Is globalization to be blamed for child labour

Is globalization to be blamed for child labour This paper addresses an issue that appears to be on the increase worldwide; Child Labour. Recent ILO estimates state that every seventh child in the world is engaged in working activities. Because of their familys financial difficulties these children are forced to give up their future in terms of education, health and leisure. This emphasises the importance to carry out further research and analysis on the phenomenon of child labour as well as come up with effective policy inventions in order to eliminate child labour. According to Basu (1999) designing policies should be based on careful analysis and research instead of underlying emotions or feelings towards child labour. It is extremely important to consider the precise definition of child labour before proceeding. There is immense heterogeneity in defining child labour as different groups view it differently. For example according to Ashagrie (1993) a child is categorised as labourer if the child is economically active. Then again we need to come to an agreement on what age group being a child consists of. Most studies however follow the ILOs convention No.138 and treat a person under 15 years old as a child and estimate child labour by observing economic activity of children under the age of 15. For the purpose of our study we will be looking at children between the ages 0-14. The aim of this paper is to discover the impact globalisation has had and is having on child labour. As globalization is a broad topic, I will be focusing specifically on trade liberalization, which plays an essential role within the globalization process. Liberalised trade had been the engine of capitalistic growth from colonial times; however globalization has led to a change in this pattern. Under colonialism, land conquest operated as a pre-condition and  (foreign) capital and (foreign) labour converged on land to produce goods for trade (e.g. plantation production). But, with globalization, capital is seeking investment outlets globally, where, besides marketing opportunities,  cheap labour is a key determinant. This has resulted in large scale foreign direct investment (FDI) with multi national corporations yielding the necessary structural change. LEDCs are keen to receive FDI and have gone to the extent of creating a suitable environment for such capital overlooking socia l issues.  The policy had been conducive for cheap labour in the form of children and women (e.g. garment industries within the FTZ in Sri Lanka). Economists argue that international trade is beneficial in terms of increasing the income of the country as well as creating job opportunities in the country. It is also one of the important sources of revenue for a developing country. But there is no denying that there may be losers from international trade too; for example the imports of cheap goods produced by low skilled workers may not only reduce the demand for those goods but also reduces employment opportunities for low skilled workers. Although trade can bring some disadvantages to a countrys economy, it is necessary that it does not effect the younger population who will determine the future of the economy. This paper investigates whether trade liberalization increases the incidence of child labour. Since our concern is working children, who are predominant in the developing world, my focus will be on developing countries specifically on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The main reason for why it is interesting to consider these South Asian countries is due to the high proportion (40%) of the worlds child labour emerging from these countries as well as the rapid export growth monitored in these countries. One would expect a positive relationship between trade openness and child labour as more trade means more exports, which in turn means an increase in demand for labour; therefore, children enter the labour market. However this is an extremely generalised statement, the next section presents what the economic theory says about this matter. This study looks at a panel of 50 developing countries over a period of 4 decades to in order to observe the effect of trade on chil d labour. Another reason for the use of panel data is due to the fact that child labour is not a recent issue, it has been happening for several decades now, therefore it is interesting to see if there has been a trend over time. It also makes sense to observe the consequences of globalisation over time as there has been a rapid, continuous progress in information and technology which highly contributes to trade liberalization (Krugman 1995), especially in the 1980s when globalisation got in its stride. In order to test the effect of trade liberalization on child labour, a multiple regression analysis will be carried out using economic activity rate of children between 10-14 as the indicator for child labour and the countrys imports and exports (%GDP) as the measure of trade openness. In addition control variables such as GDP per capita and proportion of children between 0-14 as well as regional dummies are added to the regression. Data are mainly collected from the World Bank and UN common database. The report proceeds as follows. Chapter 2 reviews the theory of trade and how it is likely to affect child labour. The methods used to carry out the empirical analysis along with the description of the data used is described in chapter 3. The results and findings are presented in chapter 4 followed by the conclusions and possible policy recommendations in chapter 5. Theory Parents make the decisions regarding whether to send their children to school; they make these decisions by comparing benefits and costs of education as well the opportunity cost of time spent in education rather than working. Ranjan (1999) says that credit market imperfections are the reason for the existence of borrowing constraints. Therefore when parents cannot borrow against their childrens future earnings, the deep poverty forces them to send their children to work. When the country opens to trade in an unskilled labour abundant country (i.e. developing country) this may affect child labour in two ways. Firstly, the demand effect due to the increase in wage of the unskilled workers which in turn reduces the returns to skilled workers. Looking at it in this perspective makes it more likely that parents would send their children to work rather than to school. Another perspective is that households with unskilled workers become better off as they receive higher wages; therefore th ere is less of a need to send the children to work. The overall outcome will depend on which of these effects dominates (Ranjan 2001). However it is important to note that the impact of trade liberalization on child labour will be varied in different countries depending on the factor endowments of the country. Developing countries are relatively abundant in unskilled labour therefore trade growth may not have a significant impact on child labour. Krueger(1996) says that trade between two countries is determined by comparative advantage. A country has a comparative advantage in producing a good if the opportunity cost of producing that good is smaller in that country compared to other countries. The country with a comparative advantage also