Not *that* child labour

This is just a post-script to the previous post (who will feed them).

There’s a bunch of girls at my work-place who look like tiny tots picked right out of school. We commonly refer to them as “child labour”. If you are someone familiar with that label, this just to clarify that the previous post does not refer to the juvenile-looking lot at flex.

Who will feed them?

HJ keeps telling me stories about his kids. Apparently, one day when the two sweet little devils were upto their usual dose of mischief and more, HJ in an attempt to restore sanctity threatened to pack them off with the garbage truck next morning. The little toddler “dummi” was quite petrified at the thought! For a few days since then, she would wake up every morning asking… “rubbish lorry gone?”… just her way of ensuring that the immediate danger has passed, and she can get back to her nefarious designs. The elder kid had a more immediate reaction to the threat… he looked despairingly towards his mom, realizing that being packed off meant being separated from her, pondered this thought twice over, and finally asked with genuine concern – “then who will wash my bum?!”…

Kids… they never cease to surprise! And that’s how they should be – spinning their nefarious webs of mayhem, breaking the unbreakable, creating the undecipherable, and worrying only about silly things like garbage trucks and bums that need washing.

Sadly, too many kids in this nation spend their time with worries that are non-trivial – worrying about food, about shelter. For millions of families in India today, the child is a bread winner - a source for the next square meal, for a roof over the head, just like an adult. The government now is once again talking tough; is talking about serious action towards shelving out child labour. This is a noble thought indeed, but how far will legislative action help solve the real problem. Laying down the law might at best prevent children from being exploited as cheap labour, but is the law going to feed the children and their families. After all, there is truth in the argument that if you prevent children from working, you are effectively taking away income from families that might need this income just to survive.

No… i’m not trying to play advocate to child labour. And yes, there is truth also in the argument that if law is indeed able to enforce the ban on child labour, it will perhaps force people to think twice before they *produce* children, which in turn has a positive impact on the population issue. All i’m trying to figure out is what happens in the time between when the law is enforced and the time when a social system is available to ensure that no child goes hungry. All i’m trying to figure out is, the millions of children who eat today only because they work and earn their own food; who will feed them?…