Showing posts with label Rajasthan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rajasthan. Show all posts

Friday, April 12, 2013

One in Every 10 Workers in India is a Child

The Observance of The World Day against Child Labour on 12th June has Brought back a Host of Issues behind this Social and Economic Malady. What are we doing about Child Labourers? Will The Practice Entrench itself into Perpetuity or can it be Wiped Out?

Child labour - defined as work that harms, abuses and exploits a child (aged between 5-14) or deprives a child of an education - is an ugly reality of life in India as it is in many other parts of the developing world. It is usually characterised by low or no wages, long hours, dangerous and unhealthy conditions and lack of physical and social security. The other is that these children are deprived of freedom, childhood, education, fun and play, and natural development. An official Government of India report states that child labour is ‘economically unsound, psychologically disastrous and physically as well as morally dangerous and harmful… Working children are denied their right to survival and development, education, leisure and play, and adequate standard of living, opportunity for developing personality, talents, mental and physical abilities, and protection from abuse and neglect.

India has the dubious distinction of employing the largest number of child labourers in the world. There are between 60 and 115 million working children in India - the highest number in the world (Human Rights Watch 1996 ) - with a majority of them engaged in hazardous activities like working with dangerous machinery, sharp tools and loads they are not strong or mature enough to handle. Carpet making factories, glass blowing units, matchsticks and fireworks manufacturers employ child labourers in thousands. Glass and bangle making units alone are estimated to employ over 70,000 working children.

Why is child labour so prevalent in India? Poverty is the obvious reason though not the only one. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41.6% of the total Indian population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day. Child labour is therefore looked upon as a source of income for poor families. A study conducted by the ILO Bureau of Statistics found that “Children’s work was considered essential to maintaining the economic level of households, either in the form of work for wages, of help in household enterprises or of household chores in order to free adult household members for economic activity elsewhere.” In some cases, the study found that a child’s income accounted for between 34% and 37% of the total household income.

The International Labour Organisation points to a strong correlation between income levels and child labour across countries, with poor countries registering high rates of child labour. According to government figures (Census 2001), over 53% of the child labour in India was accounted for by the five states - UP, AP, Rajasthan, MP and Bihar. Karnataka, Maharashtra and West Bengal together had about 20% of the child labourers in India.

Another cardinal reason for child labour is the lack of access to education. In some areas, education is not affordable, or is found to be inadequate. With no other alternatives, children spend their time working. Besides poverty and lack of education, there are also other factors that indirectly promote child labour in India. These include: Parental illiteracy, social apathy, parental ignorance regarding the bad effects of child labour, exploitation of cheap and unorganised labour, family practice of teaching traditional skills to children and ineffective child labour laws in terms of implementation.

In attempting to cure this social malaise, many developed countries have stopped importing any product from the developing countries that may have used child labour as an input. But the question arises whether banning goods made up of child labour is the remedy. Trade bans on goods produced by child labour have often had the unintended effect of forcing the children into other paid work at a lower wage and a more demeaning work condition.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
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Friday, December 21, 2012

The Confusing Congress Chimera

 Just a few days ago, I was in Lucknow arguing vociferously with my father-in-law. He is a die hard supporter of Congress and would have cast his vote in favour of Rita Bahuguna Joshi. I personally think the chances of her winning are about as high as Shah Rukh’s Knight Riders winning IPL 2. But then faith and optimism are eternal. In fact, my father-in-law, who is a middle class Bihari settled in U.P. is convinced that there is a strong undercurrent in favour of Congress this time in the Hindi heartland. He is almost wistful when he talks about how the glory days of Congress can come back with Rahul Gandhi by the time the next Lok Sabha elections are organised. I have come across hundreds of such Congress well wishers who are sick and tired of regional parties ‘holding the nation to ransom’. I empathize with them, but can’t help pointing out some hard realities that make the challenge of reviving the Congress so formidable for Rahul Gandhi and his well meaning earnestness.

Here is a list of major states where the Congress can hope to win a lot of seats on its own: Assam, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand, Orissa and Karnataka. That works out to about 230 plus seats. Here is a list of states where the Congress cannot hope to win even a few seats without strong regional allies: West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and J&K. That works out to almost 300 seats. The last time Congress won in Tamil Nadu was in 1967; it was 1967 in West Bengal; 1984-85 in Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh; 1991 in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and Maharashtra on its own. In the states where the Congress can win many seats on its own, the party already has about 110 out of 130. In the second category of states, the party has about 50 out of 300.

