Child Labour in India

At the outset, this is not about the statistics of child labour in India, this is not about the work conditions and the need for reform - this is about how the peculiar conditions in India force a re-think on most commonly accepted global societal standards (read western standards).

Over the last couple of days, I have noticed, right here in the NCR region - tens of kids - early teens, mid teens, some not even ten - commercially engaged - hawking goods, services and everything in between. I only started noticing this because a tiny factory abutting our office has a board on its gate - no child labour employed here......hmmm - I wonder why that board is on there? you can almost guarantee its because someone raided their premises and found kids working there or they are making something to be exported and some western idiot would have turned up with the rule book .....Anyways that got me thinking and observing.......

There's this one guy I have noticed over the last several months in out apartment complex - I have no way of exactly determining his age but its a reasonable guess to say he is below 16......the guy is typical youth -insouciant, callous, rebellious - with that arrogant attitude every Indian these days seems to be born with......his job is to collect clothes from a bunch of apartments, press them, return the bunch and collect money......its about 4/7 hours of work every week.....gets pretty tiring and boring in the summer heat, but I guess its much better than some other jobs we know........Now - my issue is simple - knowing the guy, I know he is persuaded to do what he does under extreme duress - I can imagine his family pleading, gauding, threatening, incentivizing...the works just to get him off his backside and get him to work everyday....I know what will happen if he isnt at the apartment complex doing this work - he will wasting himself amidst friends and fellow wastrels - indulging in anti-social behavior.....perhaps drugs and alcohol......adding to our collective woes most definetly not adding value to us - society, friends and family.......and I'm almost dead sure - he will have nothing to do with studies and education, not now not ever......so whats my point? - many of these laws are fine on paper and in theory.....but when you try to apply them in practice, they end up causing more's trouble than merit......I would rather this boy's mind be gainfully employed, else he spells trouble........its amazing how people can sit in ivory towers, with no knowledge of the situation and context on the ground and make up rules......what do you think...?