Divakaruni Live Free And Starve Summary

Child labour is a very real problem in the world today, and although it is declining, progress is happening at a slow and unequal pace. Child labour by the International Labour Organization is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development (Diallo, Etienne, & Mehran, 2013, p. 2).” In the most extreme forms of child labour it could account for child enslavement, separation from their families, exposure to serious hazards and illnesses and being left to fend for themselves on the streets (Dinopoulos & Zhao, 2007). In order for certain types of work to be included as “child labour” depends on the child’s age, the type of work,

Child labor is very demanding throughout many countries around the world, especially those were the economy is not doing so well. As in the United States there are some very strict rules and guidelines for the employers to follow or they can get fined and these fines are not cheap in anyway. As in fines if employers violate these laws they can also be imprisonment on top of fines if the Justice department see fit to do so. These laws and rules will help the individual child, the society and the economy down the road. In this paper we will examine the laws behind child labor, the definition and the history of how the child labor law became about. Also, we will discuss the international child labor law and how that became about. We will discuss

Throughout her article, Divakaruni makes an excellent argument by tossing her stance back and forth from the pros to cons of the bill. She exercises caution by agreeing with her target audience and allowing them to hold their sympathetic emotions, while also using gentle sarcasm and logical appeals to express the other side of the story. Chitra includes a personal story, putting a face and name to a child who benefitted from work, and is able to use the story to show that, perhaps, allowing child labor is the only way to give these children better lives. She ends with a strong, powerful thought that the reader can take away from her article and that will stick in the reader’s mind: that they could leave these children worse than when they had jobs. Overall, Chitra Divakaruni has crafted a convincing argument that is difficult to oppose, and has probably affected the minds of many Americans with her

Alberto’s example is not the only example of child labor. There are 196 countries in the world today, and 46 countries don’t protect children under the age of 18 from performing hazardous work. Globally 168 million children between ages 5-17 are child laborers. Many kids never go to school or drop out limiting future options and forcing children to accept low wage work as adults and to raise their own children in poverty. Children work because work is perceived as the best use of their time in contributing to the needs of the family and preparing them for the life they are expected to

There are innumerable propositions projected to improve the conditions that children have to tolerate while working in sweatshops. Ethically it can be said that society is thoughtless, because it tolerates child labor (Enderle 274). Child labor is not wrong from every direction; child labor is understandable in moderation. Hartman states, “The recommendation is not to ban all workers under the age of 18 from the workplace, but instead to investigate ways in which child workers can meet their family’s needs, while also endeavoring to better themselves through a complete education” (Hartman). The proposal is to balance the schedule for a child under the

One advantage of globalization is that it has tried to decrease the amount of child labor in Third World countries. Divakaruni states in her essay that, “Some days back, the House passed a bill stating that the United States would no longer permit the import of goods from factories where forced or indentured child labor was used” (340). Although this bill seems like a great idea, Americans do not truly see all the reasons behind using child labor. America is significantly different than Third World countries. One of the main reasons for parents selling their children was because they could not afford to take care of them or keep them properly nourished, for it was not for the sole purpose to get rid of their children. The children’s strong work ethic provided money to live and feed themselves. However, the author states that this bill is “of no use unless it goes hand

I always thought that child labor was morally wrong. As Kass would say my repugnance of child labor was “the emotional expression of deep wisdom, beyond reason’s power fully to articulate it” (Kass 20). This class reinforced my belief that repugnance was not enough. I realized that parents did not send their children to work out of greed, but to survive. Christopher Udry, a Yale economics professor, explains that “child labor is a symptom of poverty…and also a cause of future poverty” (Udry 243). To tackle child labor we need to tackle poverty with a diverse array of governmental policies. Altruistic boycotts are not productive. These boycotts against firms that use child labor force employers to fire their childhood-aged workforces. This would be a disastrous turn of events for the child because they would not be able to help their families survive. Basu cites the example of Nepalese firms firing carpet makers because of a global boycott of their products due to child labor. Basu explains that as a result of the boycott, between 5000 and 7,000 girls became prostitutes. A well-intentioned campaign ended up hurting the very people it sought to protect” (Basu

The relative viewpoint of the culture is paramount because the only way to affect change is from within. The saying, “(w)hen in Rome, do as the Romans do” should initially be applied when dealing with developing countries whose moral norms conflict with those of developed countries until real change can be imposed. When applied to the child labor debate it can be argued that the utilization of child labor is a necessary step in the evolution of culture, society, and developing country. The most social and economically responsible thing to do is to assist developing countries by promoting foreign and domestic business development through capital investment to the point where child labor is no longer required to sustain the economy. While this is in contradiction with the common belief that child labor is exploitative or a form of indentured servitude and slavery is what paved the way for the CLDA.

