| Username |
Post |
| nobody |
Posted
on 19-Dec-01 04:29 PM
Caption for this picture at kantipuronline reads, "Workers preparing the stage at the capital's Birendra International Convention Center on Monday where the major convention of the upcoming SAARC Summit is slated to take place. The event is being hosted by Nepal from 4-6 January. (Online Photo: Narendra Shrestha)"
Looks like "Child labor" to me. Not that I am seeing it for the first time and it won't be the last. And we have accepted them as "workers"... Better than the alternative they have- hunger. But should the journalists or photo-journalists be more aware of different perspectives? Or am I putting political correctness ahead of humanity?
(I could, of course, be in error because of insufficient image resolution.)
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| GP |
Posted
on 19-Dec-01 06:30 PM
I am tired of Nepali human rightists and political leaders,
who preach human rights and child labour funda in day time,
when go to home they ask their child servent to clean their
juthho utensils. Last time when I visited one lawyer who
is also member of human rights association and a minister
of cabinet, I was suprised to find child servent in their
houses. When I asked, is it not bad to see Child servent
in your home, the reply was, "hamile ta yaslai khan
basna diyeka chhou and send him to school to study...".
So, all most all of those who run profanity in human
right and legal system to rule makers to rule monitors
all have child labor at home. So, the child labor talk is
useless thing, which is only talk show in TVs and Radios
to this internet. May I ask you "the gbnc.org" readers
who have home in KTM, honestly tell me that you
/your parents (forget about KAKA /KAKI) don't have
any child servent? I guess most of you will lie?
I bait. I even extend this question to our heavy weight
writers, Ashu, while writing stuffs here,
whether you taks slurps of tea made
by a child servent at you home. Please don't lie.
Though this is personal, but, I would like to hear
how honest we are. FYI, I never had child labor
at our home. My hear is pinched when a child
brings a cup of with hath kapaudai, in a chill
cold in KTM. I really feel myself turtured with the
scene. We look excuses when its happening at our
own home, "afno ang ma bhaishi hideko nadekhne
aruko angma likha dekhne", is the attitude of our
political leaders and human rightists to servent
lovers.
GP
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| sunakhari |
Posted
on 20-Dec-01 09:10 AM
GP, I hear you.
I have to admit that while I was in Nepal, I had a little (13 year old) boy living with me. He used to go to school during the day and help me with the house chores during the evening. I used to pay for his school, clothes, and upkeep. He was probably one of the most ambitious boys I have ever met in my entire life and preferred to live with us rather than some thulo hakim (he had run away from one of those types) just so that he could learn to speak English. Is that child labour? Yes, I would say so. And who says so? People in the so-called developed countries.
There is a flipside to this so-called child labour! If one of us hadn't taken these children into our wings, they would be out on the streets fending for themselves. OR, they would be washing chia glasses on the side of the highways. OF COURSE, I'm not saying that employing them to be household servants is the ideal thing for them, but this is the solution for the time being while the government and the bideshi money find their way towards bettering this system.
I, personally, do not support nor condemn. I simply have no idea as to how we could get rid of this circle unless the government has funds to pour into village schools and hire good conscientious teachers.
What I hope for, is that families who do take in these children do not mistreat them. I have seen certain influential people who bring their children servants to look after their children in fancy hotel pools while they mingle with the crowd and yell after these "servants" and make them call their children rajas!
The stupidity and audacity of these so-called thulo mancheys YUK.
And maybe there, we have a support group in the making. An informal group that supports the welfare of the children!
SOME MORE TO COME:
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| nobody |
Posted
on 20-Dec-01 03:22 PM
The description of child labor, I don't think, is as objective as whether he is a child and whether he works at your home. While the people who use these children so they can 2400 knots per square inch and sell the carpet for more are heinous, it can't be generealised.
You should ask- whether I am helping this kid's growth by keeping him as a helper ("Kaam garne" as opposed to "Nokar") . I've seen a lots of families where these kids come from their village where don't even get enough to eat; they get a decent education, even get a college degree and move on to better things in life. And their life to a certian extent is definitely easier. It's of course an ethical dilemna. But would that child get the same opportunities at his home?
I have also seen some families treat them like crap- raja-fying their sons and all. These families who want to call themselves the "elites". Uncivilized.
But, that's just the way it is with the economic condition of Nepal. While we may decry these things (and it would be nice if there was none), avoiding it won't solve anything. No amount of foreign aid is going to get rid of that. Unless there is economic growth. One of my professor's analyzed the situation from system's perspective- there are two parents (generally :-)), they want two sons to take care of them at old age. Now with almost the same probability of the offspring being a boy or a girl, they on average will have four kids. Add to that child mortality and we have at least five kids on average. Family is growing at a faster rate than economy. Of course they can't feed five kids." What's the best course of action? You be the judge.
Can't we treat them like the kids who work at McDonald's? Are they child labor? Give them at least their minimum wage and provide them the opportunities for better future... And no menial labor. My family haven't had one in last 10 years. But I don't agree it's as wrong as some of you make it sound like. (I'm talking about "child" help at home though and not child labor as in picture above)...
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| sally |
Posted
on 20-Dec-01 04:26 PM
Sunakhari,
Very honest and observant comments. I hate to see small children working in wealthy homes, and can't imagine why anyone would even want a 7-year-old to make their chia and scrub their floors. But what about an older child, who wouldd have no opportunities otherwise, is going to school during the day, doing no more work than s/he'd do at home and is at least getting decent nutrition?
