Child Labour in India: Globalization, Power, and the Politics of International Children's Rights

The book explores the understanding of children's rights as a site of power and how the rights discourse has been used by international actors, national elites and local NGOs in the child labour debate in India. The work focuses on Indian NGOs and their recognition of the fact that children's rights are a sophisticated form of Western imperialism even as they also understand how children's rights are an important tool for fighting imperialism and state violations. It provides a critical theoretical exploration of children's rights in the contemporary world that synthesizes an analysis of human rights and power along with insights from postcolonial theorists. The author provides fascinating empirical insights into how three Indian NGOs---Bonded Labour Liberation Front, Butterflies and South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude---are using the discourse of children's rights to challenge child labour practices. The study includes international and local perspectives thereby rendering a comprehensive examination of the status of children's rights as they accrue today.