our country is also a fruit of child labour.The traditional agricultural 

practices used in our country are extinct in other countries with the development of technology and the 

methods of high yielding and harvesting.Despite ours being an agricultural country unfortunately the 

technical advancement is on the negative side.The basic cause for this trend is the lack of skills for 

farmers to bring in on the innovation in to farming practices and their inability to bring in smart work 

in place of hardwork.For example , majority of farmers in our country plough their fields with the help 

of oxen which is very much time taking , while the technolgy arrived where a plough machine can be 

installed on motor bikes which can plough 10 acres of land in just a couple of hours compared to the

 week work in the former case at a very affordable cost.

The advent of child labour also prevents the coming generation from actively participating in the 

politics or other services that can directly constitue the growth of our nation.Because of prevalence 

of child labour over the past few decades, the number of persons in various competitive exams 

such as UPSC or IIT-JEE from rural areas are very less.The development of the country can be

 exponential when the farmers participate in its process directly rather than indirectly.

Moreover, child labour curbs off the confidence and motivational levels of our young children 

which can cost a fortune for our nation. For country to reach in par with world super powers,

the morals and attitude of the people must be very high and competent in various fields.The

leaders arise only when child grows in an environment of knowledge and morals.The child

labour prevents a set of generation to analyse the problems with the modern developments.

The day when fellow citizens of our villages can understand the basic terms such as economy

,GDP,inflation,etc. - that day my country, our country is transformed into a super  power.This is 

possible only we can devour the menace of child labour from its roots.
 

Face Two

As previously stated , that child labour is a coin with two faces, the above discussed kind of labour

 forms only one face. The other face of it is also equally dangerous in the interest of our nation.

This second form of child labour is artificially created for the fiscal benefits by many organisations

 and individuals in the name of education.This might take you by surprise , but this fact is undeniable.

If labour is defined as something hard, stressfull and mentally upsetting, then today's education

 in schools in the name of competition(marks alone )is transformed in to a form of labour for 

the children.It is infact this stress that is forcing some  students to volunteer out of the schools 

in the rural areas.According to  a survey  conducted in 800 schools( elite schools ) across the 

country,more than 90% of students are found  not to be enjoying  their education.Most of the 

children infact devloped a kind of nausea towards education , which inturn can deliver a

thunderblow for our nation, as the education with no basics creates an impotent workforce

 which our nation cannot afford presently.Infact this kind of labour was absent in our country 

during the pre-British regime.But the introduction of western culture and western education 

system and with the advancement of competition in the recent decades has turned the divine

 education in to a labourage.Many of the technical institutes teaches us how to do things rather

 than why to do things. As a result of our present education system, we are using our development

 for technology inspite of using technology for our development.

Another example is that many of our students including those from universities , fail to explain that 

papers blow away under the fan because of bernoulli's principle inspite of studying that principle 

from class 8.This kind of stressful education is infact killing the sensibility and analytical ability of

 many students.

Only when the students are really able to enjoy the education, can we get some scientists and

researchers with thoughts whose findings can revolutionalise the world.The education becoming

a labourage for most of the students denies the very purpose of it. The education, inspite of being

pursued as a gift is becoming the burden for the students.The results are directly visible in the 

form of suicides by many students.I strongly assert that the ruthless educational system at present

and the competition that it had developed in the form of marks and ranks had in fact become a kind 

of burden or labourage for the children.

Thanks to Govt. for taking some steps like introduction of grade system rather than rank system 

in schools to reduce the stress level of the students.This kind of labourage need to be curbed 

and education must be delivered in a more interesting and innovative way developing the 

overall personality of the child rather than his marks alone.

Moreover the education system in rural areas should be differed in such a way that it helps 

in their daily needs. For example, teaching some basic laws of physics for farmers helps 

them to bring in innovation in to their daily activities as explained in the earlier example 

of ploughing with a motor bike.When the advantages of education are seen in the daily

 lives of the people, we can expect the encouragement from parents for their children in 

the rural areas that will automatically curb both forms of labourage for children.

Finally, for our nation to restore the glory, we have an urgent need to raise the level of

 understanding and thinking of our people that is possible only by imparting quality 

education rather than mere education and eliminating the child labour by roots from 

our country and also the world.There is a plethora of laws but nothing can eradicate child 

labour unless there is awareness among parents and children, which will go a long way in saving 

the future of millions of working children in India. Lastly it is to be realised by all that, in serving the

 best interests of children, we serve the best interests of all humanity and the future generations.