India has the largest number of non-schoolgoing working children in the world. Why has the government not removed them from the labor force and required that they attend school, as have the governments of all developed and many developing countries? To answer this question, this major comparative study first looks at why and when other states have intervened to protect children against parents and employers. By examining Europe of the nineteenth century, the United States, Japan, and a number of developing countries, Myron Weiner rejects the argument that children were removed from the labor force only when the incomes of the poor rose and employers needed a more skilled labor force. Turning to India, the author shows that its policies arise from fundamental beliefs, embedded in the culture, rather than from economic conditions. Identifying the specific values that elsewhere led educators, social activists, religious leaders, trade unionists, military officers, and government bureaucrats to make education compulsory and to end child labor, he explains why similar groups in India do not play the same role.

This handbook is an important reference work in understanding education systems in the South Asia region, their development trajectory, challenges and potential. The handbook includes the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries for discussion---Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka---while also considering countries such as Myanmar and the Maldives that have considerable shared history in the region. Such a comparative perspective is largely absent within the literature given the present paucity of intra-regional interaction. South Asian education systems are viewed primarily through a development lens in terms of inequalities, challenges and responses. However, the development of modern institutions of education and the challenges that it faces requires cultural and historical understanding of indigenous traditions as well as indigenous modern thinkers and education movements. Therefore, this encompassing referenc e work covers indigenous education traditions, formal education systems, including school and preschool education, higher and professional education, education financing systems and structures, teacher education systems, addressing huge linguistic and other diversities, and marginalization within the formal education system, and pedagogy and curricula. All the countries in this region have their own unique geographical, cultural, economic and political character and histories of interest and significance, and have responded to common issues such as overcoming the colonial legacy, language diversity, or girls’ education, or minority rights in education, in uniquely different ways. The sections therefore include country-specific perspectives as far as possible to highlight these issues. Internationally renowned specialists of South Asian education systems have contributed to this important reference work, making it an invaluable resource for researchers and students of education interested in South Asia.

[Introduction] This document presents the results of ILO research on the global magnitude of child labour. It introduces new global estimates for economic activity by children and child labour in the sense of ILO Conventions Nos 138 and 182. There are no national data to be found in this document. The lowest aggregate level presented are the major world regions. All estimates are for the benchmark year 2000. Child labour is a sensitive subject and numbers on its magnitude play an important role in global policy-making and advocacy efforts. The research was conducted in acute awareness of this responsability and used well-proven statistical methodologies in an attempt to keep error margins to a minimum. All sources, underlying definitions and methodological steps are explained in detail. The document is devided into three main sections. Section 1 presents the main findings. Sections 2 and 3 introduce definitions and methodologies. Data are presented in tables and charts

Despite its decline throughout the advanced industrial nations, child labor remains one of the major social, political, and economic concerns of modern history, as witnessed by the many high-profile stories on child labor and sweatshops in the media today. This work considers the issue in three parts. The first section discusses child labor as a social and economic problem in America from an historical and theoretical perspective. The second part presents child labor as National Child Labor Committee investigators found it in major American industries and occupations, including coal mines, cotton textile mills, and sweatshops in the early 1900s. Finally, the concluding section integrates these findings and attempts to apply them to child labor problems in America and the rest of the world today.

The NRC has convened the Committee on Monitoring International Labor Standards to provide expert, science-based advice on monitoring compliance with international labor standards. The committee held a workshop in July 2002 to assess the quality of information and measures of progress towards compliance with international labor standards. This document summarizes the workshop. Reflecting the workshop agenda, this report focuses primarily on the availability and quality of information to measure compliance with four core international labor standards that were identified in 1998 by the ILO. The goal of this workshop summary is to communicate the key ideas and themes that emerged from the workshop presentations and discussions.

This work examines the developments in the campaign against child labour and the defence of the rights of children.

With a world steeped in materialism, environmental destruction, and injustice, what can one individual possibly do to change it? While the present obstacles we face may seem overwhelming, author and humane educator Zoe Weil shows us that change doesn't have to start with an army. It starts with you. Through her straightforward approaches to living a MOGO, or "most good," life, she reveals that the true path to inner peace doesn't require a retreat from the world. Rather, she gives the reader powerful and practicable tools to face these global issues, and improve both our planet and our personal lives. Weil explores direct ways to become involved with the community, make better choices as consumers, and develop positive messages to live by, showing readers that their simple decisions really can change the world. Inspiring and remarkably inclusive of the interconnected challenges we face today, Most Good, Least Harm is the next step beyond "green" -- a radical new way to empower the individual and motivate positive change.