<p> ** Response to the Article from Free The Children (FTC) ** </p>
<p>~ * India is a significant exception to the global trend towards the removal of children from the labour force and the establishment of compulsory, universal, primary school education. Many countries of Africa with income levels lower than India, such as Zambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Libya and Zimbabwe, have done better in these matters. *</p>
<p>Around two hundred years ago the condition was worse in England. What about it today? With initiative, will and determination from the side of the people, anything is possible. But the sad state of India is that those who are in position to contribute towards the improvement are unwilling and uncaring about it, and many times, they contribute to it and promote it.</p>
<p>~ * He has lunch at the landlord’s house, but is made to sit outside because he is a ** Dalit ** . *</p>
<p>So, there is a double handicap in his case. But mostly it’s people from lower castes who end up in such pathetic conditions like child-labour. Freedom at it’s best can be found in India, so does discrimination at its worst.
** Caste & Casteism ** is a big problem for India that needs to be addressed beyond the current modes of doing so. We MUST talk about this (Adi) !</p>
<p>~ * Pomabhai Solanki, an 11-year-old Adivasi boy from Gujarat, provides another example. He earns 14 rupees or 30 cents (US) a day. He works from 8 am to 5 pm, carrying heavy marble slabs back and forth in a quarry, over a distance of half a kilometer. He suffers from constant headaches and his legs and arms ache with the strain of lifting the heavy slabs.</p>
<p>~ Kerala, for instance, has the lowest incidence of child labour in India. This is because it has “invested in human beings, in political commitment, in radical change in the countryside, in land reform, in a strong working panchayat.”</p>
<p>~ “The example of Kerala and West Bengal, particularly to rural child labor, may suggest that basic agrarian reforms are more potent means of containing the problem of child labor.” (Child Labor - A Worsening Situation, B.N. Juyal) *</p>
<p>Here, I make some points that may contradict the perceptions and views of some of you, especially Adi and FT, but I seek your understanding and criticism in an objective manner.
Coming from Kerala, I can say about it very well.</p>
<p>Gujarat is a highly developed state compared to Kerala , in terms of Industry and Business. In Kerala, graduated people don’t have jobs because Kerala has no factories or much industries, which makes Keralites to migrate to other states and other countries, esp the Gulf countries. At no time in the last decade had occurred a time when less than 2 lakh (200,000) gradutes were unemployed in Kerala.</p>
<p>Though you may have a lot of reasons to bask for the glory of * Gujjus * rocking places, cases like Solanki’s and Godra will not find an immediate solution. While many Gujaratis will continue to rock places, some others will continue to cry their lot.</p>
<p>While other states were investing in factories and manufacturing sectors, Kerala was investing all its resources for the upliftment through education and good health care. Irrespective of what Sucharita may say about the sorry state of WBengal, it must be noted that WB and Kerala have made definite progress in terms of people’s upliftment and education. And this matters a lot, because humans are more valuable in a civilised society than factories, businesses and corporations.</p>
<p>** I don’t have enough Internet time to respond in detail. **</p>
<p>The article given by Adi says a lot about the Child-labour. I too know somethings about it, because as a kid my mother too had to work for a livelihood (Her job was separating Marijuana leaves from the stem.) Many people may have much to say about Child-labour but then what many people see from the windows of their highrises sitting in plush rooms and comment about while moving in airconditioned cars may not represent the true state of affairs and their views formed out of the same may not reflect the reality. Their proposed solutions may not be solutions at all. But even then they may argue at length about it until they prove their might to others and until others see their ignorance of the real world. The solutions must be sought not from those at the altars of power and luxury, that our democratically elected parliamentarians are, but from those who are enduring it everyday, are fighting for a life every moment and are surviving in spite of the casual indifference towards them by the social elites. And these are the poor majority of this country that the government and th elites do not want to be included among Indians, because * India is going places (Times of India) *.</p>
<p>As a group of next generation, we can do a lot for the upiftment of the ordinary poeple of this country, but then it is a matter of choice. For those with choices, the choices aren’t clear. And for those without choices, we may read more about them on internet from the links posted by Adides, and we may forget them in the next moment when a new post, a new topic comes into The Indian Thread and we drfit away from The India Truths, its issues, its challenges and its ordinary people.</p>
<p>Adi, as I have said as we parted, make a wise choice yourself that may give you satisfaction and that later you may not have regret about the road not taken. There will come many to be with you, if you make the right choice. I am with you. </p>
<p>Adi, Times-India is the worst placr to approach for unless it fits the Page3 of BombayTimes. Sucharita is right, approach Hindu because, in my opinion, it is the ony newspaper that prints the truth without fear, favour or falsity.</p>
<p>[I stop here as my internet time is over]</p>
<p>=== S H A B I N =========</p>