I wanted to write about this observation a few weeks back when another of those World X Days - where X can be Freedom, Child, Child Labour, Woman, etc. Today is World Day against Child Labour. Expectedly there was a front page picture in The Hindu. This happens with every newspaper. They will take the theme of the day and publish a picture which depicts the irony of the situation.
So if it is World Day against Child Labour there will be a picture of a child working.
If it is World Human Rights Day, there would be a picture of refugees in some part of the world - Africa most probably. In all cases the byline would read something like "Unmindful of the World X Day, a boy/girl/man/woman/labourer toils....."
What is the point of this you would ask? Year after year, special day after special day, why do newspapers and magazines use the same idea - irony or contrast as you call it. "What new can they do", you would ask. My answer is, that is precisely what the comments section of a blog post is for. You suggest. What can newspapers and magazines and on a higher level, any organization do to better commemorate such special days?
So if it is World Day against Child Labour there will be a picture of a child working.
If it is World Human Rights Day, there would be a picture of refugees in some part of the world - Africa most probably. In all cases the byline would read something like "Unmindful of the World X Day, a boy/girl/man/woman/labourer toils....."
What is the point of this you would ask? Year after year, special day after special day, why do newspapers and magazines use the same idea - irony or contrast as you call it. "What new can they do", you would ask. My answer is, that is precisely what the comments section of a blog post is for. You suggest. What can newspapers and magazines and on a higher level, any organization do to better commemorate such special days?
Well, buddy it so turns out that cutting out the crap is not really too difficult..
ReplyDelete"International Program on Elimination of Child Labour" is launched by ILO with a motive to eliminate child labour.
In this program ILO takes a lot of initiatives to work with govt, NGO, teachers and companies to eliminate child labour. It comes up with "best practices" or "guides" on what to do about eliminating child labour.
The day June 12 is just part of a campaign to bring the efforts to people's attention. Each year they concentrate on one aspect each year.
Details of this programme can be found here
here
But there is a lot of "blah blah" both in the programme description and in one of the guidebooks that I read without really getting into specifics about what they did or how effective has it been so far. May be it is there buried somewhere. In fact I fell asleep last night trying to read it.
May be this is something papers can investigate.
So you are vindicating my point :)
ReplyDeleteIf your point is "someone please comment!", evidently, Yes! :)
ReplyDeleteMore seriously. I really wonder if these special days are really special. For one, at least there is no explanation I found why June 12th is chosen.
My conclusion is lets get over it, Its not news-worthy, but papers do have to publish it because if they don't they would be the only ones who wouldn't! :)