“I am not a social worker. I am not a teacher, even. That is my fear, you know, that I really can’t do anything. Helping them to get and education is not going to do anything, but without help they are doomed (Born into Brothels, 2004).” Zana Briski made this statement in her documentary Born into Brothels, referring to the children of sex workers in Sonagachi. This statement exemplifies child saving, a dominant theme in children’s discourse, that portrays children as vulnerable, innocent, and in need of “saving” from poverty and immorality according to a view of a universal childhood (Wells, 2009, pg.28). Child saving efforts remove children from their homes and families and place them in new homes or schools to discursively separate them from their parents (Wells, 2009, pg.28). Therefore, they would have the opportunity to be successful. Saving children based on the western conception of childhood has proved to be ineffective and culturally inappropriate when applied to international circumstances. By examining Zana Briski’s method of saving the children in Sonagachi and reviewing the criticisms of the film, it can be determined that her method of saving the children was unnecessary and contributes to the dominance of western political discourse based on the concept of a universal childhood and what western culture considers to be the “best interests” of the child. This essay will address Briski’s method of saving the children in Sonagachi, explore alternative options to child saving through structural reformation and rights based approaches, and examine how the use of images to save children and the globalization of childhood create political problems on an international scale.
Briski’s method is ineffective in that she focuse...
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...ng on structural issues would be a better approach to assisting other cultures rather than forcing them to conform to the idea of a universal childhood.
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As Garbarino recognizes, the effects of war and such violence is something that sticks with a child and remains constant in their everyday lives. The experiences that children face involving war in their communities and countries are traumatic and long lasting. It not only alters their childhood perspectives, but it also changes their reactions to violence over time. Sadly, children are beginning to play more of a major role in wars in both the...
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Canada's child care policy has always been a topic of heated debate. Presently, Canada is one of the only developed countries worldwide that does not have plan in place for nation wide child care (Hurtig, 2002). Howe & Covell (2007) state that "Canada has failed to make progress toward a system of universal high quality early learning and child care or even toward establishing widespread access to high quality programs" (p.47). According to Campaign 2000, early childhood education programs are an essential component in reducing poverty and providing children with the ’best start in life”. In addition to reducing poverty, early childhood education programs "strengthen the foundations of learning for all children, supports the social need of families, and promotes equal opportunities for women in the labour market” (www.campaign2000.ca, 2010). Campaign 2000 continues on to report that although these early childhood education programs should be readily obtainable for all families across Canada, the current programs available in Canada curtails the actual needs of Canadian families.
Former president of South Africa and freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela once said “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” Regardless of the society they live in, every child has the right to grow, to learn, to dream, and ultimately be a child. However, in the world we live in, not all children have these rights. Several children are being forced to work at the expense of their education, health, and morals. What is there to say about a society’s soul that condones or overlooks child labor? This disheartening issue is evident in several societies and it takes place right under our noses. Orson Card’s novel, Ender’s Game, encompasses the human rights issue of child labor, a matter that
Horowitz article “Child Development and the PITS: Simple Questions, Complex Answers, and Developmental Theory” speaks about the expressed and unexpressed needs of parents, caregivers, and teachers to come across data and/or answers that demonstrate that there is a single-variable responsibility for developmental outcomes. As a result of such needs, the media overgeneralizes, exaggerates, and popularizes messages and advices. However, messages that encourage single-variable responsibility influence “good enough” advice and “seemingly” scientific rationale for the failure to educate. The message that Horowitz attempts to convey through this article is to counteract the idea of simple questions resulting in simple answers. She states “if we accept as a challenge the need to act with social responsibility then we must make sure that we do not use singe-variable words…as to give the impression that they constitute the simple answers to the simple questions asked by the Person in the Street lest we contribute to belief systems, that will inform social policies that seek to limit experience and opportunity and, ultimately, development” (Horowitz, 2000, p. 8). Horowitz message is that the greater the scientific data the obligation is to then integrate theoretical complexities; “a depiction of the constitutional, social, cultural, and economic sources of influence on development with respect to the nature of experience and in relation to the circumstan...
Child soldier is a worldwide issue, but it became most critical in the Africa. Child soldiers are any children under the age of 18 who are recruited by some rebel groups and used as fighters, cooks, messengers, human shields and suicide bombers, some of them even under the aged 10 when they are forced to serve. Physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, children typically make obedient soldiers. Most of them are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. As society breaks down during conflict, leaving children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children feel that rebel groups become their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed by the war. Sometimes they even forced to commit atrocities against their own family (britjob p 4 ). The horrible and tragic fate of many unfortunate children is set on path of war murders and suffering, more nations should help to prevent these tragedies and to help stop the suffering of these poor, unfortunate an innocent children.
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My thesis statement is that children’s innocence enables them to cope in difficult situations. Children generally have a tendency to lighten the mood in sad situations because of their innocent nature. They turn even the saddest situations to mild, innocent situations. This is evident when Marjane says “these stories had given me new ideas for games”, (Satrapi, 55). By saying this she refers to her uncle’s stories of how he and other prisoners were tortured in prison. Stories of torture have never been easy to hear even for adults but Marjane so innocentl...
Child marriage is a global issue, transpiring in all parts of the world. Abducted from their home and family, young girls - below eighteen - are married off against their own will not only affecting the girls (mentally and physically) but the country as a whole. The organization, Too Young to Wed, says “… marrying them off at such a young age, they are putting the girls at risk and perpetuation the cycle of powerlessness and poverty.” Child marriages occurred throughout history and still an affair today due to society’s tolerance. And the number of young girls forced to wed increased and will continue to increase if society remains tolerant to this sensitive matter.
So I believe that the issue of child labour is not simple. As Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report argued, children’s work needs to be seen as having two extremes. On one hand, there is the destructive or exploitative work and, on the other hand, there is beneficial work - promoting or enhancing children’s development without interfering with their schooling, recreation and rest. ‘And between these two poles are vast areas of work that need not negatively affect a child’s development.’ My firm belief is that there is a difference between child labour and child work and that in both cases the issue is whether or not the child is deliberately being exploited.
“All children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential- to the benefit of a better world.” (UNICEF Who We Are, n.d.). People around the world would agree that this is something the world needs to live by. People would say that creating child soldiers is not ethical; that having young children go into the sex trade should not be done, however we still see children in these positions. These children are the world’s next generation, so how are they being shaped to be the next world leaders? This is what UNICEF is trying to help. UNICEF is here to help to save these children, and to give them a future they
Child labour is an issue that has plagued society since the earliest of times. Despite measures taken by NGOs as well as the UN, child labour is still a prevalent problem in today’s society. Article 23 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child gives all children the right to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child 's education, or to be harmful to the child 's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.1 Child labour clearly violates this right as well as others found in the UDHR. When we fail to see this issue as a human rights violation children around the world are subjected to hard labour which interferes with education, reinforces