Jeff Liebermann wrote
Rod Speed wrote
They haven't starved in India for almost half a century now.
Then why do they continue to work with obviously unsafe
materials, under unsafe conditions, for about $2.40 or $5.80
per day (depending on which article below you trust)?
Because the living standards are MUCH lower than in the west.
And there is no nice tidy $/day either, the income at
that level depends a hell of a lot on luck on the day etc.
If there were alternatives to this kind of
work, why is the work still being done?
Because there are no alternatives for many of them.
That's an entirely separate matter to whether they would
actually starve to death if they werent allowed to collect
the lead from batterys burnt on piles of batterys.
India and most of the 3rd world countries have come a long way
in education and information distribution in the last 20 years.
Irrelevant to that particular question of
how many of them starve to death today.
It's highly likely they would have seen the news reports
on the internet, read them in the papers, or heard rumors
of their inevitable demise from lead poisoning.
Those street urchins arent even literate.
Yet, they continue to work with the stuff.
They continue to run around in the traffic begging
from the cars that have to stop temporarily too.
While there might be other reasons, I suspect that
lack of alternative work might be the major reason.
Separate matter entirely to how many
of them actually starve to death today.
"Ship breaking business a big hit this year" $5.80/day
That number is straight from someone's arse, we can tell from the smell.
http://www.instantnews.net/ship-brea...this-year.aspx
Incidentally, the article has an error. India does not have a minimum
wage.
Its also no news that shipbreaking has been big business in India for
decades now.
"India's Shipbreakers Risk Death at $2.40 a Day as Economy Booms"
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=ao0a9tcrA_0A
That number is straight from someone's arse, we can tell from the smell.