Responsible or irresponsible????

Not long ago in a meeting of particular institute, someone asked a question. Question was something similar to this: the institute boasts and do lot for CSR , but what about the children who work here. Isn’t management encouraging child labor? Management’s answer was that it’s not in their notice that any child is working but they will take cognizance of this issue and find out more on this. In next meeting management clarified that none of the person working inside the institution is below 18 and administration takes necessary steps to implement minimum age bar. If any person working inside the campus looks below 18 then it just because of their appearance not because of age.
Bravo!!!!!!!! Kudos to management and the concerned associates that they prevented the child labour. Did they?
When the question was asked I was sitting wondering at my place (but I didn’t say anything since it was not a forum to discuss child labor). But just think about a child with age 14 working in pantry, who lost his job after the issue came in cognizance of management. Now he is employed in a cracker’s factory, playing with dangerous and hazardous condition.
What a better way to discharge our social responsibility!!!
Lets 1st discuss the technical aspect of the problem.At first a child is permitted to work after 14 (with parent consent), after 16 (without any consent) in any non-hazardous and non-exploitative job. What could be better place than that institute for him to work which is safe, clean and source of contact with knowledgeable people.
I would have been happier if management would have come with approach that through its CSR programme it would have ensured a proper education and proper living condition for all children working inside the campus.
India is a poor country and child labour problem could not be solved by just not employing child. Boycotts is not the solution, it might make the situation graver.For example, a UNICEF study found that after the Child Labor Deterrence Act was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in Bangladesh, leaving many to resort to jobs such as “stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution”, jobs that are “more hazardous and exploitative than garment production”. The study suggests that boycotts are “blunt instruments with long-term consequences that can actually harm rather than help the children involved.”
Solution is to ensure a healthy, safe and respectful environment for child to work and also make the employer take responsibility to provide a mandatory education of working child. We cannot just throw a working child out and boycott taking a willing child and think that we are champion of social cause. If a poor child is willing to work and want to make a place for himself/herself and his/her family in this world then it’s our responsibility to guide them according to their ability and show them the way which will take them to their bright future.

A Resolution

Second changes into minute, minute into hour, hour into day, day into week, week into month, month into year, year into decade and part of us changes with it without realizing the presence and effect of change. I hardly understand the intricacies of the life but find myself entangled into this intricate web. I hardly have any idea how to come out of it. The more I ponder over solution more I get myself capsized into the problem.George Orwell has stated his view on the structure of society in 1984. More or less Society has always been composed of three groups: Higher class, middle class and lower class. Conflict between these classes is traced way back to history. Higher class struggle to retain the position where they are and middle class try to snatch the position of higher class by means of lower class. They takes means of ideology like liberty, freedom, socialism, equality, fraternity etc etc to win support of lower class and fight the higher class. Once they achieve their target they became higher class and again a new middle class emerges to take the position to fight against higher class. French revolution is the classic example of this dual nature class war. But always the people at the rung of lowest ladder in society lose despite the fact they make the ladder through which people climb to the highest echelons.Now you must be wondering why suddenly I jumped from my problem to the class war. I was forced to think how slowly and may be unknowingly I am converting into something and resorting onto means which is propelling me to discover a complete new identity.A simple example is when I went to buy onion, onion price is soaring high, and I was appalled at the sky rocketed price, and so do millions of middle class Indians who cannot live without onion. Forget about lower class they have already removed onion from their daily meal list. Now this middle class’s rage will compel government to take stern action which might result into softening the price. Have any one ever thought about the losses farmers made because of crops loss resulted from unpredicted weather flood and other natural devastation, which is the main reason for high price of commodity. Have we ever thought to share their burden by buying crops into high prices (though high price never results in profit for actual farmer) or reduce our consumption to manage our budget? It doesn’t matter for us if we spent thousands in restaurants and hundreds in junk food, but we are quite capable to bend government priority from real issue (to tackle the problem of agriculture and farmer) to short term measurement like price control for onion price which is pricking our neck. All mighty middle class and their power, I am again wondering that am I becoming part of those?All banks flocks at our gate to provide loan at throw away interest rate to us for buying car, bungalow, for spending a holiday on luxurious yacht. A poor farmer has difficulty in arranging few thousands for him from bank. If he ever manage to get some rupees then that also at high interest rate from money lenders or from the new variety of modern moneylender who are known as micro finance today. This results most of the time in suicide in case of non-payment. Banks does not have money to lend poor farmer as they are happily lending all those money to us for fulfilling our luxurious life style. A poor farmer results in poor crops which results in shortage and ultimately government imports or subsidize commodity for our appeasement instead of looking into the bottom of the problem. Again the mighty middle class controls all. Why do we worry if our stomach is full, we control the country.I am worried, I see myself among those middle class, perhaps unknowingly and indirectly, but I am there. I am sinking deep and deep into the mud which I always detested and tried to avoid. Sometimes I feel I am also on the path which all middle class took to reach at high level – through talk of equality, fraternity, liberty and freedom. Talk, talk and talk. I hate to think myself into shoes of those self proclaimed reformer and thinker. My New Year resolution is to detach myself from all these in all possible way and make it as simple as possible. Make those ideologies not a way to reach at top but way to live my live. Happy resolution :)