uses its resources most efficiently in the production of that good. So for example if developing countries specialize in goods that make use of unskilled labour, more of those goods are produced. The country gains from trade due to its specialization in the products that uses its resources more efficiently. This in turn brings more income to the country which can then be used to buy the goods and services the country desires. Domestic workers also benefit from this as the familys real income increases from producing the good the country specializes in. This theory can be linked with the two possible implications trade has on child labour as discussed by Ranjan; income effect reduces child l abour as the additional income helps parents reduce the work load of their children or the higher income to families may also mean parents would rather send their children to work. However Cigno et al (2002) found a negative relationship between trade and the incidence of child labour in their cross country study. The problems using a cross country study is that data collection methods in different countries may vary; therefore results may be less reliable when comparing. Also cross sectional  studies are carried out at one particular point in time or over a short period of time, therefore its only a snapshot. The results may be different if the study had been carried out in a different period. Findings of Shelbourne (2002) also supports the results derived from the study carried out by Cigno et al. Her reasoning was that the economy expands due to international trade which in turn increases per capita GDP reducing the need for child labourers. This is not necessarily true as an i ncrease in the volume of production within the country might mean there is higher demand for cheap labour in order to maximize profits. The Heckscher-Ohlin theory explains trade through differences in resources. For example let us now take a look at a simple framework where capital and labour are the factors of production. Under this framework a country will have comparative advantage in producing goods which intensively uses the factor with which they are abundantly endowed. According to this theory openness to trade increases demand for the good produced by the abundant factor which indirectly increases the demand for the abundant factor itself. This also increases the price of the abundant factor. In other words, countries that have a relatively high proportion of labour (labour intensive), which are mainly the developing countries will tend to export labour intensive goods and countries which are well endowed in terms of capital will export capital intensive goods. (criticize) Brown (2000) and Dixit (2000) believe that when countries involve in trade the wages are determined by the prices of the products. In conjunction with Heckscher-Ohlins model, this means the increase in price of the export products can actually reduce the incidence of child labour as adult wages rise. However according to Maskus (1997) the demand for child labour depends on the demand for export goods. In other words the higher the demand for export goods the higher the demand for child workers through higher equilibrium wages. His theory, however contradicts with Stolper Samuelsons theorem, which states that the expansion of the export sector increases adult wages and therefore it reduces the supply of child labour. These are two contradicting views as the expansion in the export sector can either increase or decrease child labour. However, all these theories are solely based on income and how child labour is affected due to the income effects triggered by trade. Perhaps other factor s such as poverty and welfare benefits should be taken in to account. It is generally accepted that liberalization under globalization has led to a maldistribution of income, which has created relative poverty. The worst affected has been the LEDCs. It is also true that certain  LEDCs, the least developed ones, are also affected by absolute poverty. When families are threatened to be  below poverty lines, child labour becomes a convenient means to enhance family incomes. Moreover part of the liberalized programme under globalization has been a reduction in welfare activities both in the developing and developed world. World Bank and IMF impose on LDCs welfare reduction as a pre-requisite for capital and any other form of assistance. It has led to privatisation in especially health and education driving a lot of families to lower income levels, eventually, culminating in denial of proper educational facilities  and the creation of child labour. Overall, the review of theory works seems to be more supportive towards a negative relationship between trade openness and child labour mainly due to the positive income effect trade brings to the country. We will now take a look at some empirical evidence to see if they support these theories. Empirical evidence The empirical evidence already found on the relationship between trade openness and child labour does not give us a clear picture. Most cross-sectional studies tend to show a negative relationship between trade improvement and the incidence of child labour. In fact in the panel study carried out by Cigno et al. (2002) there were no significant relationship between the two variables. The overall effect of trade liberalization on child labour seems to differ across countries. Kis-Katos (2007) carried out an empirical study using a panel of 91 countries measuring variables every decade from 1960-2000. However she only included the countries that reported a positive value of child labour; one needs to take into consideration that not all countries let out information about issues such as child labour and also countries tend to underreport work by children, therefore her results may have been different if these secretive countries were also included. She found an overall increase in trade openness over the decades as well as a steady decrease in the incidence of child labour. However the reliability of the data should be taken into account as illegal work or household work carried out by children may not be reported, which affect the reliability of the results. Moreover in developing countries economic censuses are rare and the ILO often makes adjustments such as intrapolating or extrapolating data in order to get estimates. This means the actual values may be over or under estimated than the true value. Cigno et al. (2002) found no empirical evidence that international trade raises child labour. In fact their cross country study shows that trade liberalisation actually decreases child labour. One of the indicators they used to measure child labour was primary school non-attendance rate. It is important to note that child not attending school does not necessarily mean the child is engaging in economic activity. It may for example be the case that the family cannot afford to send the child to school or even that the child has health problems. Therefore using primary school non attendance rate is not as appropriate as an indicator. The other indicator used was economic activity of children between ages 10-14, which clearly excludes children younger the 10 who are more of a cause of concern. However considering there are only limited data available on child labour, these indicators do give us a broad brush