“The problem of child labour continues to pose a challenge before the nation. Considering the magnitude and extent of the problem and that it is essentially a socio-economic problem inextricably linked to poverty and illiteracy, it requires concerted efforts from all sections of the society to make a dent in the problem.” Ministry of Labour, Government of India

Although little data is available in India on the number of working children, the government estimates are around 2,56,000 according to the 2001 census. This huge workforce goes largely unregulated as children are easily exploited – economically, physically and sexually and deprived of their rights.
Therefore, there is a growing need to give due importance to the issue of child rights.

The Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act was enacted in 1986, prohibiting employment of children (below 14 years of age) in specified hazardous occupations and processes and regulating the working condition. It’s 2006 amendment added a ban on working of children as domestic help and in dhabas, restaurants, hotels and hospitality sectors. The main strategies used in this policy are education (mainly non-formal education); compensation for families of working children and awareness campaigns.
But many components remain to be properly formulated, for example, identification of children at risk; withdrawal and provision of transitional education; income generating alternatives for families; monitoring and tracking; and social mobilization.

Experiences from around the world show that withdrawing children from one industry can cause child labour to go underground in that sector. Like the carpet belt of Mirzapur-Bhadohi (in Uttar Pradesh) provide a good example for the same. While child labour was significantly reduced in this district, it was also partly because manufacturers shifted their looms to the neighbouring states where they continued to employ children without coming under scrutiny. Moreover, children who have been withdrawn from work may end up in other jobs that are less regulated.

There is also a growing realization that child labour can be eradicated only when there are complementary policies for achieving universal primary education. “The obvious alternative to child labour is education…A renewed commitment to free, compulsory education for all children…a curriculum that has relevance to local needs and situations” (ILO 2002).
Three approaches are possible for this: making basic education compulsory, making it easier for children to attend both work and school, and reducing the costs of schooling for families. However, problems are seen to be associated with all three. Compulsory education can endanger the welfare of poor households and overload children who have to combine work with school and there are issues of cost and sustainability involved in subsidizing households.
Also, there are no specifications on the minimum wages that a child labourer is to be paid. Working children, because a formal wage job is not available, are not protected by any labour law and often have to accept any payment offered to them. Also they are working in dangerous conditions which prove hazardous to their mental health and healthy growth. The work being done in a family setting is not regulated. Although the new amendment includes domestic help as child labour, but there is no accountability in this set-up.

Child labour requires coordinated action and convergence on all fronts – issues such as migration, employment generation, minimum wages, rehabilitation, and education.
Various NGOs and scholars like Amartya Sen and P Sainath have been adocating the fact that it is not economic compulsion that prevents parents from withdrawing a child from work by their work. It is rather the absence or very low quality of elementary education. The fact that a lot of children are neither working nor going to school gives further evidence to this.
Also, Non-formal education, which is still the main official education strategy for working children, starts from the assumption that children cannot be withdrawn from work. But is it really so? Is the basic premise on which we are functioning correct?

Is compulsory education the way out? Or does it overload children who have to combine work with school as there are issues of cost and sustainability involved. How much are mid-day meals actually helping in solving the problems? They might have brought children to school, but is the school system enabling any learning?

It’s a vicious circle. What is necessary is the all round social mobilization of all classes against this evil in our society. The honorable ex-President, APJ Kalam’s vision was that if each one of us taught one child in our lifetime, then we could tackle this problem
I WONDER.. IS the total elimination of child labour is a distant dream or a realistic goal?

An excerpt of an interesting conversation i had recently:

me:i was sitting in "judgement" abt the muslim community as a whole.. coz i feel a strong sense of alienation of the community from anyone outside its own..
there are no muslim lecturers in my college.. and hardly any muslim students.. it makes life in the community easy.. and outside difficult..
dont u agree tht muslims need to mainstream themselves more consciously?
answer:yeah i do agree that we need to mainstream...but the point is...is it that easy to mainstream for a common muslim out on the street?

