Say no to child abuse

Say no to child labor

Having a child working for you looks like a really attractive proposition, Isn't it? It comes with a lot of advantages you can get a days work for pennies, these poor children don't argue as much, are generally mild mannered as compared to adults, with a little bit of training you can mold his working style into the way you want.

Also it looks like a win win situation as the kid is also able to get food and shelter which his parent might not have afforded. But is this the case. Do we ever consider child's circumstance in making a decision to hire a child. Well this may be true in a small number of cases but is certainly not in most of them.If we really have some regards for the well being of the child I think most of us who can afford to keep a maid or a servant for our household work can afford to sponsor a under privileged child's food and shelter.

Most of practices associated with child labor in Indian society are a form of child abuse as they interfere with a child's physical, social, education and moral development and are a great detriment to the child and the society.

Some of my friends looking for a job after their engineering always dreaded getting a job in manufacturing(especially in small firms) because of atmosphere which is they say was a hell in itself as compared plush comforts of an office job in a Software company where you have an uninterrupted supply of electricity and an air conditioned environment to save you from extreme climate of north India. You don't have to abuse(talk in abusive language) the worker on the shop floor to get him back to work. Imagine a child working in such a shop floor where in addition to missing his school he is subjected to harsh physical as well as social atmosphere. What do you think that when this child grows up will give back to the society?

Also related to employment of these children is the problem of the population growth of India. It gives boost to our traditional theory of more hands more money which encourages people to produce more children so that they have more members to support the family. Rampant poverty and bad habits among the lower strata of society leads to fathers forcing there kids to finding jobs at the early age to support there drinking and drug abuse habits. This vicious circle goes on as with many these kids not getting proper eductaion and taking up these substance abuse habits themselves from there surroundings as they grow up and later taking to crime when they are not able to get work because of there habits.

All of these problems are not limited to just the lower strata of the society but many related problems are also prominent in the middle strata as well especially in small cities. A son of a farmer is expected to take up farming and son of businessman is expected to get into business thus leading ignorance to development of other aspects of there personalities. In many business and farming families education is not considered important as it is expected that sons of a businessman will join family business and same with farming but with ever changing economy and technology where small businesses are crumbling due to growing competition from large corporations and among themseleves and on farming side reduced need of man power and produce prices not keeping pace with growing needs of modern households these kids feel the pinch of disguised unemployment when they are not able to grow the businesses and procution at the pace of the growth of the family. This leads to family disputes and reduced harmony among the family memebers. These people are left with limited options as neither they have developed skills required to get well paying jobs available in mordern workspace nor they have the skills, technical know how or capital required to compete with large eneterprises.


Work is not always bad for children. For example a child working for some part of his summer vactions or a kid teaching tution to his juniors to make some pocket money actually help the child to learn how to work, get some responsibility and also some pocket money for himself or to support his family. Such kind of work can be beneficial in promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest.

All said saying no to hire a child labor is just a small part of the solution as many of these children don't have any option but to work in order to support their and their family's basic needs and it will need take much more to improve the state of life for these children. There are other things which will form other parts of the solution some of them even more important then saying no to hiring a child. One of these important things is that when you say no to hire a child labor educate the parents who requested you to hire their child regarding what loss they are causing to future of their child and to the society. Also if and when we give work to a child we need to ensure that work is not hazardous, doesn't interfere with physical development or eductaion of the child and that the child is paid properly, almost the same things we that we would want for our children. There are a lot of organizations who help the underprivilidged children in their eductaion and their basic needs. Wherever this option is available you can help the kid or the parents to get the help from these organizations. You can help these organizations by giving donations and doing volunteer work for them. However if all this sounds too compilcated and we can't be part of the solution and the very least we can say "No to child abuse" and avoid becoming part of the problem.