Cancer Of Child Labour

A farmer can never expect a high yield if sown seeds are diseased. Then why do we expect our future, our country to prosper at unprecedented rate when we are not protecting our seeds and allowing them to rot like they is some unwanted shrubs?

Every political party prepare a list of hot agendas for their election campaign, promises of development, insurance at cheap rate, pension plans for senior citizens, inflation, over hauling of defence system, caste based reservation, building temples, mosques, metro lines, cheap homes and what not. One thing that most of us don’t notice is that, they never make promises about abolishing child labour completely. They never keep this high on their agenda that they would work hard for the freedom and liberation of children who are forced into the hell of child labour. Have we ever given it a thought why is that so? Its simple, because Right to Vote is given after 18 years, so all the schemes are for them.

But who is to take care about those initial 18 years of the underprivileged children which define the rest of the life? Seldom this topic of child labour is debated, even in media, mostly when there is nothing much happening in the country. And when it is questioned, the robotic answer that is distributed is “laws are there, system is there and its working.  We will further enhance it because children are our future and prime target and blah blah… “. Do we still buy those words?

First of all, various Acts and laws which are prevalent in the country are extremely weak and vague. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are combination of loop holes, which are too easily distorted and misused. Whatever a little effectiveness it can create is lost due to secondary importance given to its implementation, personal relations of the culprit with the caretakers of law and last but not the least – greed, insensitivity and carelessness of common people, including me and you!

Child labour is an act of crime constitutionally which we break and allow others to break religiously. Government has excuse that they don’t get complaints against it. Are they really serious? The children selling newapaper on streets, serving food and water in dhabas and restaurants, polishing shoes, begging on streets and stations, selling flowers, working as slaves right at their neighbourhood, are those not children? Or do they expect those very kids to come to them and complain themselves? Height of negligence is that child labour can be seen frequently in the premises of Court of Law.

Isn’t it our responsibility to report these incidences? Our one courageous step could save a life. Every child is innocent and has right to respectable life. It is our carelessness and government’s negligence which is responsible for all the miseries and humiliations that those human beings bear for the rest of their life. Why do we have lakhs of crores to spend on defence projects when there’s no war, crores to spend on celebrating Yoga Day and other occasion when these children are struggling and working for survival. Child labour is not always forced, but sometime by choice for the survival. Probably this is the reason sometimes we resist complaining. But who is responsible in the end? Surely not those kids.

There are numerous laws and Acts in India which restricts child labour. Some of them are:

The Factories Act of 1948: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in any factory. The law also placed rules on who, when and how long can pre-adults aged 15–18 years be employed in any factory.

The Mines Act of 1952: The Act prohibits the employment of children below 18 years of age in a mine.

The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986: The Act prohibits the employment of children below the age of 14 years in hazardous occupations identified in a list by the law. The list was expanded in 2006, and again in 2008.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) of Children Act of 2000: This law made it a crime, punishable with a prison term, for anyone to procure or employ a child in any hazardous employment or in bondage.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act of 2009: The law mandates free and compulsory education to all children aged 6 to 14 years. This legislation also mandated that 25 percent of seats in every private school must be allocated for children from disadvantaged groups and physically challenged children.

There are many more. Despite these laws, according to recent census, there are more than 5 million child labours currently in India, and we all know how honest and true these government figures are!

These laws concentrate more on restricting child labour in hazardous places, which is good, that should be the first priority. But why there are less and ambiguous rules for others working in non hazardous areas? Child labour irrespective of type or work, destroys not only childhood but the entire life. Moreover, these laws lay down various conditions like the age, health, type of work etc. to classify whether a child can work on not, but this completely lacks a reliable framework which could provide honest collection of information about these parameters.

A child, suggests UNICEF, is involved in child labour activities if between 5 to 11 years of age, he or she did at least one hour of economic activity or at least 28 hours of domestic work in a week, and in case of children between 12 to 14 years of age, he or she did at least 14 hours of economic activity or at least 42 hours of economic activity and domestic work per week. Who is  calculating these hours or who is monitoring? A kid of age around 10 don’t even have the knowledge nor the courage to file a complaint if he is made to over work, then who?

What are the root causes of child labour? If we suppose in our “virtual” world that people start reporting incidences of child labour and police start taking expected actions, will everything improve? No!
The situation will improve when government prepare plans to eradicate the root causes of child labour, which are poverty, corruption, lack of schools, basic facilities to children etc. Thousands of schools are opened every year, but most of them survive only on paper. Which successfully make their way up to reality don’t have teacher. The teachers which are employed at high wages by the government are either virtually attending the classes or are not qualified enough. The mid day meal, a well appreciated initiative of Indian Government could not withstand the cancer of corruption. The food grains supplied for the schools are either of lowest possible quality, or is sold away by the very administration and teacher of the schools which were endowed with the responsibility to feed the students.  Apart from schools, the financial conditions of the guardians are so awful sometimes that the child has to grow faster than nature allows him. In order to feed, children are forced to work and earn. There are ration shops to supply cheap sugar, rice, kerosene etc., but nothing in India can escape from corruption.

