A Break...

Finals are coming up soon, and I am swamped with schoolwork. Therefore, for the next two weeks, I will be unable to post. I hope that you will continue to keep the issue of child labor fresh in your minds.

I'll see you all in two weeks!

A Socio-Economic Quandary...

Instead of writing a blog post this week, I'm going to put out a question for debate - Please answer in the comments below.

A comment last week by my friend and fellow activist Nikhil got me thinking. Child labor is both an economic and social problem. Addressing only one of those issues will never solve the problem.

Economically, child labor is a result of financial hardship and poverty. Poverty and child labor are inextricably linked together, and child labor allows the cycle of poverty to propagate generation after generation. Cash transfers and income security seem to be a way of taking care of this side.

Socially, child labor is an entrenched norm in many cultures. Though poverty may be the root cause of child labor, child labor is now an establishment in many areas around the world, and uprooting that is extremely important as well. Educating people about the dangers of child labor seems to be a potential solution to this problem.

So what is your opinion? Is child labor more of a social or economic problem, or an equal measure of both? Again, please post our thought in the comments below!

New Measures...Will they Really Work?

The UN  announced plans in early May to combat child labor, using novel, different strategies that have worked for many countries. Let's take a look...

Their World Report on Child Labor states that by introducing measures such as cash transfers to both parents and older people, as well as other social health measures, parents in the developing world are more likely to let their children go to school instead of forcing them into work early.

Brazil's Bolsa Familia cash transfer program, which provides families with a monthly allowance on the condition that they send their children to school, has been instrumental in reducing child labor in both rural and urban areas across the Latin American nation. Likewise, a scholarship program introduced in Cambodia, which also involves cash transfers, has reduced child labor there by 10 percent.

Social protection is also an important issue concerning child labor. More than 5 billion people around the world do not have access to comprehensive social protection. This massive figure contributes to the vast number of child laborers around the world. including the 115 million involved in the worst forms of child labor, debt bondage and prostitution included, and the 15.5 million involved in domestic work.

UN plans would guarantee basic income in the form of social transfers in cash or kind, such as pensions, child benefits, employment guarantees and services for the unemployed or working poor, while providing universal access to the essential basics of life. Those would include health, water and sanitation, education, food, and housing. In African countries when 50-60% of orphans live with their grandparents, income security in old age would also be extremely important.

These plans seem solid in theory, but they are much harder to implement in practice. The UN also estimates that it would cost $10 billion to implement universal education - Less than global military spending per year. Where does this money go? It gets lost somewhere along the line, never making its long journey from the big organizations to the poor, starving families in Africa and Asia. Child labor is a complicated problem.      But each step we take is one step towards a better future.

Profile: Dr. Sunitha Krishnan

Dr. Sunitha Krishnan might not look like your typical hero, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

The 4'8" champion for women's rights is changing the world as we speak, with a beautiful story and lion-like passion. From the beginning, she wanted to help others. She became a social worker when she was younger, and started to help the poor children of her village and educate them. The sad truth of life unfolded: A gang of men who disliked the interference of a woman in a supposed "man's society" raped and severely beat her, leaving her for dead.

Calling Sunitha a rape victim is an insult to her resilience and determination. She bounced back, forming Prajwala, an organization working to combat sex trafficking and abuse in developing countries.  To this day, she has taken thousands of girls out of prostitution rings and into schools, emerging as a powerful voice of righteousness among such corruption and lawlessness.

Sunitha says: "I have this deep-rooted belief that my life is a providence by itself, and God has brought me in this world to do what I'm doing, and God will allow me to stay in this world so long as he believes that my mission is not done, and therefore I do believe that the day God believes that my work is done, I'll be killed or I'll die naturally, or whichever way is possible."

So many people are pushed done and trodden on. She decided to stand up and fight. You can do it too.

Check out this video of Sunitha's TED talk about sex trafficking and her organization:

May Day and Bonded Labor

May Day is celebrated in different ways around the globe. In the US and Western European countries, workers with low-skill jobs protest for better conditions and more rights. In third-world countries, a different story unfolds.

In Pakistan, this historic day commemorates the social and economic success of the West in relation to the labor movement, and recognizes bonded laborers around the world who face a similar predicament to those 150 years ago.

Not just kids but entire families work to keep themselves not well-off, but alive. The husband, wife, and child work 12-14 hours a day making brick after brick. As a poor family said: "We make 1000 bricks per day; My wife and son who is 6 years old, we spend 12 to 14 hours per day and the wage we get is Rs. 450 ( $3.5 ).

These people have no right to education, health, recreation, or security. Gang rapes and food shortages are extremely common, and the cycle of poverty is propagated generation after generation.

So as we begin the month of May, think not just about the workers in North America and Europe demanding extra rights, but those in Africa and Asia, who merely want basic rights that should be so universal. May Day is the time to recognize them as well.