When Rights and Needs Collide

Abstract

"The protection of children's rights, to help meet their basic needs and to expand their opportunities to reach their full potential" (UNICEF Convention of the rights of the child)—this simple mission statement from UNICEF in support of The Rights of Children is a crucial and important outcome of global advocacy. The improved outreach and effectiveness of global communication, which has highlighted the differences in the way the world treats its children. The inadequacies of the developing world's ability to take care of its children appear severe even without taking into consideration the underlying differences between developed and developing societies with respect to political freedoms and equity in access to resources and opportunities. My reflections from working as a consultant with UNICEF in Northern India on projects of child labor and child sex abuse inform this paper. I attempt to highlight the conflict in the realities and rights continuum among children in less developed countries. During the course of these projects, I was able to identify the underlying social text in phenomenon of child labor in the carpet industry and child abuse in Indian society. I examine the sociocultural conditions of India that sustain the need for child labor and limit the effectiveness of law and policy in countering child abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)(chapter)