But its not dark everywhere. The NGOs have worked exceptionally well in last decade towards the eradication of child labour. Hats off to them, but we cannot leave everything to them. There is little service that we can do for these gifts of god :

From today onwards, every time you leave a tip in restaurant, or every time you eat unwillingly, very time you leave food on your plate, every time you give away your change to a professional beggar, every time you spend even a single penny which is not necessary, just give a thought what that extra change or that extra food or that extra clothe would mean to a child who sacrifices his/her childhood and work day and night to earn two square meals and fundamental rights which have been promised by the Constitution as birth right. Donate that extra penny to help these under privileged children overcome their poverty and go to a school. You are not expected to give away your property, but you are also not expected to give away your honesty, at least for these kids.
Lets not forget, all of us who are able to read this, have been brought up like a flower in a nursery, that does not mean, flowers outside have lesser potential or lesser right to survive or blossom and spread fragrance all around.

IIM Bill Against Autonomy But In Public Interest Too

Ministry of Human Resource & Development have drafted a Bill having clauses defining various structural and functional details for IIMs. The clause in the draft differ from those of the proposal  by IIM community. Some of the key points of differences are :

1. IIM proposed status of Institute of National Importance only to all the IIMs while MHRD plans it for other esteemed management institutes as well.
2. IIM proposed complete independence in deciding the fee structure while MHRD keeps the final decisive authority with itself.
3. IIM proposed independence and power to create and appoint academic posts while MHRD wishes to have the key to the final appointments.
4. The IIMs have opposed the constitution of an coordinating umbrella body.

These differences are said to be infringing the autonomy of the IIMs by direct interference of the government in the structure and procedure of the premier management  institutes.

No doubt this is interference with the autonomy of the institute but all the interference cannot be  said to be unjust. The proposal of the IIMs that only they should be having status of Institute Of National Importance cannot be justified because if one looks at the ranking of management institutes based upon various parameters, all IIMs are not of equal quality. There are many other institutes like IIFT, MDI, etc. which occupy much higher position than the new IIMs in the list. Denying them the status of National Importance would be unjust.

Secondly, the fee charged by almost all management institutes in India lies in the bracket of 10-15lacks, which is very high for a middle class student. Management institutes including IIMs charge more than the triple than what is charged by esteem engineering institutes. This restricts a large section of middle class students from attempting their career in management. Regulation by the government is expected to lower this extremely high fee, which would help to materialize the dreams of the potential middle class students.

The quality and standard of the IIMs for which they are known worldwide  cannot be compromised at any cost. So in other words, government cannot reduce the fee or total financial input of the IIMs but it can subsidize it. Government, like in case of IITs and IIITs, can provide funds based on the requirements to meet their expenses. But what is feared is that this allocation of funds would some day or the other be politicized and hence degrade the quality of these institutes.

One clause which is completely unacceptable is that the creation of posts and appointment at those posts will be by government consent. In other words, government will decide who will be the faculty and who will manage the institute and will also indirectly determine the curriculum. There were speculations that the Modi governmet is trying to saffronise the education in India with all the key posts acquired by their appointed people. This seems to be one step forward towards that goal adding weight to the doubts. What is the requirement of this interference? IIMs have always been getting the best if the faculties and have functioned brilliantly.

MHRD has also proposed for awarding degree instead of diploma in management which have stayed questionable in certain countries. This is welcomed and also much much awaited move.

Formation of an umbrella body for establishing coordination is not a good idea as it would finally end up in confusion and allegations. This would completely end the autonomy of the institutes. The responsibility in present scenario is distributed among all the members of the same institute and they are responsible for anything good or bad happens to the institute. This gives a sense of belonging to those working for the betterment of the institute. Formation of a separate body would divide the responsibility and hence will result in confusion and interdependency in the system. The passion and willingness to work for the development of the institute by its people would be lost. Self reliance and independent attitude is what makes up IIMs.

This Bill prepared by MHRD shows a mix of intentions. On one hand, conversion of diploma to degree, regularisation of fee and status of Institute if National Importance to institutes other than IIMs also are welcomed, whereas on the other hand the interference in the personal appointment in institutions and formation of an umbrella body for coordination is direct attack on the very basic sense of autonomy of IIMs which have been the face of quality management programs in India. This Bill with some changes would be good unless it is used as a tool to interfere in every internal matter of the institute.

APSC Derecognition By IITM Justified!