picture of the evolution of child labour. Issues with the reliability of data are the same as those discussed for Kis-Katoss empirical study above. As we have seen, most of the empirical findings are consistent with the theoretical considerations we discussed previously. In other words empirical work carried out so far mainly find a negative relationship between trade openness and child labour supporting most of the theories. Methodology Our empirical work is aimed at understanding whether the panel data evidence suggests a link between trade and child labour and whether there is any evidence to support our hypothesis of trade liberalization exerting an upward pressure of child labour. Data and variables In order to address the research question which is to observe whether trade liberalization increases child labour, a panel of 50 developing countries are used, where the variables are measured every ten years between 1960-2000. The focus of the regression is to observe child labour over time keeping in mind the current wave of globalisation progressed rapidly around the 1980s. However by looking at the data it is important to note that not all countries have experienced an increase in trade over each decade. There are a total of 250 observations for each variable considered over the years 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000. A panel data method has been carried out for this analysis for several reasons. Firstly the use of panel data increases the number of observations. For example in our case using data over 5 different time periods has increased the sample size by 5 times which will help increase the precision of the regression estimates. It also increases the degrees of freedom and reduces the collinearity among explanatory variables, again increasing the precision of the estimates. Moreover it allows us to analyse important economic questions which cannot be addressed using cross sectional analysis alone. For example in our case using a cross sectional analysis will not be appropriate as we are interested in observing a trend over time. Data was taken from the World Bank development indicators (reference) and the United Nation common database. The dependent variable used is the economic activity rate of children between the ages 10-14 taken from the ILO estimates. Using this variable as an indicator for child labour has two main problems. Firstly children under the age of 10 who may be involved in child labour are excluded. Secondly this indicator does not include children working within the household, or children involved in illegal work such as prostitution. In developing countries economic censuses are rare and the ILO often makes adjustments such as intrapolating or extrapolating data in order to get estimates. This means the actual values may be over or under estimated than the true value, which also have an impact on the results. However considering the lack of data available on child labour and comparing with other indicators present, this indicator serves best available proxy for measuring child labour. As we are looking at the impact of trade on child labour the main explanatory variable used in our analysis is trade (% GDP). The trade variable gives the sum of exports and imports of goods and services measured as a share of gross domestic product. In addition to this two other control variables have been included. The control variables are GDP per capita growth (%) and the age group 0-14 as a percentage of the whole population. The reason for the use of control variables is to see if there is actually a relationship between trade and child labour given that these control variables which also affect the dependent variable are kept constant. It would have been desirable to control for variables such as poverty and differences in income distribution, but the data available was not sufficiently consistent across the countries and years we are considering. GDP per capita is used as a control variable because it controls for average income effects caused by trade liberalization. As we mentioned earlier increase in trade means countries gain new production opportunities which in turn increases GDP per capita. This positive income effect is most likely to reduce child labour. Therefore it is essential to control this variable. The other control variable used is age group 0-14 as a percentage of the whole population. This variable allows us to observe whether the increase in number of children in that given age group over the years affects child labour. The notion behind this is that the larger the families the higher the demand for income therefore a higher chance of children entering the labour force. As my main focus is on South Asian countries a regional dummy variable has been added to the regression which takes a value of 1 if the country is in South Asia and a value of 0 if not. This regional dummy helps to capture the change in child labour in the south Asian countries which is known to have a high prevalence of child labour. Results By looking at the data for every 10 years from 1960 to 2000, we can see a general increase in trade openness over time as well as a steady decrease in economic activity rates. We begin our analysis by considering the association between volume of trade (openness) and child labour for the years 1960, 1980 and 2000. This allows us to have a rough overview of how the relationship has changed (if any) before and after globalisation (considering globalisation occurred around the 1980s). 1980 This figure shows a scatter plot of the data for 1980 for the variables trade and child labour. A point on this scatter plot represents the volume of trade in 1980 and the economic activity rate of children between 10-14 in 1980 for a given country. The OLS regression line obtained by regressing these two variables is also plotted on the figure, which shows a slightly negative relationship; the estimated regression line is: CL = 26.6601794934 0.0149024702066*TRADE (1980 data) Because we have data for more than one year, we can re-examine this relation for another year. The scatter plots for the years 1960 and 2000 are given below. CL = 36.3205247048 0.119594768169*TRADE (1960 data) CL = 26.0540622351 0.109873185356*TRADE (2000 data) All three scatter plots show a negative relation between trade and child labour although year 2000 has the highest coefficient on trade implying that the reduction in child labour was greater in the year 2000 compared to 1960 and 1980. Keeping in mind that globalization took its stride in the 1980s, these scatter plots show that globalization has in fact reduced child labour further. However these plots only show what happened in that specific year, there may have been fluctuations between the years (i.e between 1980 and 1990) and also we cannot tell the trend over time using these individual plots. A better way of estimating the relationship is a regression approach that takes into account both the time and the cross section. Estimation strategy The estimation equation is of the following form: CLit = f( Tradeit, GDPit, Population 0-14it, Regional dummy for South Asiait), Where i= country x and t= time (decade t). More formally: Yit = ÃŽÂ ²1i + ÃŽÂ ²2X2it + ÃŽÂ ²3X3it + ÃŽÂ ²4X4it + ÃŽÂ ´(SAit) + ÃŽÂ µit. The anticipated signs of the coefficients: The coefficient of trade (ÃŽÂ ²2) which is what we are most interested in could either be positive or negative, although according to theory it is most likely to be negative. Coefficient of GDP (ÃŽÂ ²3) is expected to be negative as the higher the GDP per capita the lower the incidence of child labour due to the positive income effect. The coefficient of the number of children aged 0-14 (ÃŽÂ ²4) is expected to be positive as the larger the number of children per family the higher the demand for income in order to support the family. As south Asia has a high incidence of child labour, the coefficient of the dummy variable is expected to be positive and large. Dependent Variable: CL Method: Panel Least Squares Date: 03/21/10 Time: 16:24 Sample: 1 5 Periods included: 5 Cross-sections included: 50 Total panel (balanced) observations: 250 Variable Coefficient Std. Error t-Statistic Prob.  