Malawi'’s agricultural sector is critical to its economy, employing around 77% of the population and accounting for 23% of gross domestic product (GDP). The majority of workers in agriculture are smallholder farmers, many of whom cultivate less than one hectare of land. Despite its importance, the sector faces significant challenges, …
IN HER short but bitingly relevant play, Mridula Garg places the exploitation of children in the carpet industry in an equally horrific context of deforestation, outmigration and rural poverty -- ground realities in India justified as modern, "Western" development. Jadoo ka Kaleen, the "magic carpet", is an emancipatory metaphor: the …
If a girl child in India could benefit every time somebody recounted her problems, hers would be a happy lot by now. Unfortunately, efforts to better her condition have been restricted to pieces of paper which do the rounds in various "concerned" ministries, elaborate action plans that serve to make …
THE TRUE test of a development video is whether it informs and motivates its viewers or sends them to sleep. And this is where many of the entries for the 'Women in Development' video competition, organised recently in New Delhi by the British Council, failed miserably, for this viewer was …
Centre of Concern for Child Labour 247, Akashdarshan Apartments Mayur Vihar-I New Delhi 110 091 Ph: 2252298 Bandhua Mukti Morcha 7, Jantar Mantar Road New Delhi 110 001 Ph: 3329043 Nanban Obula Padithurai Manuchalai Road Madurai 625 009 Institute for Social Education and Development Block No 41/3, 14th Lane, Indira …
CHILDREN comprise six per cent of India's total organised work force; they also contribute an average 23 per cent of a household's domestic savings. Yet, exploitation of children as a social problem has only recently begun to agitate the international conscience. Germany and USA have now refused to import items, …
THE FEAR of losing markets has finally made Indian carpet exporters fall in line with a move to regulate child labour, which is prevalent extensively in carpet-making and some other industries. After a prolonged period of disagreement, the All India Carpet Manufacturers' Association dropped its insistence on "self-certification" and there …
The proposed amendments to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986 seek to: • Regulate or prohibit child labour in all employment sectors. • Empower executive magistrates to prosecute in cases of Child Labour Act violations to avoid delayed judgements. • Make violations of the Act a cognisable …
While the Uttar Pradesh carpet industry is under increasing pressure to ban child labour, young children in Pali in Rajasthan continue to work in appalling conditions in the 1,000-odd dye and print industries. Children screen-print sarees, bedsheets and bed covers. Factory owner Sunil Chaubra admits, "We prefer to hire children …
Silk has joined carpets on the list of Indian industries that are frowned on in the West because of the extensive use of child labour. The Germans first voiced complaints against the carpet industry, and now the Swiss are taking aim at silk-weaving. The Swiss, who in partnership with the …
EVEN AS international pressure mounts on India to improve the lot of its child labourers, the Delhi High Court has ruled against children forming trade unions to protect themselves against exploitation. In February, the court dismissed a petition by the Bal Mazdoor Union (BMU), a union of working children in …
THE INSISTENCE of foreign importers on not buying Indian carpets woven by children has begun to tell at every level in a Rs 750-crore industry in which weavers, exporters and the government have vital stakes. German consumers, the largest buyers of Indian carpets, insist that the carpets they buy must …
THIRTEEN-year-old Seena is a rag-picker in Bangalore who used to sleep on the roadside and eat at pavement tea-stalls, constantly evading cops who pick up street-children like him and take them to a beggars' colony on the fringes of the city. But now, Seena and others like him need not …
THE TITLE promises a holistic analysis of the multi-faceted issue of child labour, but the book loses credibility because it concentrates on child labour's link with fertility. The studies relate largely to rural India and the subcontinent. Fertility-based explanations of child labour miss the crux of the problem: poverty of …
BASUDEO ORAON had lost all hopes of ever retrieving his young son Daham from the bondage of Jagdish Kushwaha, a carpet loom owner of Lohara village in UP's Mirzapur district. Daham had been working for the last two years for Kushwaha and Basudeo's efforts to secure either his son's release …
IT WAS a typical Indian village, with low, thatched roofs, mud walls and floor. Yet, as I went around I was told, "This is Germany, this is Canada and this, America". Strange names for huts in a village? Not if the village is UP's Varanasi district, also known as Dollarland …
Peace Trust is a non-partisan, non-political, secular and non-governmental organisation engaged in promoting eradication of child labour, welfare of migrant labour, protection of environment and awareness of health and hygiene. It believes in sustainable development with equitable distribution of the fruits of development and equal opportunities for all citizens.