me:wht keeps a 'common muslim man on the street' stand apart?.. (other than from deliberate communal segregation)
answer:hav seen so many gud lecturers rejected in interviews coz they were muslims...so i guess there is a lot of difference between utopia and real life

me:rite.. but i think its a full circle.. we will choose not to go to work in DU coz we will get rejected..and if we get accepted then we will have to face other problems..
so we stay within our "own" ppl. and tht infact gives a picture of "the other" in the minds of the common man who has no communal bias.. thus making things even more difficult for us.
answer:well i just gave u an example ...add to it the fact that it is a vicious cycle coz u can't come into the mainstream till u hav high education levels...and u can't have such high education levels til u become part of the mainstream

me:exactly.. so where do we go?
answer:of course we stay within ourselves...coz we are forced to do so...wat wud u say to a lecturer who was rejected frm DU coz there was a hindu lecturer just as gud as him?..wud it be the poor guy's fault if he went and got a job in jamia?...that wud qualify as a ghettoism in ur books...but the guy is simply tryin to earn a living...so the cycle continues...as for where "we" go...i think i will take inspiration frm my parents...we just have to get more and more educated so that we keep getting more enlightened and hence try harder to come in the mainstream and are also accepted by the mainstream at the same time...simply put we have to be twice as gud and twice as eager as the majority...

me:but how many other muslims also realise this?
answer:i dunno.. but we shud take care of the micro and the macro wil take care of itself...


please do let us know where we r right and where we are wrong.. all comments are welcome!
cheers!

generations go

Tarun J Tejpal:
"for my generation ... the demonisation of pakistan had a particular flavour.. it reeked of betrayal: the brother who turned his back on the family on a phoney argument, then went on to become fratricidal... the emotions were mixed.
its distillate was an iron axiom: you could never marry a Musalmaan. i think it was to support this supreme irrationality that other mythologies were slowly put into play - about their cuisine, hygiene, brutality, morality, their many children, their many wives, their divided loyalties.
but in my generation.. the perverse leap of equating Musalmaan with Pakistan was never made. Pakistan was were the traitors went. Everyone here was of us, with us, very much ours...
.. The idea of India was not based on religon, not on commerce, not on race, not on language. It was set on the plinth of a deeply shared culture and history and builtby the brick and mortar of the great ideas of modernity - equality, liberty, justice.
but national narratives ar not unchanging.. thgey turn on event, an idelogy, an articulator...
..as generations die a steady forgetting of the bhai-bhai past..."



Swapan Dasgupta:
" To a large extent the problem is generational. Till the late 60s a section of Muslims, particularly the underclass, had a macabre facination for pakistan. In Uttar Pradesh middle class Muslims imagined immigration was the escape route from the loss of a way of life. The aggressive Hindu nationalism and the corresponding decline of Urdu lso convinced many Muslims that India was not the place to be. Such comforting thoughts of a Promised Land across the border dissapeared with the creation of Bangladesh. Coupled with the beginnings of the Mohajir problem, the 1971 war convinced Muslims that it was not worth reposing faith in Pakistan."


Khushwant Singh:
" Wounds inflicted by Partition took a long time to heal... The new generation doesnt even believe somethng that horrific happened. "

What does the new generation believe?
It believes what it sees.

1992 demolitions.
1993 blasts.
1999 war.
2002 riots.

2001 attacks.
2003 invasion.
2006 hanging.

It believes the 'demonisation' of a few.
It believes the 'demon' in a few.

This generation will also go.
The new one that we will be harbingering will learn from us.. hate. If we so choose to teach.
generations go. i hope hate will also go.

gender - part II


my gender speaks
i dont
not on liberation
not on preservation
engendering consent
to matters i resent
my arrogance might go
my thoughts might flow
unyieldingly would remain
my introduction
my female form recognition
and all the suffixes
that prefix your thoughts right now
but with that nothings wrong.




My socio-cultural defination is a very fluid concept.
It might differ according to the glasses you wear.
Pragmatically speaking how much liberation does any human being need?
In the female context is liberation to be gauged by men's?

Some hold the belief that it is the 'upbringing' that females get that makes their identity. others contest that it is a 'biological' manifestation.
One way, the 'female' conception is being fought with. Other way, the 'female' conception is being held rigid.
Either way, females seem to be unsatisfied.

Picture a lonely rainy night. Put a man on the road. Alone.
Picture a lonely rainy night. Put a woman on the road. Alone.
Do your 'pictures' differ socio-culturally only?
Is the inherent female setup in mind-body-muscular strength at par with her male counterparts?
I will keep my 'prejudiced' answers to myself.

Giving in to the 'biological' debate perhaps opens a space for 'men'(no offence to all you good guys) to flex their 'superior' muscular ego.
Every society, group, gathering, forum, any place.. resounds only by the dictates of the strong. So its difficult to deny that superiority in any form that can be subjugative will be subjugative.
Thats why female liberalists are anyways on tenterhooks?