Even a school child will know that it is the second category of states that will be the biggest challenge for Rahul Gandhi and his so called youth brigade. To be able to cross even 200 Lok Sabha seats, it needs to at least double its tally in the second category of states. More importantly, Rahul Gandhi needs to plan and execute a strategy which can help the Congress have even a decent chance of winning a large number of seats on its own in Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand which send almost 225 MPs to the Lok Sabha. Currently, the Congress has just about 50 representatives from these important states.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Reinvigorating the ‘port of good hope’

When Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone of the kandla port, the vision was truly a grandiose one. while one cannot deny the achievements of this port, Akram Hoque of B&E also warns of critical shortcomings

Gandhidham, a small city in Gujarat, bears tesimony to what ports can contribute. Around 350 km from Ahmedabad and 1101 km from New Delhi, it would have been just like any one of those hundreds of cities in India that you possibly wouldn’t hear about in a span of a lifetime. The reason why it isn’t, is quite evident from a near unnoticeable signboard I come across as I step into the city from the railway station. It says, “Kandla Port Trust welcomes you.” In Gandhidham, this is not merely a corporate branding initiative. It actually is an apt reminder of how much the Kandla port means to the city. Alhough the Kandla port was commissioned in the year 1930 by Maharao Khengarji III (the ruler of the then princely state of Kutch), it was the great visionary Sardar Patel who realized the need to explore the possibility of establishing a deep-sea port to cater to the vast hinterland. And Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for the new port of Kandla in 1952 with a mission to make it a major logistics hub, which would render professional, cost effective and value added services to its customers. Some of its defined objectives were to provide efficient and economical port services, create facilities of international standards and facilitate quicker turnaround of vessels, besides pursuing a slew of social development and environment friendly initiatives.

As per official data, the cargo handling capacity went up by 11.29% in 2008-09 and reached 72.22 million tonnes per annum against 64.89 million tonnes in 2007-08; the highest-ever cargo throughput by any Indian port. The management aims to scale it up further to 100 mtpa by 2012. It also handled the highest amount of crude oil at 35 mt in 2008-09, as compared to 20.27 mt in 2007-08.

The Kandla port also has some major strategic advantages. Firstly, a vast hinterland of 1 million sq. km. can be easily accessed from Kandla. Secondly, it has the highest Liquid Storage capacity in the country. Thirdly, tropical and dry climate conditions with scanty rainfall enable relatively uninterrupted operation around the year. And most importantly, it is the nearest to Middle East and Europe. Omprakash Dadlani, PRO of Kandla Port Trust, tells me, “All these strategic advantages have made us one of the best and highly demanded ports in India. We have recently been honoured with the ‘Best major port of the year’ award for 2008-09 by the Ministry of Commerce.”

But is Kandla indeed the port of the new millenium as is claimed? Undoubtedly, the services at Kandla Port are very economical as compared to most others. But when I consider efficiency, it’s a different story. When I chat around, I find that the Kandla port is still perceived largely as an economical port and not necessarily an efficient one. And the authorities at Kandla have only themselves to blame. I run across Vijender Singh, a marble trader in Rajasthan who regularly utilises the services of both the Mundra and Kandla ports for his marble exports. Vijender tells me, “I think Mudra port is more efficient and fast; I don’t have to wait much. Kandla port takes more time.”

One of the key objectives was to create international standards to facilitate quicker turnaround of vessels. I ask a Filipino mariner who works with a Holland-based shipping company about how he rates the Kandla port vis-a-vis the best in class. His reply is balanced, “It is OK with respect to international standards, but it’s very risky to park big ships at Kandla Port. We have to be very careful while entering and exiting the port because the ship may face obstacles on the way or hit the ground. We can’t see where the obstacles are and what the way is. It is too risky sometimes.” The fact is corroborated by a former merchant navy officer whom I meet. He confirms that though Kandla is cheaper, Mundra’s services are better. In his experience, the Mundra people go to great lengths to ensure safety (for instance, they use two to three tugs for large ships, he says) and faster turnaround times; whereas the facilities at Kandla are old (they often use one tug only).

In addition, Kandla port is 13.5 metres deep (they plan to deepen it to 14 metres), which is not enough for larger ships. Critically, it is around 30 km from the main sea, whereas Mundra is at the juncture of the open sea. This is an advantage in a sense, as ships are safe from sudden cyclones. But this also restricts large ships from entering till one creates wider and deeper routes. The turnaround time, I realise, is discomfiting.


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