Maheshwari, Mridul, and Manjari Singh. "Child Labor In
India: From Welfarist To Economic Perspective." South Asian Journal
Of Management 16.4 (2009): 84-110.Business Source Premier. Web. 13 Oct.
2014.
This
article is about child labor in India from two perspectives, Welfarist and
Economic view. The article states that the
Welfarist look at child labor in reference to health hazards and the negative
effects that the labor has on the children. The view from the economic
standpoint is that children are sent out of the home in response to lower
income from the working adults. The article identifies key factors that
influence child labor such as: education, family, poverty rates, and workforce
participation. Economists and Welfarist share the idea that education is
important. “Education factors here are taken predominantly from welfarist
perspective, though economic perspective is also embedded in it. Any decision
between investment in child's education and her/his employment is primarily
based on economic considerations in many households; education is the best
option for children from welfare perspective. It keeps them away from the
hazardous work environment and improves their future prospects. Also, these
children realize the value of education and in future would be keener towards
education of their own children.” The family factors are high fertility rates. In
rural India these fertility rates have increased greatly and caused a large
supply of children for the child labor industry. “The family factors, i.e.,
fertility rate and average household size, are expected to increase child
labor, particularly of male children in rural areas.” The workforce
participation factor is when there is not an increase in wage and adults move
away to find better pay then children are employed for cheap labor. The higher
the work participation the higher child labor. The article ends with the idea
that India needs to go about erecting policies that improve the limiting
factors mentioned. Also that India policy makers need to take the view of both
economist and welfarist.
I would
argue that this article agrees with previous sources that education is factor to
improve that would help decrease child labor. This article would also agree
that the population and family size have an effect on child labor. I also think
that this article would disagree with articles on the fact that the government
of India is trying to effectively solve the issue of increased child labor in
their country. In Journal three the source was indicating the poverty and
mostly poverty alone was the influencing factor that causes child labor. I
think that this article would disagree with that statement. This article makes
an excellent case for developmental, family and education being huge important
factors effecting child labor.
This article
has affected my view point immensely, I was getting discouraged thinking that
poverty was the factor that lead to a few other factors. As I read this article
I was glad to see that this article had extensive research done in rural India and
outlined precise causes. This article made clear a lot of new or better explained
influencing factors. This article has firmly lead me to believe that poverty is
not the most important or only factor. These factors work together to increase
child labor in India. A new factor that I learned of from this article was work
participation. I never thought of this factor but it makes since that it holds
a large responsibility of increased child labor.
In this
article I have learned a lot. I think this article has answered many of many
questions. It has shown me concrete evidence through their study of how exactly
these factors increase or decrease child labor in certain areas. A new question
that does come to mind is about the work participation, since I haven’t read
much about this factor. What are is the percentage of adults working in rural
areas where child labor is very high? As I have stated I firmly think that this
article has broadened my view of main influencing factors and lead me away from
the idea that all factors come from the issue of poverty. As I continue to
research I will continue to look for these factors present in other resources.
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