In India, Girl Labourers Quit Work for School

Student Activities

Click on the following links for further information about this case study:

Activity 1

Have the students read the story, then:-

Get the students to locate India on a map. Then ask them to find the state of Andhra Pradesh (in the south-east, just north of Madras) and the city of Hyderabad. Ask them to try and find out some information about India, for example, population, climate, lifestyle, etc.

Activity 2

Have the students compare their own lives with the life of Manju in the case study. Do this individually at first, then compare their answers in groups.

	Manju	Yourself
Age
Sex
Home town/ suburb/ city/ state
Occupation
Parent's occupation
Your average hours of work per week (excluding schoolwork and study)
Your average earnings (pocketmoney) per week
Who is the work for
Family situation
Attitude to work
Reasons for work
Conditions for work

What do you consider to be the major differences between your life and the life of a girl like Manju?

Activity 3

Separate the students into smaller groups of 4-6 to discuss and write answers to questions about child labour. Some possible questions might be:-

Q1. How did you feel when you read this article? Why?

Q2. Why do you think there are so many children in child labour today?

Q3. Why do you think some landlords prefer to use children rather than adults in agriculture?

Q4. Do you think we in Australia could try to do something to stop child labour?

Q5. What do you think we can do? Obvously countries where child labour is a problem need to pass better laws and ensure they are observed. They also need to spend more on education so all their children have a chance to go to school if displaced from work. But what do you think are some of the things you and I, here in Australia, can do about child labour?

Activity 4

Give the students time to read the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child. Examine Principle 9 in detail. Discuss why this and other Declarations by the U.N. are important to civil society.