The child labor in India

Naureen Kaur

Naureen is 13 years old and she presented this speech in a Forensic competition and won 1st place. She also presented it to her middle school classmates following her visit to India. -Editor

How old were you when you got your first job? Was it the age of 4, or the age of 14? Have you ever placed yourself in those children’s shoes who are working in glass factories, carpet factories, and even at road side cafes? The population of India is about 1.1 billion people, and the size of India is not a whole lot bigger than Texas. There are about 800 dialects. The rate of illiteracy is 70% and this rate is one of the highest in the world! I just recently went to India for the first time in my life, and I saw the most depressing events happening. I saw 4 year olds coming to the car, when it was a red light, and these 4 year olds will sell you items like Christmas hats or hand made jewelry, or they will take rags and clean your car, all for the money.

Occupation is probably one of the greatest problems facing India right now. Kids live in poor conditions, and their home has no water, and no toilets. When Indian villagers come to the city, hoping to find a paying job, due to the lack of qualification and technical training, this gets them a low paying job or no job at all. This results to poor accommodations. These children work for 12 hours a day, get small breaks for meals, and get paid less than a dollar a week!!! Some children don't get any meals. Yes, some don't get any food, and therefore, beg. Whatever is given to these children it is graciously accepted. My greatest question and concern is to think about what the homeless children must face in order to barely survive!

To my fellow American students:

1.   Imagine having 20 children that are hungry, thirsty, and had no lunch served. Among these 20 kids, 10 are Indians and 10 are Americans.

2.  Those 10 Indians will receive 1 cup of rice and a cup of water to SHARE!!!

3.   However, the other 10 children will receive appetizers, soup, meat, vegetables, bread, dessert, chocolates, and a large milkshake EACH!!!!

This type of lunch shows the gap between the American lunch and the Indian lunch. More than two-third of the world population receives this tiny portion of food.

Poor sanitation is the big cause for health problems. Dysentery is a major problem because of the dirty water. I was in India in December 2006 when I had to get shots for DPT, malaria, typhoid, and for a newly spread virus called “Dengue.” Dengue is a virus spread by mosquitoes that live in standing water and can be found anywhere by the standing water and can infect anyone. Not many people around the world die from tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria, and dysentery, but these are major diseases in India. You may be wondering how come these children are working in such poor and unhealthy conditions.

India has always been very poor after the British left. Even though the children are the center of attention of an Indian household, and receive much attention, they are forced to work. A couple is especially happy when a baby boy is born. Even though the couple may want to send them to school or try to educate the children themselves, but if the family is poor, children become the sole source to support the family. India has realized this problem and in 1989, India banned factories for employing children under the age of 14. However, this law is rarely followed. Children are sometimes forced to live in the place they work, away from their families and parents. In the state of Uttar-Pradesh alone, there are 247,800 child labors in the production of cottonseed alone. A child earns 30% less than a woman and 55% less than a man.

Children working in glass factories are exposed to high temperatures which can cause problems to their health. Not only can it be poverty forcing these children to work, it can be the caste system. The caste system is a system all over India which separates the royal and rich from the poor. The poor are the untouchables. If any religious person touches one of these people, they will also become polluted, or they won't be faithful to their religion. The Untouchables do most dirty work like clean water of the streets, clean the floors, and clean the toilets. The caste system is not only prevalent in one section of area, it is all over India! The government of India estimates there are about 30 million child labors while other organizations estimate about 60 million.

Now, how come the parents are not doing anything? The parents are helping, but just in a different way. They would rather take care of the rest of the children, or go beg to cars while carrying their small children.

I feel terrible for the children who are in a depressed life and can't have any education. The only way to solve this is that the government needs to open programs that will help the children with work and education. The government will also have to enforce the law that kids should be in school learning, not at traffic signals selling various items. This problem in India is major, but is not a problem around the world because American children have never experienced child labor. Poverty is only contemptible when it is felt to be so. Doubtless, the best way to make our poverty respectable is seemingly never to feel it as an evil.

Photo courtesy National Geographic

Copyright ©2007 Naureen Kaur.   About The Author