The derecognition if APSC of IITM triggered a huge political debate all over with news channel organising quarrel at their Prime Time. Freedom of speech is the subject being discussed which has been “violated” on the order of the director of IITM on “recomendation” of MHRD. 

But was the decision controversial in real sense? Was it wrong? As a student of institute of national importance, I can very well understand the importance of institute’s name. Like a child when expressing is thoughts, is believed to be inspired by those of parent’s, similarly when a body of student that has formal recognition, says anything, is taken as a view point of the institute. And in this matter, the opinions were political in sense, unbalanced and favoring and propagating a view point of a group as that of the institute. Formally, it becomes the responsibility of the institute for anything its student body says. Moreover, distributing pamphlets with name of the institute of recognized body by the same, for expression of unbalanced and personal opinion, is unsupportable. One should notice that the administration did not take any action against individual student of the group as any thought, expression or view point of one is his/her personal and that in real sense is freedom of expression which has not been violated. 

This was an internal matter of the institute with no role of any political party or any media centre. Sensing the potential to mobilize a large vote bank which remained untouched so far, political party are using all their strength to transform this issue in a mass movement in the name of freedom of speech which is quite sensitive issue for student community. Students should realize the real motives of all those who are “supporting” the cause.

Do Not Underestimate Rahul Baba

Sometimes children utter words of such intelligence that even

Rahul Gandhi

elders can learn from them. As its always said, Seekhne ki koi umar nahi hoti, we and the political players should not neglect, what Rahul baba says, just because he is a kid, which he has been proving for years now. Sometimes even he talks sense.

Recent example – BJP trying to color the whole nation saffron! If this was not said by Rahul but by some more recognized politician, this would have triggered a debate on all news channels. But unfortunately, matters that are being picked are not coming out of right mouth to be taken seriously.

But the allegation that Rahul has put on BJP is quite serious and if it turned out to be true, it would be disastrous for India. Implementation of RSS ideologies is not for which people chose new government. My doubt that this will be done in near future is not baseless. Today, IIT-M student’s discussion forum was derecognised because they were doing opposition’s work. And this was not an order of the institute or faculty, but was based upon a “recommendation” of MHRD. A mail was sent to institute pointing out this group of students

Is this not against freedom of speech?? Students were only discussing, and may be spreading awareness about the negative points of Modi govt. So what? Is this not a step against democracy and towards dictatorship? Are only opposition parties entitled to speak against govt policies?? Doesn’t this reflect RSS ideology of forced discipline killing one’s own individuality of thought and expression, as said by Rahul baba

Faith in government is good, blind faith is destructive!

Target Indian Education System : Attack!!

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development, looks calm but planning and executing a hell lot ideas and policies without much consultations and discussions with the stakeholders. 
God knows what this new government has in its mind for the education and research system of the country. They have already lowered the low budget allocated for education and research, from about 83000 cr to 69000 cr. The funds for higher education has been reduced to 13000cr from 16900cr. Quite a big reduction!! 
The remaining responsibility of damage has been handed over to MHRD. They are planning to revive the Central University Act to centralise everything. I mean everything!

There will be common test for admission to all universities, admission procedure will be common, syllabus will be common, material will be common, and even faculties will be shared among universities making them common too! At first look, it looks out to be quite nice and decent system, but its not! Just imagine, if this is passed, what will the system be like?
One will have to give only one exam for getting admission to any university. He will have the same course to study at DU and also the CSJM (Kanpur university). He will have chances to get lectures from any professor in any Indian university, he will have to study the same things, he will have to give central exam, i.e. a kind of board exam having all boards. I mean what the hell! Why will i try to study harder to secure admission in some “good university” (according to present system) when ill be getting same thing at my hometown? Ill just clear the cutoff and enjoy! This system will discourage the very soul of competition and necessity to study. This is not going to improve the bad ones but surely degrade the good ones. 

This “1 nation 1 university” scheme will be a disaster for the unique identity and specialization that each university holds today which is developed over decades of work and influenced by geographical conditions and traditions. The soul of the university will be lost. The very idea with which each university was established will be lost. And what will we get in return? Improved level of literally horrible universities pulling down the very high standard dream universities! 

Moreover, sharing of faculty. In other words, faculty will be transferable. That means, government will have power to transfer a faculty from any university to any university in India. That’s like the Civil Services. And this weapon of “transfer” is being used traditionally to punish or favor. This will induce politics in the education system and the players this time would be faculties. India cannot afford that at this stage.

There are rumors that this act of government is inspired by Sangh Parivar. Who have tirelessly worked for decades to modify every structure existing according to their ideology. This would mean that the curriculum will have more of traditions than research, more of Sangh interpretation of history than what is acceptable world wide. The appointments to educational bodies like IITs, ICSSR would be through Sangh, who will then have gala time implementing their ideology and agendas! That’s dangerous! Give it a thought!

Students and teachers k janhit me jaari! :p