Weiner, Myron. The Child and the State in India: Child
Labor and Education Policy in Comparative Perspective. Princeton, N.J.:
Princeton UP, 1991. 213. Print.
This
book addresses child labor in connection to education in India. The main
argument in this book that the belief that is widely represented throughout
India and their government is a leading too low education standards. The claim
is then that the lack of quality education has the consequences of child labor
and school drop outs. The author also claims that the state has put too much
into private and government elite schools instead of mass modernization of all
schools. The author explicitly indicates that this happens as a direct result
of Indians beliefs. The belief they are referring to is the mindset that “that
there is a division between people that work with their minds and rule; and
people who work with their hands and are ruled.” The author reveals that India’s
literacy rate has fallen behind those of third world countries. The author also
points out that you cannot learn about these statistics from government
officials but only by scrutinizing statistically documents. The Indian president at the turn of century is
when India verbally began to insist that they would stride to end child labor
at the turn of century. But indeed the number instead rose greatly, from 210,000
in 1950 to 529,000 in 1986. India has managed to ban child labor in factories
but child laborers are used in agriculture, cottage industries, etc. Also it
should be noted that countries in Africa with lower average incomes have instituted
mass education. I would say that the main idea of this book is to show the how
the government of India is not really improving the child labor laws like that
have indicated.
This
book has quite a different view point and opinion that the previous two
articles. The book seems to put most of the blame on the government and how
they do not want to pass laws that could disrupt their long standing social
classes. I think this is a good view point to be aware of and consider. The
article leads me to the conclusion that the government is allowing for child
labor and inadequate education to prolong itself in various cities in India.
This is then leading to prolonging of poverty. The article views this issue
backwards in reference to my two previous articles. The other articles both
indicated that poverty was the cause of child labor. It’s interesting to see how
both articles can make both their arguments seemingly valid. But what all of
these three texts show is that the government is definitely responsible in the
regards that they should be addressing helping and that the government does
take some blame for the problem.
As I
have read articles I had been presented with arguments that had mostly been
pointing at poverty as a leading factor and cause, but has I read more and more
of this book I became aware of new influencing factors on child labor. This
book particularly made me question India’s government and just how closely
leaders stood next to these cultural values. From reading this article I
understand that cultural values within India have remained pretty unchanged for
many years. The author in the book made
statements that lead me to believe that child labor and the way it is handled
in India is directly related to these cultural values. One of my questions in
an earlier journal had been how these cultural values have an effect on child
labor. This author has answered that partly by explaining how leaders see the
social classes and that trying to promote education also promotes children to
advance in the social class through education leaving behind child labor and a
struggling lifestyle. This then disrupts the social structure that India has always
known.
To
further my research I need to identify exact cultural beliefs. This new
question has risen of what exactly do they mean when they say cultural beliefs?
While they are in part referring to the caste system, what are their
values/beliefs that also influence social scale? This book has brought about
new questions that are important because they will help reveal real reasons as
to why India has the highest number of child laborers. I do still believe that
poverty is a contributing factor to child labor but this source has made me
think it may not be as widely involved as I previously thought. My next step in
the research process is too definitely learn more about specific Indian
culture. I think researching specifically about the culture will help me to use
the cultural knowledge in the paper to show how the culture can have such great
influence matter over a topic that is highly controversial in many countries.
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