Save India’s Children
India has an estimated 50 million children involved in child labor (Child Labor, 2008). What can we, do about it?
The Indian government has created laws making it illegal for children under the age of 14 to work but almost everyone in India ignores it (Child Labor, 2008). If we want to give these 50 million poverty ridden children a chance, we need to take action.
The businesses that rely on child labor need incentive to give their workers better pay, better hours, and better working conditions. I propose that the Indian government create and enforce to the fullest new regulations on company owners.
A new policy for child laborers needs to be put in place. The Indian government needs to become more involved in these children’s lives providing them with nutritious meals at their work place. If these children rely on their place of employment for food, the meals have to be able to provide them with healthy meal choices.
These children need time that they can set aside their work and have time to gain an education. Even if it just means two or three hours a day. Every child has a right to an education. India’s government should add this to their policy as well.
Three-fourths of child laborers earn a scarce $1.25 paycheck monthly (ILO, 1996). There needs to be a set salary that would provide enough funds for children to help their family with food, shelter, and basic needs of life. In the U.S., the government set out minimum wage and India’s needs to do the same thing. India needs to take care of its people.
Daily hours for these children are extremely high; from 10-12 hours a day. Children cannot enjoy their childhoods if they are laboring away all day long. In the U.S., it is not permitted to force employees to work more than 8 hours a day. That’s for people over the age of 16. Children in India are laboring away for almost double that hourly rate at the age of 5.
What I am proposing is that India’s government takes a hard look at how their young population is suffering under the labor they are forced to work to survive. There needs to be largely funded programs that will give bonuses, or any other incentives, to industrial, agricultural, entertainment, or domestic bosses that employ these children to give them what they deserve.
Before I started researching in depth this problem, I was all for banning any child labor in India but some of these children depend on their jobs to survive. We can’t boycott the companies that use child labor because that would leave millions of children starving. The organizations that are donating thousands of dollars to ban child labor need to be donating their funds to the Indian government to create these policies and help these children out.
Childhood needs to be given.
References
International Labour Organization. (1996). ILO Surveys Quantify Child Labour in Ghana, India, Indonesia and Senegal. [Press release]. Retrieved from
(2008). Child Labour in India. Retrieved from http://www.childlabor.in/child-labour-in-india.html
(2010). Children of Pedyari India [Photograph]. Retrieved from
(2010). Dalit Girls [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://communities-rising.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dalit-girls2.gif
