“It’s a question I often get — how do you make trade-offs? When you have to make trade-offs, pushing anyone below the threshold on some major capability, the first thing you should say is this is a tragic situation, something that should not have happened.”
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://indianwriting.blogsome.com/2006/12/28/capabilities/trackback/
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Child labor *is* a tragic situation, no question.
But I’m not entirely convinced about sweeping bans such as the Indian goverment is currently enthused about.
First, there are industries that systemically exploit children. I’m talking fireworks, bidis, carpets, and any kind of indentured labor. Many of these are already illegal, yet continue to flourish. How can the government talk about banning *all* child labor when it has not even been able to hit this baseline target?
As for the “softer” kinds of child labor, especially in rural areas, you have to work at a local level on understanding the problem and providing them attractive alternatives. Blanket legislation by itself is neither helpful nor enforceable. I see ugly visions of corrupt, bored cops hassling some 6-year-old tending goats.
Comment by Apu — December 28, 2006 @ 6:51 pm
Seems a nice one, will read it completely tonight.
Hope you’ve been keeping well…
Comment by Kishore — December 29, 2006 @ 12:08 am