Time of your life

Listening to interviews, reading the news, and watching the latest documentaries, I have become alot more comfortable with the topic of Child Labor in India. I have learned that child labor in India is not forgotten, there are many NGOs that are working hard to help free children from factory owners and unfair treatment. I also learned that child labor is as serious as all other global problems such as poverty and global warming. Children need to be out of the factories, they need to lead a normal life because as they grow up they learn more about what the world is really like and that by itself will depress them. The world is not a safe place for children these days, which is why they should live a happy, educated life as children and later face the real world. My point is child labor is not a joke. It is what children do to give their families a proper life. What needs to be done is a proper form of education for all lower class families so that they can improve their living conditions. If you have the time to, please visit www.freethechildren.com and learn of ways to help end child labor. The story behind free the children is very inspiring and its very well written on their site. Please find the time to visit this website, it has changed my life, and hopefully will change your too. 

Because we can...

Whenever I have to attend a 9:30 class, I am usually never awake, yet I still take notes and pay attention. One morning a few weeks ago, I had anthropology as my first class of the day. Professor Torres started off with a video called "A Recycled LIfe", my first thought was "Oh great, another video telling us that we have to save our environment." Those videos are usually very helpful and eye-opening, but most of the time they blame humans for everything and accuse us of not working on making the planet any greener. "A Recycled Life" turned out to be my coffee for the day. It was a beautiful documentary which introduced us to Guajeros. Guajeros are individuals that live in the dumps of Guatemala. They live off the dump, it is where their life is. I have heard of poverty, malnutrition, and wars but never of people who have no better option than to live off the dumps. This documentary was very sad to watch, it sent an indirect message of how we should appreciate anything that comes our way because the fact of the matter is, Guajeros and many other unfortunate people will never be able to have whatever comes your way. The documentary showed that the Guajeros are happy with whatever they have, which are usually leftovers and broken items. It also shows how much they have to suffer just so that they can earn the money necessary for their well being. There was a scene in the documentary in which I will never forget, it showed an 11 year old child working in the dump because his parents abandoned him. When I saw his face and how hard he had to work to make a living for himself, it broke my heart. What the child was doing was wrong, what he was doing was dangerous, what the child was doing was also known as child labor. Why did I come to the decision of considering what the child was doing a form of labor? According to the International Labor Organization, child labor takes place in many different forms. Here are the following forms (as reported by the International Labor Organization):
a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;
(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;
(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.
The 11 year old child who was interviewed in the documentary, was considered to be a child workers because of article (d), which states that children cannot work in areas that harm their health in any way. The dump was considered to be a large mountain of nicotine. Nicotine that slowly harms the health of the young and innocent children, who have no other options to survive. Child labor comes in many forms and figures. What sometimes can be considered to be a regular 12 hour job for a child might be one of the worst forms of child labor. At first I did not relate the Guajero children to Child labor, but when I saw all the children who seemed to be four or five years old, it was an obvioius sign of child labor.
If you ever watch a documentary, or hear about a case in which a child is involved, please research and find ways to help improve the lives of the children in any way. Do it for the children, do it for future generations, and do it for a better world.
Thank you.
                                                 Works Cited

Worst forms of child labour - About child labour." 30 Apr. 2009
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Interview with Halima

Sick and Tired

Are you sick and tired of hearing stories about child labor? Are you sick and tired of feeling helpless and unable to make a difference in those children's lives? Well now you can do something about it. According to www.hubpages.com, there are many solutions to help end child labor. There are four solutions to ending child labor, first of all, increased family income will help better the children's futures. Secondly, educating children will help them find better, safer jobs rather than working in factories. Thirdly, social services should be available in parts of developing countries. Families suffering from natural disasters and poverty need someone to talk to. They need someone to help them sort out their problems and plan out their life. Lastly, family control of fertility. In other words, education. Education is key, it is what helps people live a better life without having to risk their lives to make a safe living. As an individual, you do not only have to follow by those rules, you can also create your own group and raise awareness. You can find many NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations) which help give the necessary financial aid to families in need. Please do not be silent about such a serious, heartbreaking issue. Do what you can to help improve the lives of the less fortunate. 