We also had a "child laborer" in our home for a while in KTM. When my husband brought her from the village, I didn't like the idea at all. She was (supposedly) 15 but looked younger. She'd been in KTM before (from age 9), hadn't been paid, and had been beaten frequently, but still wanted to come back. Why? She liked to watch TV! Seriously. Plus her other choice was probably going to India. She hadn't been past Grade 2, and we didn't send her to school, but we got her workbooks and paid her a rupee for every page she finished. We let her play with the kids in the flat upstairs, and certainly didn't expect her to treat us like royalty. She's back in the village now, and I hope she benefited in some way from her experience.
The reaction we got from neighbors was interesting. People were surprised we were paying her at all--not just the rupees for the schoolbooks, but ANYTHING on top of room and board. We were also met with extreme surprise when he brought one housekeeper of ours, a 50ish Tharu lady who looked 70, for a health checkup before she started working. People couldn't believe we'd actually pay to find out if the woman who'd be around our baby had, say, TB!!!
It does seem like it should be possible for there to be a Nepali standard about decent, humane, respectful treatment for domestic workers. These are not people with many choices; it's just irresponsible and uninformed to think that eliminating child labor, for instance, is some kind of unqualified good. I'm sick of Westerners with no experience of Nepal setting the standards for what's "right" and "wrong," and then having local NGOs and politicians mouth the same dogma--then taking the money they make from foreign-funded programs and financing a lifestyle that includes child labor in their own homes!!!
If they're being respectful and decent to the kid, then they should have the courage of their convictions and speak out for local standards instead of being so pathetically hypocritical. If they're not being respectful and decent to the kid, they should be horse-whipped.
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| sally |
Posted
on 20-Dec-01 04:54 PM
Just remembered THIS one:
The 12-ish boy who worked across the lane from us wasn't permitted to use the family's toilet. (Which, of course, it was his job to scrub.) He had to walk to the Bagmati and squat. The lady of the house had a prestigious position at a top boarding school and, I suppose, was genteel enough to voice the right things about having a clean, green, healthy KTM. She was perfectly lovely to talk with--to me, anyway. I suppose she spoke rather differently to that boy. I guess he was getting a memorable education--at least about the value that luckier people placed on him.
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| GP |
Posted
on 20-Dec-01 10:43 PM
Sunkhari wrote:
If one of us hadn't taken these children into our wings, they would be out on the streets fending for themselves. OR, they would be washing chia glasses on the side of the highways.
----
This explanation or reasoning is the center of Child Labour.
This topic will not be joined or be discussed because most of
the gbnc.org writers are from elite class and whose pride
is on having a child at their kitchen, and they look for
excuses "hamile uslai khana basna ra school ko cost behordiye
kai ta chhou". Is this enough in return to double digit
working hours ?
I am sure none others will dare to confess even
to the extent Sunkhari did here, especially,
those writers from Nepal who write here things while
taking slurps of tea made by a child labour at their home.
I bet. Before you drink tea, look at the boys or girls
hand, and realize how much his/her hand has swellen
while cleaning the Juttho glass and bhada.
GP
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| nobody |
Posted
on 21-Dec-01 11:03 AM
GP, I completely agree with you when you say such situations are condemnable. And while you keep asking us if we have "child labor", you yourself have not accepted or denied it. But we cannot keep renouncing it without offerring suitable alternative. I cannot. Except treat these kids humanely, they shouldn't have to go to Bagmati to squat, they should get their education and their chores should be built round their school's schedule. The last "kaam garne" our family had, he went to school (a public one, not the govt. one), my mum did all the cooking and he helped us in cleaning, he'd bring the milk (and he didn't have to wait in line for hours we had the "mahina-wari" thing) etc, and he loved watching TV. He left after completing his SLC. And he is doing well now, and doesn't work at anybody's home. It's been 10 years since then and we definitely managed without him by each of us taking turns at different chores. And it isn't hard. (The fact that my dad took responsibility of certain chores helped a lot too, not just in getting that thing done, but helping us kids see that we should. Motivation. Otherwise I have seen Nepalese families even in US where the "dad"s responibility is only limited to earning that monthly check.)
One way to look at it is we definitely did the "right" thing by not getting anybody else. But wouldn't it have been more right if we had helped someone else get a better education after him. Majority of them are malnourished and uneducated when they come to "KTM". In a perfect world, these kids would go to school, get good food, get to play and all other things that you and I got. But it's not a perfect world. And which parents would like to send their kid to other's home? Again I would like to say that the uprooting it isn't going to solve any problems, not right now. And treating them inhumanly like the swollen hands GP mentioned is barbarian. So I say treat them like the kids, if not your own then just kids (I've seen families where they're treated like one), make them do only those things which you wouldn't mind your own kids doing and educate them. Show them the way. They have a better chance of development.
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| sunakhari |
Posted
on 22-Dec-01 10:14 AM
GP
I didn't realize I was using a cliche (put the accent on the "e" you nerds!). I just wrote what I felt was/is to be true. Cliches on the whole don't come out of nowhere. Somewhere along the line there was bound to be an inch of truth in it.
As many of us have pointed out. The problem now lies not in condemning but rather accepting the responsibilites of harbouring such children (or better worded "taking these children under your wings").
Maybe a support group can be set up by an INGO where child labor laws can be put down such as:
a. age of child
b. imperative schooling of the child during the day (when the hakimni watches hindi movies and is just too darn lazy to move her butt and yells for a glass of water).
c. and as yul bryner said etc. etc. etc. (yo movie buffs...a lil brain teaser!)
:).
Anyone interested in joining this group? :)
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