Child Labour

The responsibility of the children first rests with the parents. Then comes the role of the state. The government of a developing country like India cannot subsidise all the requirements of its citizens due to sheer impossibility and impracticability. Resource crunch is a harsh reality. It does not mean that the vulnerables should be left to fend for themselves. A welfare state indeed has a responsibility to safeguard the interests of the poor and the vulnerable sections of the society. In India, most of the social legislations are not based on the practical application and implementation levels, but merely to satisfy the powerful lobbies. In appeasing such interest groups, the legislators suffer from blinkered vision and legislate laws for the sake of laws. Banning employing child labour in industries is a case in point. The government is helpless and unable to provide compulsory and free education to the poor children and financially assist the poor families to which such child labourers belong. But the legislators have banned child labour below the age of fourteen years. Resultantly, the hapless children have only Hobson’s choice - torn between abject poverty and callous and insensitive government. Please do not make the children a victim of the whims and fancies of the adults. So if the politicians have little to offer for the children of lesser god it is good, I will say.