Ã‚   C -1.326061 7.182926 -0.184613 0.8537 TRADE -0.103054 0.031110 -3.312572 0.0011 GDP -0.448464 0.186588 -2.403504 0.0170 POP 0.778480 0.163337 4.766091 0.0000 SA 6.023961 3.378131 1.783223 0.0758 R-squared 0.149969   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mean dependent var 25.40160 Adjusted R-squared 0.136091   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  S.D. dependent var 15.99024 S.E. of regression 14.86241   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Akaike info criterion 8.255344 Sum squared resid 54118.32   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Schwarz criterion 8.325773 Log likelihood -1026.918   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hannan-Quinn criter. 8.283690 F-statistic 10.80618   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Durbin-Watson stat 0.152585 Prob(F-statistic) 0.000000 CL = -1.32606116682 0.103053628312*TRADE 0.448464386734*GDP + 0.778479521915*POP + 6.0239606613*SA The results show the coefficients of ÃŽÂ ²2, ÃŽÂ ²3, ÃŽÂ ²4 are as expected. For a given country i, when trade liberalization varies across time by one unit, child labour decreases by 0.103 units. Similarly when GDP and population vary across time by one unit child labour decreases by 0.448 and increases by 0.778 respectively. Looking at the results it is clear that trade liberalization does not have much of an impact on child labour as indicated by a very small coefficient, which we may even interpret as there being no impact of trade on child labour. It is important to note that being a South Asian country is associated with child labour that is 6.02 units higher, everything else held constant. This was also expected as we found out earlier that a large proportion of child labour comes from South Asian countries. Our previous theory discussion implied that the relationship between openness and child labour could be either positive or negative. Our results suggest that grea ter openness is associated with slightly less child labour or even no effect on child labour. In order to test the significance of the coefficients, t-tests have been carried for each variable: Trade: H0: ÃŽÂ ²2 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 0 (there is no relationship or a positive relationship between trade openness and child labour) H1: ÃŽÂ ²2 t = b2 = -3.313 se(b2) Under the 5% significance level the critical t-value is t(0.05,246) = -1.651. Since -3.313 GDP: H0: ÃŽÂ ²3 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ 0 (there is no relationship or a positive relationship between GDP and child labour) H1: ÃŽÂ ²3 t = b3 = -2.404 se(b3) Since -2.404 Number of children between 0-14: H0: ÃŽÂ ²4 = 0 (there is no relationship between number of children and child labour) H1: ÃŽÂ ²4 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚   0 (there is a negative relationship between number of children and child labour) t = b4 = 4.77 se(b4) Since 4.77 > 1.651 we do not reject H0. In this case there is insufficient evidence in our sample to conclude that there is a relationship between number of children between 0-14 and child labour. Therefore we cannot be confident that this variable is actually has an impact on child labour. Perhaps further research into this will be useful. Estimating the regression excluding the population variable yields similar coefficients for the trade and GDP variables however the dummy variable for south Asia has a much smaller coefficient compared to when population was included. This shows that population is an important variable when considering South Asian countries and excluding it leads to an omitted variable bias especially when south Asian countries are involved. This is true as countries like India have a very large population therefore the proportion of children between 0-14 is likely to be high. As discussed earlier large number of children per household means extra income is required to support the family, which may lead to a necessity for children to work. Although population is an important variable, regressing it with child labour may not yield extremely reliable results in our case. This is because we are only taking into account children between the ages 10-14 as a measure of child labour, which is excluding the age group 0-9, whereas the population variables includes all ages between 0-14. This implies that the coefficient is likely to be much higher if we were to include economic activity rate of children between 0-14 as our dependent variable, which was not possible due to limited availability of data. This may be a reason why the coefficient of the population variable was insignificant as we found when carrying out the t-test. These results interpreted above however did not control for the characteristics of the countries. Fixed effect approach An advantage of panel data is that we are able to hold constant individual differences which allow us to focus on marginal effects of the independent variables considered. It is reasonable to into include the fixed effects model in our analysis as the data complies with the 2 basic requirements of using the fixed effects model; firstly dependent variable must be measured for each country for at least 2 periods and secondly the independent variable must change in value across the periods. There is no need to add the dummy variable in this case as the fixed effects are already controlling for location. Having the cross section as fixed yield the following results: As we can see from the table the coefficient of trade is more or less the same as before, however GDP now has a slightly positive coefficient. The regression R2 jumps from 0.0705 to 0.9097 when fixed effects are included. This shows that the country fixed effects account for a large amount of variation in the data. Although fixed effect approach has an attractive feature that allows controlling for the variables that have not or cannot be measured, they only take into account within country differences discarding any information about differences between countries. An F-test can be carried out to see if there is individual differences and it if is important to include cross section fixed effects in the model. Ho: ÃŽÂ ²11=ÃŽÂ ²12=ÃŽÂ ²13à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. =ÃŽÂ ²1N (no fixed effect differences) H1: the ÃŽÂ ²1i are not all equal F = (SSER SSEU) /J = 38.63 SSEU/(NT-N-(K-1)) Where the degrees of freedom J = N-1 = 50-1 = 49 and NT-N-(K-1) = (50x 5)-50-(3-1) = 198. Under the 5% significant level the critical