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Alternatives to Child Labor

A guest textile teacher watches as a young boy (right) learns to repair bicycles at CWC's Nhama Bhoomi resource center. A young boy (below) attends a CWC field center located in a low-income area of Bangalore. The collapse of rural occupations and economies has proved to be a dynamic force causing of child labor throughout the world, especially in India. This is exacerbated by conventional schools failure to take into account the realities of working children's lives.
	Children (above) experiment with traditional print making techniques at Nhama Bhoomi
One combative strategy focuses on reviving rural economies and helping small producers. CWC has taken a lead in this area by creating the Nhama Bhoomi (Our Land) resource center in Kundapur. It offers government-approved professional training courses and general education for ex-child workers who live and study there. Master craftspeople from the region teach courses at Nhama Bhoomi in appropriate construction, craft design, textile production, biointensive agriculture and other useful trades, with the intention of offering viable alternatives for would-be child laborers and their families. The center provides occupational training for more than 80 children annually, and it doubles as a refuge for children urgently in need of care and counseling. © 2000 Changemakers Photographs and audio by Janet Jarman