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CLOTHES LINE Exploitation of children Most children after six or seven years are busy around the home, running errands and helping their parents. Even in wealthier countries, children are encouraged to work for a few hours. This early training has a variety of benefits. Children running errands learn to communicate with other individuals. Children engaged in some kind of work learn a skill which could be useful in their later years.
Child labour, on the other hand implies something completely different.
It is the exploitation and overworking of young children for personal
benefits and also depriving them of their right to health and education.
It is commonly known that the greatest concentration of child labour
is amongst the poorest people of Asia. In fact, 60% of child labourers
are employed in Asia. Although they are considered to be the wealth
of a nation, children very often are employed in bad working conditions
with very little compensation. According to International Labour
Organisation statistics, around 120 million children between ages
five and four have full-time employment. They are employed in agricultural
activities, garment industry, fishing industry, as porters and brick
makers, beedi wrappers, mine workers, scavengers, sex workers and
domestics.
The causes for this situation are many and varied. It is believed
that poverty is the most important factor. Lack of educational opportunities,
entrenched social and cultural practices and globalisation which
has spawned labour intensive industries have in turn created a demand
for cheap labour.
The international programme for the elimination of child labour
of the ILO has spread its tentacles far and wide to eliminate slavery,
forced labour, prostitution, pornography and other hazardous work
involving children. Those employed in sweet shops and debt bondage
are forced to work for long hours and obtain low wages. The latest
survey conducted in Sri Lanka has revealed that nearly a million
Sri Lankan children are in some form of employment, the majority
being domestics.
How can we change this situation? No magic wand can be waved to
combat the problem in a few days or months. However, all countries
in the world can take steps to criminalise all offences committed
against children or the exploitation of the young by adults for
personal benefits. Universal compulsory education should be strictly
enforced in a systematic manner. This coupled with poverty alleviation
programmes, rehabilitation and vocational training for school drop-outs,
through international cooperation will to some extent help control
child labour in the world. Marrying
for money
What is this dowry anyway? Think about the amount of trouble parents
go through when the time comes for their daughters to get married.
If they don't have the money, does it mean that their daughters
can never get married? Is this what we call a fair world?
What's more, if it's a doctor, engineer, etc... the demand gets
higher and higher. Come on, when these guys are so educated and
earn enough, why on earth do they have to take a great amount of
money and property from the bride's side? This is ridiculous and
unexplainable as far as I'm concerned.
Parents giving what they like to the couple as a gift is something
different. It's a gift given with joy. But demanding dowry and measuring
a girl's worth by her riches is completely unjust.
Qualities are what matter the most. Go for the good qualities she
possesses. That's what is important for a stable married life. Money
and riches may come and go. But good qualities and education are
some things that will always be there. These things and a bit of
hard work, are more than enough for a married couple to establish
and live a peaceful life together.
I like to conclude with a call for all the guys who intend to get
married in the future. Hey guys make a decision. Are you going to
marry the money or the girl for what she is? Sexual
harassment - A national pastime?
A shrug of the shoulders and a 'men will be men' attitude in such
instances will never do. Sexual harassment should be seen for what
it is - a criminal offence which degrades a woman's dignity and
humanity. I hope that every woman reading this letter, who, at some
point in her life has been a victim of such perversity, will make
her indignation and displeasure HEARD and FELT.
The surest means of protection from sexual harassment in the future
is to inculcate in all minds a healthy respect for the human body.
Yet, are we even close to creating an environment in which such
respect can be generated? Mostly through a glut of socially irresponsible
advertising, the woman is continually, mercilessly demeaned to the
level of a sex object or baduwa or gediya as it is so crudely put
in Sinhala.
Do we really need to see models parading in underwear to know what
underwear looks like? Do we really need to be burdened with the
sight of a half exposed bikini area to know that cricket is a passion?
I don't.
Every responsible adult in this society has the duty of doing his
or her utmost in whatever way possible to rid our environment of
sexual harassment and all factors that contribute to it. Otherwise,
there is nothing that prevents our country from degenerating even
faster into a breeding ground for perverts. Hello
out there Tharashee
(D. B. V.) To my dearest
Dinusha Nangi, To my Dearest
Shaman, To our darling
nona, Safna and Saldeen, The queen
of my life, Eshani (Bashi), To the two
guys who were on the Chilaw train, From the
two girls at the Dematagoda Station, To the most
thrilling Guy, Shibly (2002 A/L)
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