Why am i even discussing this. Everythings fine. Females are rubbing shoulders everywhere.
Not in villages. (thats why they are villages?)
Not above the glass ceilings. (thats imaginary?)
Not in our houses. (shhhh!!!?)

but with that nothings wrong.

gender.

no.. am not talking about females. i would rather be content in scoring brownie points by writing something appealing to men. but then what kind of men-talk gets publicised?.. ah..when its at it's highest rhetorical pitch.. that is.. the likes of 'secular fundamentalists.. psuedo-liberalists... right-winged sainiks'.. (do i sound catty?... meow!)
so should i write something thats pro valentine PDA (public display of affection.. if you didnt know this then you are a dinosaur)... it will fire up enough outrage by RWSs (right winged sainiks.. you dinosaur!)... to give me brownie points (i would prefer the entire brownie anyday)... but again.. who cares about fire.. lets douse it with 'Water'.
The script of the film 'Water' is almost a 'once upon a time' story.. and it's leading lady (read chuhiya) succeeds in making the same place in the adult's heart as snow white did in their childhood.
Child-widows. Abandonment of widows. Exploitation of widows. We did it all. We might still be doing it. But we did rather shove it below our carpets.. right?
What cant be seen. Doesnt exist.
Who are we fooling?

I confess that i havn't come across any surveys on the 'number' of men who 'stray' away in marriages. esp old men. But i do know of an 'uncle' in the neighbourhood. and another in the next one.. and we dont like 'Nishabd' (am not discussing how that movie is self-contradictory)

What is it with 'us'? why are 'we' so scared of 'sexual liberation'?(am supposedly blushing) We can paint Elloras and Ajantas.. We censor late night shows on AXN... We can everyday hurl the choicest of abuses as if we were addressing with a 'sir'.. We censor the 'gaaliyan' of Omkara on Sony Tv.

"Our kids cant watch it!!".. excuse me... 'our' kids are far smarter than we were.. (i bet you 'knew' everything when you were at that age.. try try..remember?).. "its derogatory to the indian culture"..(what we do on streets is not to be done on our television screens)..

yes, lets not bring 'shame' to our 'sabhyata'.
you see.. we are happy living harmoniously ignorant.

Whats the question?

Every country seems to be crying out with its own problems. Here in India, we debate the market boom, the narmada dam, the reservation issue, etc. (In the words of nobel laureate Amartya Sen, we are the 'argumentative India' ..... we love boiling issues.)
Elsewhere some fight for ethnic rights, while others cry foul about rogue states.
But the question of the times is.......well thats up for grabs!
Globalised Terrorism? America's Big Brother act? or is it something else?
You tell me......

The question lies deep in our own psychies. Whats important for one may not be so for another.
But whose giving humanity a thought? In the midst of the 'war on terror' thats been launched whoes getting caught in deep waters? The terrorists? NO. Its millions of muslims worldwide who, no matter which country they belong to, are being marginalised and been made victims of unfounded prejudice.
Terrorists have no religion. No matter what they say.
But millions of muslims do.... and they are suffering from it.

What message is the muslim youth of Iraq and Afghanistan being fed with? The American propaganda and rhetoric may be succesful in waging wars......... but can it stop the turmoil in the minds of all youngsters who see war at their doorstep without having ever called for it?

Collateral Damage? Oh yeah sure.

The soils of Iraq and Afghanistan today are the breeding places for suicide bombers. The youth are disoreintated and despaired. They take up extremist causes at the slightest provocation.

Actually if you ask yourself some questions then you will find that all extremist actions are actually a cry for help. They are appeals for voices to be heard and futures to be saved from the brink of destruction.

But what is the question that we have to ask ourselves? What is the question that will lead to answers about alternative to war. What is the question that will help the world recognize the real 'rogue' state. What is the question that will compel the world to ask these questions?

I ask the world.

The God Of Small Things….

Arundhati Roy might have brought to life many fascinating characters, in her Booker Prize winning novel, who though were limited in their reach but powerful in their influence. Each character made full use of his restricted capabilities to further indulge in the confines of selfishness. Each used whatever resources they could muster to bind lesser mortals by their own rules and judgments, which though were often prejudiced.

A somewhat similar idea was assimilated in Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ in which the concept of how people even in their everyday affairs choose to exploit every other individual around them to serve their own means and ends. This is done through attacking the individual’s most vulnerable point, usually his morality, through devices meant to be universally known as goodness and righteousness.

But that’s too fictitious and that’s too plebian.
Is it?