Our paper has looked at factory conditions and found that the management of the children is very poor. Children in factories worked a gruesome sixteen hours a day, and were not tended to properly. The over working of these children will lead to many deaths in the future, due to the insanitation and the labor they endure every day. Ms. Pennypincher stated that the “children were beaten, slapped, and whipped” if they disobeyed the orders in her factory, resulting in the average thirty deaths a year in her factory. In addition, the amount of children who worked in one room would be on average around ten to fifteen kids. The ten to fifteen children would operate the machines in the factory with optimum lighting, due to ceilings with tall windows.

Modern society is troubled by remnants of the past that exist today, not only due the pervasive exploitation of child labor in developing nations, but also because of the fact that child labor is undeniably at an all time high.

According to the Child Labor Public Education Project (2004), In 2006, approximately 75 million children were not in school, limiting future opportunities for the children and their communities.” There are many factors that contribute to child labor. Poverty and unemployment levels are undoubtedly a dominant factor in the use of child labor; families below the poverty line are forced to send their children to work in order to be able to supplement their household’s income. Even though, they do not get paid much. I could not imagine myself living on a dollar a day. According to 2005 U.N. statistics, “more than one-fourth of the world’s people live in extreme poverty.” (U.N. Statistics, 2005, pg. 1) Sadly, free education is limited, so children are being forced to work. Codes of conduct are often violated. For example, if a company notifies the building that there will be an inspection, the factories prepare themselves by making the workplace “suitable” for everyone; which is not the case at all. Global demand for cheap goods means that the supplier has to find the cheapest labor force, this means that children are forced to work. Child labor is a particular issue in the fashion industry. For instance, in cotton picking employers hire children because they have small fingers, so they do not damage the crop. Agricultural jobs pay by the amount of produce that is picketed by children. Which encourages more families to send their kids to work. It is also easier for factories to hire children since it is easier to manipulate them. As crucial as it seems, many families do not think that education will help their children survive. Above all, poverty is a big contribution of why child labor is active around the world. (Josephine Moulds,

Regardless of some elaboration on this issue which clearly states that systematic approaches to child labor have not yet been materialized; in terms of sociology many countries continue to use child labor illegally. According to recorded information from the U.S. government presented by Caulfield’s (2009), he demonstrates how India has the peak rate of forced child labor and trafficking in areas such as textile manufacturing factories, goal mines, restaurants and household servants. Therefore, the major aim of Caulfield’s research is to focus the exploitation of young children in India, accounting both the legal and illegal side to show the different ways in which Indian government had tried and can defeat this issue of children being exploited and forced to work.

There are children that suffer through child labor daily. Child labor is the use of children in a business or industry, usually illegal. “3 billion people around the world survive on $2.50 a day or less. And 2 billion people do not hold a bank account or have access to essential financial services” (“Living in Poverty”1). Children that are normally in labor come from a poor family that’s in need of money so badly that it comes down to selling their own children or putting them up for jobs. Child labor is happening right now, all around our world. There are children being forced into labor and not knowing anything different. Therefore, some parents and families may rely on child labor in order to have lives basic

Child labor is considered to be one of the most sensitive areas with a negative impact on the society today. Most of the children in the poorly developed nations are taken for the purposes of child labor and that has affected negatively the various laws concerning child labor in the society. The eastern countries and more so in Africa face the issue of child labor and that has made various children to be employed illegally in most of the westernized fields established in those regions. There is compelling evidence which can be used in proving that there is the existence of child labor in the lower economic countries and that has to be eliminated effectively in order to strengthen the social structure found in those countries. According to a research done by Abdullahi et al. (2016) on child labor in developing countries, it was found out that most of the children living in the poorest household are highly prone of being subjected to child labor in the society today. This is because of the low levels of finances they have in sustaining their lives and this subjects them to child labor. This problem of child labor has been seen to be extensive to most of the children under the age of 14 years who strive hard in order to help their families in getting additional incomes. Their research showed that child labor is rampant and therefore, necessary measures have to be taken in order to eliminate child labor in the developing countries.

“In factories and loom-sheds in India, Neap and Pakistan, hundreds of thousands of children as young as five are reported as working in near-slave conditions. They are put to work weaving and hand-knotting oriental rugs and carpets for export. Labouring up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, they are often forced to eat and sleep where they work. Sometimes they are locked in at night. Children who make mistakes or try to run away risk being beaten, deprived of food or even tortured. These child workers are usually from the poorest families, toiling to pay off their parents’ debt to a money broker. Needless to say, they don’t get to go to school” (Litvinoff page 75). This quote displays the hopelessness these many of children face in their everyday life. They are forced to work an excruciating amount of time, with no hope of ever having a better life. These children are uneducated due to their lack of free time or money to attend school, which in turn strips away another possibility of rising up and breaking free of this vicious cycle that affects their family and fellow children. Within this job, they will never make enough money to earn a living, which will always put them in debt and having to work more and more. When these children grow up and potentially have children of their own, those children will be forced to follow in the same path as their parents. This cycle will continue until us the consumers intervene and attempt to help these children. If we were to help