value is Fc = 1.419 We reject Ho if F à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥ Fc, since 38.63 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¥1.419 we reject the null hypothesis of no fixed effect differences between these countries, therefore it is good to include fixed effects in the model. Overall, changes in trade over the decades had no impact or very little (decrease) effect on child labour. The other explanatory variables GDP and population also had the expected signs on the coefficients although under the fixed effects GDP had a small but positive coefficient. (what does this mean?) These finding are consistent with the theory we discussed previously. Policy interventions What can the Government do to reduce child labour? Some of the previous studies carried out on this topic have mainly mentioned improvements in schooling facilities as one of the main policy recommendations for combating child labour. For example Basu (0000) says that availability of good schools and provision of free meals for the children would be a way to reduce the number of children working. However, developing countries are generally poorer due to the lack of funds; therefore it may not be feasible to invest a lot on schooling. Moreover, attending school is only going to decrease full time work, whereas children could still be involved in part-time work after school. This shows that it is very difficult to abolish child labour completely by changes in schooling policy. Basu also mentions that a total ban on child labour may be a better option as a large scale of withdrawa

Disconcerting Behaviour in The Wasp Factory and A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

‘Compare the ways writers’ present disconcerting behaviour in both texts so far.’ The following will elucidate how disturbing behaviour is conveyed in the novel The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks and the play, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the theme of violence is very frequent in the character Stanley Kowalski. Stanley is a married, young man, who comes across to the reader as quite an enraged person with animalistic attributes. A prime insinuation of Stanley’s difference to regular humans is when Stella DuBois (Stanley’s wife) explains to her sister that Stanley is of â€Å"a different species†, foreshadowing that Williams may be warning the reader that Stanley is capable of things that are not in the norm. Additionally, his manner of walking is often described as â€Å"stalks†, which is commonly used to describe animals, such as smilodons and cheetahs and both of which are quite vicious, uncontrollable creatures. Further animalistic gestures performed by Stanley include â€Å"jerks out an armful of dresses† and â€Å"jerks open a small drawer†, not to mention the fact that he â€Å"kicks the trunk†. In excess of these being certain exemplifications of Stanley’s brutal attitude, they also indicate Stanley’s lack of self-control, which once again is similar to an animal trait, as animals are liable to be quite ruthless and don’t think abou t their actions before they carry it out. Furthermore, the fact that Stanley is acting quite rudely towards his sister-in-law and a just-arrived guest fortifies the belief that he is uncaring and confounding towards new people, thus makes him even more animal-like, since most animals dislike people or things that are new to them. Inasmuch, the above is a distinctive example of disconcerting behaviour, particularly because Stanley is an adult and adults tend to be very responsible people, however in the above case mentioned Stanley is not as he is behaving rather irresponsibly. Playwright Tennessee Williams suffered a very brutal childhood filled with abuse and mistreat. The actions of Stanley are highly significant as they reflect on and are analogous to Williams’ father, who physically abused Tennessee Williams callously when he was child up to his teenage years. Williams himself claimed that A Streetcar Named Desire was â€Å"Everything I had to say†, which goes to show the significance of the playwright’s life on A Streetcar Named Desire. Another major indication of Stanley’s violence is when he â€Å"gives a loud whack of his hand on her (referring to Stella) thigh† and gives her a rough beating when Stella tries to calm Stanley down from being abrasive towards Blanche, which is relatively disconcerting, since Stella is pregnant; hence she is in need of comfort, love and support. In opposed to Stanley giving Stella moral support and his duty as a husband to protect his pregnant wife, Stanley seems to think it is okay to hurt her, which is fundamentally wrong and very disturbing. On the other hand, the above mentioned phase of the play reinforces the fact that there was much male dominance in the early 1900s. Stella is also portrayed as one of the weaknesses than the strengths of civilisation in her acceptance of a husband who gives her satisfaction of physical desire. Critic, Nancy Tischner suggests â€Å"apparently Williams wants the audience to believe that Stella is wrong in loving Stanley, but right in living with him.† Personally, I agree with Tischner, simply because it was explicit that the 1900s was a patriarchal society. Women were inferior to men and were represented mostly through their husbands; consequently they were submissive and dependent on their husbands, because they needed a place to live and food to eat. The message of male ascendancy is articulated in a conversation between Stanley and Stella in which Stella asks her husband for money so she could buy her sister dinner, because she knows she hasn’t any money herself: â€Å"†¦you’d better give me some money† (scene II), which emphasizes that wives were reliant on their husbands for support, even if they weren’t entirely happy in their relationship. Another indication of Stella’s dependence in Stanley is when she claimed that she â€Å"can’t stand when he (Stanley) is away for a night †¦ I cry on his lap like a baby.† Although this highlights that Stella is highly dependent on Stanley, we cannot ignore the fact that she loves him too. Similar to Stanley Kowalski, the protagonist of The Wasp Factory, Frank Cauldhame also behaves violently; however in Frank’s case violence is directed mostly towards animals as he is aware of his superiority to them, just as Stanley is aware he is superior to his wife. The reader follows account of how Frank fills his long, solitary summer victimising animals such as rabbits, as well as killing wasps on a daily basis. Frank’s annihilation of rabbits on the island is a crucial example of how violence is a conventional part of his life – as if he’s accepted that killing and deliberately hurting things will always be normal to him. Frank â€Å"throttled the rabbit, swinging it in front of him †¦ its neck held on the thin black line of rubber tubing†. It is highly disturbing how a 16-year old is comfortable in inflicting pain on innocent creatures, not to mention killing them as well as finding it rather amusing, as he claims â€Å"I felt good† after his genocidal of the rabbits. Moreover, Frank does not undergo any remorse after he has committed these harsh doings, because after he killed a cute little bunny he â€Å"kicked it into the water.