Monday 9 September 2013

Dignity of Labour

Points: Manual work not inferior — Self-help In western countries false notion of dignity in India — Dignity of Labour should be taught.

              ‘Labor is sacred, labour is honorable’, wrote Carlyle. By ‘labour’ he meant manual labour. Manual or physical work is not inferior to intellectual work. We need both.
              In western countries, all household works are done by the people themselves. There is no porter to carry luggage. A passenger’ has to carry his own bag. There is no ‘servant’, and nobody can hire a servant or a cook for his personal service. Institutions like hospitals employ persons like nurses bit they are employees of institutions, not personal servants. The dwellers of a house have to clean their own floors and wash their own bathrooms. Everybody is self-helping there. Unfortunately, many people in India still think that manual labour is not dignified. This is a false notion. It is ridiculous to think that a clerical job alone is a good job. Neither agriculture nor industry can develop if the educated people stay away from them.
              Dignity of labour should be taught from childhood, if every child is asked to do his or her own work it will be good for the child. A self-helping person has to do a lot of things, some physical, and some intellectual. Both are necessary and dignified. What is undignified is to depend on others. What is immoral is to prosper on others’ labour.

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