Drift Away

So what happens within the factories? How are children treated? Are they given enough food so that they are considered to be on a balanced diet? Do they work in a clean air environment? According to the US house of Representatives, "children work for twelve hours a day, with only small breaks for meals. The children are often fed very minimal staples. The vast majority of migrant child workers who cannot return home at night sleep alongside of their loom, further inviting sickness and poor health." Such a review of how the children are being treated is heartbreaking. We are talking about 7-14 year olds, or in other worlds, 1st to 6th graders. I understand that there is an economic situation happening worldwide, that does not mean that children should be treated like animals, or suffer an even worse form of treatment. Even though we cannot fix the problem entirely, we can try to "butter it up" in any possible way. What I mean by buttering the situation is making it seems less abusive and more child friendly. What factory owners can do is make sure that children are allowed breaks because they are not adults, they have to make sure that children eat a sufficient amount of different types of food and not just grains of rice. This is all crucial to the child's health. Children are working in polluted factory shops and are treated miserably. All I am asking is that factory owners have to be more considerate and treat the children as if they were one of their own. Is that too much to ask for? 

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Works Cited

"Child Labor in India." Pangaea Publishing and Design for Nature & Peoples of the Earth. 28 Apr. 2009 .

How to Save a Life

"Many of the worst forms of child labor are a problem in India, Nepal and Pakistan, where RugMark operates. These include child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, bonded child labor, child domestic work and the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict or drug trafficking. 

Demand for child labor is so high that desperate parents sell their children into bondage. According to UNICEF, 14% of children in India between the ages of 5 and 14 are engaged in child labor activities including carpet production.

"Many of the worst forms of child labor are a problem in India, Nepal and Pakistan, where RugMark operates. These include child trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, bonded child labor, child domestic work and the recruitment and use of children for armed conflict or drug trafficking."

While some people mistakenly think it is better when all members of a family work, child labor actually makes poverty worse. Child workers come cheaply and sometimes at no cost, and drive down wages for adult laborers. Plus children who work forfeit an education that could have helped them achieve a higher standard of living as adults. Child laborers are vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, are subject to long hours of physically demanding and unrelenting work, and suffer from deprivation and poor health."

The previous information has all been taken from www.rugmark.org

When asked why child labor is an issue and why are you not focusing on war and other "important issues", the word exploitation comes to mind. When you have all kinds of problems taking place worldwide, and you still have factory owners exploiting and abusing young souls, it just does not sound right. When asked how different structures make child labor a problem, the answer is world problems such as global warming encourage the child abuse and exploitation. How is that possible? Environmental world problems such as global warming, and world conflicts such as war lead to poverty. Poverty is when a person does not have enough to eat which means they cannot work or live much longer because they are considered to be in a state of malnutrition. Poverty leads to the loss of jobs and the rise of child labor because adults cannot support their families or send their children to school, children have to work to support their families. The  process is completely reversed. Another factor that triggers child labor is the lack of education. When women are not educated about family and how to protect themselves, they may find themselves in a bit of a problem. With five children to take care of, the man of the house if living with his second or third wife, the woman if forced to send her children to the factories or even worse sell them to get the money she needs to save herself. When people think of child labor, they say "Oh at least they are doing something to help better their family's financial issues." What they do not know is what goes on within the factories...

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                                      Works Cited

"RugMark Foundation - About." Rugs - Handmade Rugs - Imported Rugs - Child Labor Free Rugs Certified by RugMark. 28 Apr. 2009 < http://rugmark.org/about.php?cid=1>.

Learning to fall

Child Labor worldwide always meant children suffering and not being able to live as innocently as possible. A few days ago I got a call from a close friend, we started talking about the news and what is going on around the world when I decided to tell her about my blog. This is how our conversation went: 

Me: So Im working on a blog to raise awareness about Child Labor Worldwide, but Im focusing more on India. 

Her: What exactly are you raising awareness about?