† Despite Stanley being violent towards his inferior (Stella), Frank’s violence is slightly different in comparison to Stanley, as Stanley definitely displays contriteness and guilt after he attacks Stella, whereas Frank demonstrates no pity whatsoever, which accentuates Frank is hysterically riotous, accordingly a person who constantly carries out disconcerting behaviour. A point that must be noted in A Streetcar Named Desire is my belief that Blanche DuBoi’s insecurity could be seen as a form of disconcerting behaviour. Blanche is constantly fishing for compliments from Stella, which may not seem disturbing at first at all, as most people like to be complimented on their beauty, however, when Stella asks Stanley to â€Å"admire her dress and tell her she’s looking wonderful. That’s important with Blanche. Her little weakness†, we begin to question whether Blanche is totally obsessed with herself and her image. The fact that Stella claims â€Å"looks† are Blanche’s â€Å"weakness† strengthens the belief that Blanche is insecure – especially because this judgement is made from her sister who is very close to Blanche. Her insecurity highlights the belief that Blanche is a very disturbed person and we can make an assumption that an incident in the past has caused this anxiety in her. In addition, when Blanche declares she still has vanity about her beauty, she looks over at her sister Stella â€Å"for reassurance†. We can deduce from Blanche’s final look at Stella to assure she still looks pretty that Blanche definitely self-doubts her appearance and is thinks it’s critical about what people think of her; which further reinforces she is a very unsettled person – perhaps the opposite of Stella, as Stella already has her own husband, home and happiness of a new addition to the family to look forward to. Furthermore, when Blanche exclaims: â€Å"Turn that over-light off! Turn that off! I won’t be looked at in this merciless glare† I find it slightly disconcerting, as she makes such a big deal out of her looks as though it’s gold dust for her and if a speck of it is ruined, then so be herself. The fact that she requests that she would like the light to be off can deduce that Blanche does not want to display her true reality and perhaps she is hiding something. Also the fact that she is older than Stella and has more experience in life, despite this, Stella seems to have a more mature outlook on life than Blanche. A review by a man named Benjamin Nelson theorises that â€Å"Blanche’s inability to tragically mature is a result of her incompletion and fragmentation†. What Nelson is saying is that people are responsible for their own doings provided their current situation has been truly stimulated. Then, and only then, can a classic tragic character evolve, similarly, Blanche finds herself in a situation which is completely different to how she was perhaps living before and has to keep an eye on how she is displaying her self-image to others. The reader is aware that Blanche is not an entirely honest person, as she lies to herself and others about her drinking habits as she begins with telling her sister that (drink-wise) one is her limit. The fact that the first practical task Blanche carries out in Stella’s home is â€Å"she springs up and crosses to it, and removes a whiskey bottle.†, underlines that drinking may be a usual thing is her life, so why does she attempt to hide it all the time? The answer to this of course is so she comes across as socially desirable to new people and especially in Mitch’s case, sexually admirable. When Mitch is around, Blanche stands near the light when the curtain is drawn, as to show her body to Mitch, supposedly for her sense of self-esteem, which means that she has often succumbed to passion. Nevertheless, throughout the play, Blanche avoids appearing in direct, bright light, particularly in front of Mitch. This implies that Blanche perchance looks to Mitch as a future partner. She also refuses to reveal her age, and it is clear that she avoids light in order to prevent him from seeing the reality of her fading beauty. This fits in with the analogy that Blanche can be seen as moth, as moths avoid because they can’t stand it. In addition to this theory, moths are usually very irritating creatures and tend to cause havoc wherever they go, such as nibbling on clothes and entering rooms without permission. Blanche too has a moth-like persona as she seems to be interference in Stanley and Stella’s love life, as from the moment she has arrived, the couple had an argument immediately. Stanley’s perception of Blanche is that she is a nuisance and doesn’t like the fact that she is staying in his home: â€Å"What do you think you are? A pair of queens?†, which implies that Blanche is behaving too badly for Stanley’s liking. Initially, Tennessee Williams was going to name this play ‘The Moth’, simply because Blanche is such an essential persona in A Streetcar Named Desire. Just as Ms Blanche DuBois is apprehensive about her appearance and quite uncomfortable in her skin, so is Mr Frank Cauldhame in The Wasp Factory. Due to the ‘accident’ Frank apparently faced as a child in which his male genitalia was bitten off by a dog, it is obvious that he isn’t satisfied with his image. Frank wants to be looked at as frightening to people and even stated: â€Å"Looking at me, you’d never guess I’d killed three people†, as though it’s something people should know and as though he is proud of what he did. He says he â€Å"wants to look dark and menacing †¦ the way I might have looked if I hadn’t had my little accident.† This sustains the belief that Frank feels highly uncomfortable with his looks mainly due to the accident. Killing is a very violent act, stereotypically associated with the male gender in which Frank is so desperately trying to conform into. However, he finds it rather hard and feels insecure about his masculinity due to his ‘accident’, therefore resorts to great lengths such as killing people and animals as a method of defining and assuring himself he is a boy. This is slightly similar to Blanche, as Blanche resorts to lying to paint a portrait of how she desires to be looked out, nonetheless, different because Blanche is not so extreme to the point that she harms people like Frank. Undoubtedly, I find Frank’s killings to emphasize on his masculinity rather pathetic and extremely disconcerting, since he is a teenager and almost seventeen years of age, as a result he should be more than aware of what is right and what is wrong and killing is indeed wrong. On the other hand, I do feel a little sympathy for Frank as he is very isolated and his father refused to allow Frank to officially exist in society, thence he may not have entirely been taught what is morally right and what is morally wrong by his father – especially since his mother is dead and he has no other mother figure in life to guide him. Other than Frank committing overly masculine acts to demonstrate that he is definitely a boy, Frank envisions himself as someone that is strong and powerful and is upset with his appearance as he laments the fact that he is â€Å"chubby†. This is very similar to Blanche, as she too comments on how slender her figure has remained over the years and for reassurance glances at her sister. To conclude, I would like to say that disconcerting behaviour is common in both texts and there are various similarities, as well as differences in phases of both the play and the novel.

