Fact File-Point to Ponder Comprehensive Ban on child Labour

Comprehensive Ban on child Labour

The Union cabinet on August 28 approved a proposal of the Ministry of Labour and Employment for amending the Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, for complete prohibition of employment of children below 14 years in all occupations. The proposal is also for prohibiting employment of persons below 18 years in hazardous occupations and processes in line with an International Labour Organization Convention.

At present, children under the age of 14 years are prohibited from employment in hazardous occupation and processes and their conditions of work are regulated in non-hazardous occupations and processes under the Act.

According to Census 2001, there were 12.6 million economically active children in the age-group of 5-14 years while the National Sample Survey data said the child workforce during 2004-05 was estimated at 9.07 million. The amendments would ensure that all children would be compulsorily admitted in schools as per Right to Education Act, 2009 instead to working in workplaces, an official release said they added that it would also enable India to ratify ILO convention 138 (minimum age for entry to employment) and convention 182 (prohibition of employment of persons below 18 years in hazardous occupations.)

The amendments also included renaming of Child labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act as Child and Adolescent Labour (prohibition) Act and there will be no bar on children helping their families after school hours and in vacations, in field, home-based work (except commercial purpose).

Parents and guardians of children would be punishable under this Act only when they permit engagement of their children for commercial purpose in contravention to this Act.

The punishment of the offender under the Act would be striker and the offences would be cognizable. The maximum punishment under the Act has been increased from one year of imprisonment to two years, and fine from Rs. 20,000-Rs. 50,000 or both. For repeated offences, it has been raised to three years of imprisonment.

The overall responsibility for implementation of the Act will be vested with the district magistrate/deputy commissioner and monitoring and inspection will be done by the labour department.

Can we ever banish child labour?

Fact File-Point to Ponder India Top Arms Importer (2011-2012)

India Top Arms Importer (2011-2012)

India has topped a rating of the world’s largest heavy arms importers, released by the independent Stockholm International Peace Research institute (SIPRI), researching into conflicts, arms control and disarmament.

India is the world’s largest recipient of arms while South Korea is second and Pakistan and China are tied in third place.

According to the report, India accounted for 10 per cent to global arms imports between 2007 and 2011. Among the most significant contracts signed by India is the purchase of 120 Russian Su-300MK (Rising to 271) multirole combat aircraft, 29 Mig-29Ks and 20 British Jaguar fighters.

The top five arms importers include states in Asia and Oceania; India, South Korea , Pakistan, china and Singapore, which account for 30 per  cent  of all imports of major conventional weapons between 2007 and 2011.

The United States and Russia were named the key arms suppliers that accounted for 30 and 24 percent of all exports respectively.

Evryone’s in with a chance

Evryone’s in with a chance

Musharraf has little support but in today’s Pakistan, there are no clear winners or losers.

Musharraf faces a raft of legal cases and a Supreme Court that despises Him. Supporters who showed up at the airport to greet him just barely our numbered the journalists at the scene. The obvious answers that in a polity as unpredictable and in as much chaos as Pakistan’s, everyone has a chance of winning. And everyone has an even greater chance of holding the balance of power in the national assembly, no matter how few seats one wins.

What is more interesting is that Musharraf’s return is, merely the latest example of a dark horse trying to make a run at the national sweepstakes. The former cricketer, Imran Khan, rode high on curiously flush coffers but as been fading since. The mass protests by the religious-cum-political leader Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri muddied the political waters for a while. The dominant theory is that the military has been encouraging as many candidates to enter the fray as possible because of their concerns that the two main democratic parties, Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and Asif Ali Zardari’s Pakistan People Party, seem likely to divide the spoils between them. This is not a surprise.

However, the Pakistani military has never been as weak politically as it is today. The presidency, the judiciary, public opinion and the two largest parties are all outside the sway of the men in khaki. If the army, as is suspected, is at least passively behind Imran Khan’s brief surge in the polls and the return of Musharraf then these are all signs of desperation. Unable to divide and conquer the two main parties, Rawalpindi is reverting to salami tactics-trying to slice the electorate into as many thin slices as possible. This would lead to a fragmented assembly and, by default; power would gravitate back into the military’s hands.

Pakistan-Musharraf India

Musharraf returned to Pak after 4 years of self imposed exile, has not brought in any cheers.  During these 4 years he did not visit Pak-but he remained a high profile guest for various conclaves in India. He did impact and made absurd comments. During the last HT conclave in (Mar 2012) he justified Kargil intrusion. And even now (in Pak) he stated he is proud of invading Kargil. Musharraf should be compared and kept in the class of Hafeez Saeed. Hafeez Saeed by his planning took the lives of 166 people (in 26/11 attack 2008) where as Musharraf for taking 560 lives in his planned invasion in Kargil. Our media entertained him and applauded by and large “No Pakistan” leader can be trusted for their utterances and least Musharraf.

Among Indian leaders Musharraf can be easily compared with Mulayam. He (Mulayam Singh) is always changing his statements-morning to evening. Utterances are deceptive and mostly to be ignored. Rightly stated by RLD president Ajit Singh. 

Allah to save Pakistan and May God help India.