What should be the role of Corporate Sector in addressing issues of marginalized children given that Corporate have a mandate to run profitable business?
In general, the term ‘marginalization’ describes the overt actions or tendencies of human societies, where people who they perceive to undesirable or without useful function, are excluded, i.e., marginalized. These people, who are marginalized, from a GROUP or COMMUNITY for their protection and integration and are known as ‘marginalized groups’. This limits their opportunities and means for survival. Peter Leonard defines marginality as, “being outside the mainstream of productive activity and/or social reproductive activity”.
Usually a minority group has the following characteristics: 1) It suffers from discrimination and subordination. 2) They have physical and/or cultural traits that set them apart, and which are disapproved of, by a dominant group. 3) They share a sense of collective identity and common burdens. 4) They have shared social rules about who belongs, and who does not. 5) They have a tendency to marry within the group.
Thus, marginalization is a complex as well as shifting phenomenon linked to social status.
Problems faced by Marginalized Children are:
Child mortality and morbidity are caused and compounded by poverty, their sex and caste position in society.
All these have consequences on their nutrition intake, access to healthcare, environment and education. Poverty has a direct impact on the mortality and morbidity among children. In India, a girl child faces discrimination and differential access to nutritious food and gender based violence is evident from the falling sex ratio and the use of technologies to eliminate the girl child. The manifestations of these violations are various, ranging from child labor, child trafficking, to commercial sexual exploitation and