Fighting for Rights - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2261 Downloads: 2 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Law Essay Type Research paper Topics: Human Rights Essay Indian Culture Essay Did you like this example? In 1925 the Indian National Congress adopted the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Declaration of Rights.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ In subsequent session held at Madras held in the year 1927 demanded incorporation of a à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Declaration of Fundamental Rightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in any future constitutional framework following which, a committee under Motilal Nehru was appointed by the National Congress to study the fundamental rights. The rights emphasized by the Motilal Nehru Committee Report were: Personal liberty, inviolability of dwelling place and property Freedom of conscience, and of profession and practice of religion Expression of opinion and the right to assemble peaceably without arms and to form associations Free elementary education Equality for all before the law and rights Right to the writ of Habeas Corpus Protection from punishment under ex-post facto laws Non-discrimination against any person on grounds of religion, caste or creed in the matter of public employment Equality of right in the matter of access to and use of public roads, wells etc. Freedom of combination and association for the maintenance and implementation of labor and economic factors Right to keep and bear arms Equality of rights to man and woman There was a big blow to the fight for rights as soon after this the Government of India Act, 1935 was passed without any bill of rights much to the disappointment of the Indian leaders. It was the Sapru Committeeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ in the year 1945 that successively stressed the need for a written code of fundamental rights and the Constituent Assembly, thus in response raised a forceful demand for the inclusion of human rights in the Constitution. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Fighting for Rights" essay for you Create order 1.2 Human Rights and the Indian Constitution The Indian Constitution was framed by the Constituent Assembly of India, which met for the first time on December 9, 1946. The Constitution of India gave primary importance to human rights. To quote Guha, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The demand for a declaration of fundamental rights arose from four factors.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Lack of civil liberty in India during the British rule Deplorable social conditions, particularly affecting the untouchables and women Existence of different religious, linguistic, and ethnic groups encouraged and exploited by the Britishers Exploitation of the tenants by the landlords The Constituent Assembly incorporatedthe substance of the rights proclaimed and adopted by the General Assembly in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the constitution of India In the year 1948, when the Constitution of India was in the making, the General Assembly proclaimed and adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which definitely influenced the framing of Indiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Constitution. The Constitution of the Republic of India which came into force on 26th January 1950 with 395 Articles and 8 Schedules, is one of the most elaborated set of fundamental laws ever adopted in the world. The plethora of rights are much more than the American bill of rights. The Preamble to the Constitution declares India to be a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular and Democratic Republic. The term à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"democraticà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ denotes that the Government gets its authority from the will of the people. It gives a feeling that they all are equal à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã …“irrespective of the race, religion, language, sex and culture.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The Preamble to the Constitution pledges justice, social, economic and political, liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, equality of status and of opportunity and fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the unity and integrity of the nation to ail its citizens. 1.3 Institutional Framework and Human Rights India is divided into twenty nine (29) States and seven Union territories (centrally administered). The Constitution of India provides for division of legislative functions between Parliament and the State Legislatures to devolve the administrative system and thus ensuring rights at local level as well. 1.3.1 India and the Universal Declaration India is the signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A number of fundamental rights guaranteed to the individuals in Part III of the Indian Constitution are similar to the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The following chart makes it very clear. Table 1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ1: Civil and Political Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Indian Constitution Sl.No. Name of Rights Universal Declaration Indian Constitution 1. Equality before law Article 7 Article 14 2 Prohibition of discrimination Article 7 Article 15(1) 3. Equality of opportunity Article 21(2) Article 16(1) 4. Freedom of speech and expression Article 19 Article 19(1) (a) 5. Freedom of peaceful assembly Article 20(1) Article 19(1) (b) 6. Right to form associations or unions Article 23(4) Article 19(1) (c) 7. Freedom of movement within the border Article 13 (1) Article 19(1) (d) 8. Protection in respect of conviction for offences Article 11 (2) Article 20 (1) 9. Protection of life and personal liberty Article 3 Article 21 10. Protection of slavery and forced labor Article 4 Article 23 11. Freedom of conscience and religion Article 18 Article 25(1 12. Remedy for enforcement of rights Article 8 Article 32 13. Right against arbitrary arrest and detention Article 9 Article 22 14. Right to social security Article 22 Article 29(1) The table below shows; that most of the economic, social and cultural rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights have been incorporated in part IV of the Indian Constitution. Table 1à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ2: Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Indian Constitution Sl.No. Universal Declaration of Rights Article in the Universal Declaration Article in the Indian Constitution 1. Right to work, to just and favorable conditions of work Article 23 (1) Article 41 2. Right to equal pay for equal work Article 23(2) Article 39 (d) 3. Right to education Article 26(1) Articles 21(A), 41, 45 51A(k) 4. Right to just and favorable remuneration Article 23(3) Article 43 5. Right to rest and leisure Article 24 Article 43 6. Right of everyone to a standard of living adequate for him and his family Article 25(1) Article 39(a) Article 47 7. Right to a proper social order Article 28 Article 38 In the landmark judgment, Keshavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala,[1] the Supreme Court observed, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“The Universal Declaration of Human Rights may not be a legally binding instrument but: it shows how India understood the nature of human rights at the time the Constitution was adopted.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Constitutional interpretation of Human Rights in India has been strongly influenced by the Declaration. India further ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on March 27, 1979. The Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1989, however, was not ratified by India. 1.3.2 Fundamental Rights and Human Rights The judicially enforceable fundamental rights which encompass all seminal civil and political rights and some of the rights of minorities are enshrined in part III of the Constitution (Articles 12 to 35). As it can be noted that Fundamental rights differ from ordinary rights in the sense that the former are inviolable. None of the law, ordinance, custom, usage, or administrative order can abridge or take them away them. Any law violating any of the fundamental right will be held void. Chief Justice Subba Rao in the landmark judgement Golak Nath v. State of Punjab had rightly observed, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Fundamental rights are the modern name for what have been traditionally known as natural rights,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The Supreme Court of India in other judgment recognized these fundamental rights as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Natural Rightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ or à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Human Rightsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. In ADM Jabalpur v. Shukla, Justice Beg observed, in the similar tone, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the o bject of making certain general aspects of rights fundamental is to guarantee them against illegal invasion of these rights by executive, legislative, or judicial organ of the State.