In out great fictions we are reminded how power corrupts. Perhaps in our not-so-great lives we are constantly reminded how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Just take a look around…’Congress’ representative Natwar Singh making big bucks in the Volker Scam… hundreds of MPs and MLAs freely accepting bribes to rotate the government machinery according to someone else’s wishes… policeman asking for bribe for handing over dead body to relatives… big shot’s son, Manu Sharma, walks off after shooting at Jessica Lall point blank…and many more.
In a recent interview that I took of Sabrina Lall (sister of Jessica Lall), she revealed that in none of the court encounters with Manu Sharma, did she see a shadow of remorse or guilt. All that shone from his face and actions was the undeniable fact that he would get off lightly, for he had the power.
Afghanistan…Iraq… Iran…need I say anymore? And here we are talking of a ‘superpower.’
Lets rewind back just a couple of days. The very mention of Vadodara hurtles forward so many questions. Was the demolition of a 300-year-old shrine necessary? Can a shrine be equated with mosques or temples? After all, a shrine is the burial spot of some great sage and not a place of worship but of reverence. An old monumental tomb is to be protected from the encroachment of roads and cities and not the other way around.
And the issuing riots? Need the names of the perpetuators be written in black and white for the masses to acknowledge? ‘Go to pak’ spoken by our protectors! What drives them to use their power in such hideous ways?
Being denied the right to your own motherland is perhaps the issue on which most number of wars in this world have taken place. Leave alone riots.
What gives them a reason for hatred? Is it attitudes of the minorities? Are we forgetting the harmony sown in us by the likes of the great Mughals and Ashokas? Does the ‘divide and rule’ policy of the British seem to have built an ever-widening chasm that cannot be bridged?

I seem to have only questions. But my questions seem to be answering themselves.

The youth of this great nation is growing up in an atmosphere of distrust towards Muslims and fear towards Hindus. Its time for our Gandhi to emerge and lead the way towards another freedom struggle. Freedom from the shackles of pervasive powers that are bent on realization of self-interest. Lets get up and energize ourselves for the onus is on us to act now and act with courage if we really, actually, whole-heartedly want to see India shining. We need to get angry at what’s happening, cause anger shall culminate into active action. So lets get angry with all those who deem themselves to be gods… of all the small things in life.

In this context let me cite a poem of mine…

They make me angry when I realize
That my fate is all putty in their hands…
…To break its back
And to mould its track.

They make me angry when I sympathize
With their destiny’s darkened path…
…Their ignorant arrogance
And their arrogant ignorance.

They make me angry when I trivialize
Their acts and attitudes….
…To minoritism
And to fanatism.

They make me angry, when they make me angry.

'My deeply held belief is that if a God of anything like the traditional sort exists, our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a God. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves.

On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, our curiosity and intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival.

In either case, the enterprise of knowledge is consistent with both science and religion, and is essential for the welfare of the human species.'

- Carl Sagan (in his book, 'Broca's Brain')

Perhaps everyone of us has gone through a similar set of thought process at some point of our reverie. Carl Sagan might have immortalised the lines, but us lesser mortals can do it justice by blogging about it.

When was the last time that the faculties of science filled you with disbelief.......or perhaps caused you to pronounce some blasphemy? To my impressionable young heart it did at times urge to reconsider my stand on God. I mean....... just how do we know? From fables handed down generations to simple beliefs inculcated in us since our birth, we have been all too well taught to believe.....and any deviance from this written law has societal repercussions. Another point to poise...have you noticed the growing number of atheists? They are to be found in a number of well-educated individuals at higher rungs of society, only too well disguised in the garbs of secularism and tolerance.

An atheist is not just the one who refutes God's existence. He is also the one denying others their inaleinable right to self determination. The one who preaches love and secularism and practises hate and intolerance.

Today the India of our dreams is standing at the threshold of prosperity and success and also at the floodgates of internal conflicts. It is in our hands which one we cross. Whats necessary is to ask ourselves that who is the demon and reiterate our beliefs...in goodness...in humanity...and perhaps in God.

So lets make fruitful use of our 'enterprise of knowledge' and when still in doubt perhaps this little poem of mine shall help you say Amen:

Let me feel you, if you may

or stay wherever you are.

But do heed on this prayer of mine,

Dear God.

I ask you for only this,

to hold on to me, for you are there,

so i am told.

I believe in you, yes i do.

But hoping you belive my mere words.

I say them for i have no new.

Accept me as i am,

but do try to mould me into new.

A new one whom you can like,

just a little more.

I do not ask to be your prophet,

nor the perfect soul.

Just another child of yours on the roll call,

but just with a little good name.

i got some wishes in my heart

i have some hopes in my dreams

my thoughts reflect my freedom

my voice resounds my joy

i write some words that i never say

i say some things that i do not mean

i am just another person

from the one that i show to thee.

i am on the road to self discovery

as i mature over the years

i experience heat and rain

love and hate

as i create

my own world

in my very own blog.