Me: How people are not paying attention to how the innocent children are being treated and how people should start joining organizations in which they can help fund the families of children who are in need. 

Her: When you say "people" who are you referring to? Do not you think people are already aware of what is going on within their community? Also how would you feel if an outsider tried to tell you about the problems that are happening in your country and from their country decided to tell you how you should live your life? I think you should put yourself in their shoes and then address this serious issue. 

-End of conversation-

The conversation I had with my close friend made me realize that as an outsider I cannot ask the people of India to live a certain way, I cannot ask them to work in a certain place and I cannot ask them to change their lives. According to the World Bank, which defines poverty as living on less than 1.25 a day, 456 million Indians are poverty-stricken. When I first addressed the issue of Child Labor I approached the issue with a closed-mind, I thought that India had no problems to take care of other than child labor. For days, I was mad at the Indian people for allowing children to work in factories. It all makes sense now. The lower class in India is suffering from a wide range of problems, from poverty to major environmental problems. India has had a large population increase over the past couple of years, this is not the only problem. With population increase, less resources are available for the public which means that more people are likely to suffer from poverty and malnutrition. When we compare the issue of child labor to poverty most people would chose to save a life than improve a life for the time being. Imagine having a child suffering from malnutrition and another child working for twelve hours a day, who would you chose to save and why? I would save the child who is about to die, even though both cases are life threatening and depressing to hear about. A child who is working to support his/her family can work for another couple of years until the economy can get better and is able to fund and support local and middle to lower class families. The child suffering from malnutrition is more likely to be saved because he/she is dying and it does not take years to die, it only takes a couple of seconds. 

With Arms Wide Open

A few days ago, my anthropology professor decided to show us a video about Guajero families and what they do." In the dump, the people who spend their lives sifting and sorting of rubbish call themselves "guajeros". The guajeros are discriminated against because of their association with the dump, and so they have made the dump their life. Whenever possible they avoid contact with the outside world, for example it is unusual to see guajeros in the streets of the city."(www.libreinfancia). The Guajero can consist of generations of family members who have chosen to work in a dump for a living. Working in a dump is not an easy job, especially when you are an 8 year old child trying to make enough money to support your family. 

The Guajero children are not forced to work in the dump but chose to because their entire family is engaged in the business of sorting through everyday garbage. This brings up the question of whether Guajero children working in the dump are looked at as victims of child labor. My answer is yes, Guajero children are "expected" and encouraged to work in the dump with their parents. Working in a dump can have many negative impacts that can scar the child's childhood. Pollution, disease and depression are three of the many factors that can contribute to the unhealthy effects a child can go through while working at the dump.  What makes people consider the fact that children working in a dump is not in any way linked to child labor is the fact that they can easily be referred to the UN funded children's day care to help give them the necessary education and health benefits they require. 

What made me instantly label Guajero children working in the dump as a form of child labor is that children under the age of fifteen have to suffer to live in a safe environment. Children under the age of fifteen should not have to do anything other than discover the world and enjoy the many benefits of being an innocent child. Comparing the Guajero Children to the Children in the developing parts of India who work on farms and in textile industries. What is the difference? Because the United Nations has interfered with the Guajero children's lifestyle, they are now more likely to live a better life and find jobs off the dump, in the city. Children working in textile industries and factories in India are in the thousands, according to the Human Rights Watch*, even if the many non-governmental organiztaions interfere they will not be able to solve the problem. What the problem in India is is that we need to raise awareness of the issue of child labor. We need to raise awareness of the fact that thousands of children and going to bed with an empty stomach. We need to raise awareness because if we do not thousands of innocent children will lead miserable lives while others take their most basic necessities for granted. Lets spread awareness for the innocent souls that have given up their childhood to save their families. Lets spread change one step at a time. 

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Works Cited

Unknown, "What is a Guajero?." Libre Infancia. 18 Apr 2009 

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Scholten, Werner. "Child Labor in India." 06-Aug-2005. Indienhilfe. 18 Apr 2009  herrsching.de/pdf/Child%20Labour%20Scholten.pdf>.