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  The list of the Fundamental Rightsenshrined in the Constitution of India, which serves to be purposeful in our analysis of rights denied and rights ignored and rights violated through the issue of human trafficking.Article 14 right of all persons to equality before the law. Whereas,Article 15 prohibits the State from discriminating against any citizen on grounds of religion, race,caste, sex or place of birth, and prohibits any restriction on any citizenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s access to any public place, including wells and tanks. Under separate headArticle 16 i.e. Equality of opportunity for all citizens in matters of public employment is guaranteed. Both Articles 15 and 16 enable the State to make special provisions for the advancement of socially and educationally backward classes, for s uch castes and tribes as recognized in the Constitution (known as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) require very special treatment for their advancement. In different connotation Article 17: Abolishes untouchability and makes its practice an offence punishable under law. The right to freedom of speech and expression mentioned in Article 19: This encompasses the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble peaceably without arms, the right to form associations or unions, the right to move freely throughout the territory of India, the right of residence, and the right to practice any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business. This right is reserved only for the citizens. In Chairman Railway Board and others v. Chandrima Das[2] the Supreme Court, in Anwar State of Jammu and Kashmir it was held that non-citizens could not claim fundamental rights provided under Article 19. It observed that: Fundamental rights are available to a ll the persons of this country and those who are not citizens of this country and who come here as tourists or in any other capacity, are entitled to the protection of their lives in accordance with the Constitutional provisions. They also have a right to life in this country. Thus they also have the right to live with human dignity so long as they are here in India. Article 14 which guarantees equality before law and equal protection of laws within the territory of India is applicable to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“personà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  who would also include both the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“citizensà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  of this country and non-citizens. In this case, a Bangladeshi national Mrs. Khatoon was gang raped by the Railway employees in a room at the Yatri Niwas of the Howrah Railway Station in West Bengal. The Calcutta High Court allowed compensation of a sum of rupees 10 lakhs to her for having been gang raped. Upholding the decision of the High Court, the Supreme Court held that as a national of another country, she could not be subjected to a treatment, which was below the dignity, nor could she be subjected to physical violence at the hands of Government employees who outraged her modesty. According to the tone and the tenor of the language used in Article 21, they are available not only to every citizen of this country but also to a person of another country. The Apex Court also held that since the word à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"lifeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ has been used in Article 21 of the Constitution as a basic human right in the same sense as understood in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, there is no reason why it should be given a narrow meaning. Article 20 provides the protection of a person in respect of conviction of offences is guaranteed through this article which includes protection against ex post facto criminal laws, the principle of autre fois convict and the right against self-incrimination. whereasArticle 21 being the umbrella of rights provides the core of all fundamental rights provisions in the Indian Constitution, ordains: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Article 21A provides right to free education this was added to the Constitution by the Eighty Sixth Constitutional Amendment Act 2002. Article 21A proclaims à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Article 22 says about the rights of a person, arrested and detained by the State authorities. These include the right to be informed of the grounds of arrest, the right to legal advice and the right to be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest (except where one is arrested under a preventive detention law). Whereas Article 23 talks about the right against exploitation includes prohibition of trafficking in h uman beings and forced labor and prohibition of employment of children below 14 years of age à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“to work in any factory or mine or in any other hazardous employment.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Amongst all these rights, Article 23 is very important for our study along with other rights that are guaranteed and deserved in all its forms. The Article 32 of the constitution enshrines the right to Constitutional remedies definitely deserves to be earmarked for it is essentially the right to move the Supreme Court of India for enforcement of the above rights. 1.3.3 Specified Fundamental Rights Fundamental rights guaranteed under the Indian Constitution may be divided, for the sake of convenience, into two categories viz., specified fundamental rights and other fundamental rights (rights not specifically enumerated). Many of the rights enshrined in the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights have been recognized specially in the Indian Constitution as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"fundamental rights.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ The under mentioned table shows the different Articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Indian Constitution wherein identical rights are stipulated. Table 13: Different Articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Indian Constitution Sl.No. Fundamental Rights Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Indian Constitution 1. Forced labor Article 8(3) Article 23 2. Equality before law Article 14(1) Article 14 3. Prohibition of discrimination Article 26 Article 15 4. Equality of opportunity to public service Article 25(C) Article 16(1) 5. Freedom of speech and expression Article 19(1) (2) Article 19(1) (a) 6. Right for peaceful assembly Article 21 Article 19(1) (b) 7. Right to freedom of association Article 22(1) Article 19(1) (c) 8. Right to move freely within the territory of a State Article 12(1) Article 19(1) (d) (e) 9. Protection in respect of conviction of offences Article 15(1) Article 20(1) 10. Protection from prosecution and punishment Article 14(7) Article 20(2) 11. Not to be compelled to testify against himself Article 14(3)(g) Article 20(3) 12. Right to life and liberty Article 6(1 ) 9(1) Article 21 13. Right to child education Article 26(1) Article 21(A) 14. Protection against arrest and detention Article 9(2)(3) (4) Article 22 15. Freedom of conscience .and religion Article 18(1) Article 25 [1] A.I.R. 1973 S.C. 1461 at 1510 [2] A.I.R. 2000 (I) S.C. 2E5,

Summary Of Kenneth Pomeranzs Political Economy And...

During 2002, an essay was published titled â€Å"Political Economy and Ecology on the Eve of Industrialization: Europe, China, and the Global Conjuncture†. This was the works of Kenneth Pomeranz who provoked a distinctive question about China in relation to Great Britain around the 1800s. In his published book The Great Divergence, Pomeranz states that China and Great Britain were on similar trails leading towards the Industrial Revolution until a â€Å"Great Divergence† arose during the 1800s that sent these two emerging nations towards diverse routes. In his essay Pomeranz efficiently states how China and Great Britain developed differently due to the coal and colonies. Pomeranz argues how these two aspects assisted Great Britain in dodging†¦show more content†¦China depleted the consumption of their resources, while Great Britain benefitted off the amount of coal they were able to mine and utilize, and the reduced fees and accessible trade they were able to secure from their colonies. Pomeranz also argues that although economic factors had similar principles, environmental strains were similar, and â€Å"the most advanced parts of China in many ways resembled parts of the European mainland† (Pomeranz 2002, 420) . China still experienced inactivity while Great Britain experienced remarkable progress. According to Pomeranz, this had to do with the â€Å"constraints of finite land† (Pomeranz 2002, 444) and Great Britain’s capability to manage this more effectively. According to Pomeranz’s view, this divergence was provoked by the Industrial Revolution, and set China on a route to labor concentrated routines, while Great Britain spearheaded towards the cultivation of technological innovation. Though Jan de Vries praises Pomeranz and his ability to question the divergence that instigates much historical deliberation, de Vries find many gaps in Pomeranz’s theory. The main issue de Vries call attention to is that this so called â€Å"divergence† Pomeranz illustrates didn’t begin in the 1800s, rather prior to the 1800’s. The Industrial Revolution, according to de Vries, has an abundant â€Å"history† of â€Å"industrial, commercial, financial, and agricultural development† (de Vries 2011, 15) . This â€Å"history† of the Industrial