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New York, 2:52 AM
Thu Dec 3
63 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/12/09
11/12/09
10/06/09
The hospital (all volunteer! and absolutely amazing for what facilities they had) struggled with the local population because these cases are, were and will remain to be the norm.
What did they do?
You have to tackle every aspect of development and you have to make it the peoples. They opened a school catering to tribal youth (where many of these young brides come from). We continue to see that none of the girls are interested in having children in their teens (the norm) when they complete a basic elementary education which continues on into the high school level.
There are so many wonderful people trying to tackle this issue all over the country, but we're still in a sad state.
A million us dollars could literally transform an entire district worth of villages. Its sad that the central government of India would rather spend 10000 times that on 126 jet fighters. Yea, 10.5 billion for a bunch of jet fighters that I guarantee you they'll never use versus actively facilitating development and ending this.
10/06/09
10/06/09
My grandmother used to tell me stories about being engaged at age 6 or 7 and going over to her little husband's house and living with him like a brother or playmate for a period of years. Her mother-in-law was like her mother, essentially.
Of course, in rural areas, big age differences probably do exist but I don't think girls are expected to engage in sexual activity before like fourteen or so.
10/06/09
In the tribal areas where I was, the young people are free to be with whoever they want to be with (usually in the same age/generation) and it is the in the girls power to leave whenever she wants to. The girls are the ones who choose between which boys they want to be with. There are rarely occasions of girls being forced to be with any particular boy due to village or family pressures.
When they are 'together' they enter into a mutual monogamous relationship.
When they are older, there is still no concept of marriage (for better or worse). Women are free to leave (cutting all strings from the relationship) whenever they want and same goes for the men.
It is fascinating to see, but there are inherent problems with this scheme.
10/06/09
10/06/09
10/06/09
Oh, wait.
10/06/09
Did anyone read White Tiger by Adiga? He talks about India's chicken coops much in the same way social anthropologists speak of crabs in buckets.
10/06/09
Unfortunately, making something illegal, and making something enforceable are two totally different things. India's making huge progress on so many fronts, I have to hope that human rights standards will soon follow .....
07/19/09
http://www.worldmapper.org/display.php?selected=135
07/19/09
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07/19/09
06/12/09
06/12/09
06/12/09
12/05/08
12/05/08
In Kerala, India, labor laws are strong, but there's no manufacturing for multinationals because those companies have the option to build factories in the north where they are free to pollute and exploit child labor. Workers lave no leverage in those places, and ancient monuments are being destroyed with the smog and acid rain. Kerala isn't a socialist utopia, but they do have local agriculture, fishing, service, and creative industries. The state guarantees people's basic needs like health care. Kids all go to school and the population is highly educated.
Consumer boycotts, along with laws and trade agreements, are one of the most effective ways of stopping this race to the bottom. I haven't read this guy's book yet, but from what I've seen in India, those factories harness children into the cycle of poverty.
12/05/08
12/05/08
The ILO has a convention seeking to eliminate the worst forms of child labor - slavery, prostitution, involvement in illicit activities, and most pertinently, "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".
I'm completely with you on boycotting companies that violate that standard, but "all child labor = bad" simply isn't accurate.
Also, children have agency. Some willingly work. Some would rather be in school, but understand their families' situations and work instead. Your concern about "benefitting off their little backs" is not so much "kneejerk reactionary" as it is "white man's burden".
12/05/08
@CherriSpryte: This is an interesting point. In another discussion thread I noted how when there is a en masse movement (voluntary, not forced) of children out of the labor force, the economic situation for the society as a whole improves (simply: labor supply goes down, adult wages go up). It is definitely a different case when children are forced out of jobs. Perhaps this is where we need to start concentrating our efforts - not in boycotts, but in promoting social programs, like fully-subsidized educational programs, that can lead to voluntary mass migration of children out of the labor force.
12/05/08
No, when all is said and done, it is just so much rationalization. Someone else is just going to take advantage of those children? Why not us? We're nicer about it. That's what it boils down to. Nothing "White man's burden" about that. Really, how dare you?
12/05/08
What I was really referring to in my comments about children having agency is the fact that there are labor unions in a few different countries - Peru, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh, at least - founded, operated, and ran by children. And they're not campaigning to not have to work. Here's a thing about the Peru group, and child labor in general: [www.unesco.org]
All child labor is bad, fine, but children starving to death is worse. Children getting sold into slavery and the sex trade is worse than children working in (safe) factories. Its a spectrum, and while deliberately going out and buying child-labor produced goods is ridiculous, your condescension and refusal to acknowledge the harsh facts in this issue is also not helping anything.
12/05/08
I'm not sure what impact that's had on wages in general, but its an interesting aspect.
12/05/08
Yes. There are child labor unions in those countries. They exist because child labor exist in those countries! Not because they're overly fond of labor. You think they'd not be better off getting an education? And you believe it's condescending for me to think so? That is 1000 ways of fucked up. That is not me refusing to acknowledge harsh facts. That is you pretending that children actually want to work instead of go to school. Those labor unions could cease to exist if their countries improved, and they could go to school. That would be a good thing. That's a goal we should be working toward.
12/05/08
However, while we're working towards these fantastic goals, some children have to work to survive. Some turn down education to work when its absolutely necessary. I'm advocating safer factories and part-time education for those children, so they don't spend a lifetime in those factories and fields.
What, exactly, is your problem with that?