As soon as we look at the above picture an episode of anti child labor schemes and its implementations rush through our mind. What government is doing? Where are the NGOs and what the social activists are doing? We would surely not want anyone to see such scenes in their real lives. We are here to eradicate poverty and develop the nation ….so our success lies in the fact that in future any of these scenes are deleted from this planet and also from the Einsteinian parallel universes and when the eternal time never even identifies such scenes as real in future ever.
Lets start the day of Rani in this picture with her sister Gita, hey but what about her brother and family? They are not as usual the sick or in health problems. The brother goes to school and the two sisters sell popcorns to make up the school fee for him. And this is being done with the consent of the parents who are just agricultural farmers. The two sisters sell popcorns right from the morning 7am to the evening 10pm. But their parents never forced them to do so. They too wanted these two girls to go to school and study….but that was not possible you know, for obvious reasons.
1. May be that the parents think that something is more important than education.
2. May be that parents know the ultimate fact that one day these girls will have to get married so why waste the money in education and instead keep it for dowry.
3. The boy if given good education will stand on his own feet and will get married to a new daughter in law.
4. May be that it’s a matter of shy or social taboo to send girls to school
5. How will our girls will go to school where there is no washroom or any meal facility (mid day meal in not running in this area).
6. And most importantly! Who will do the household chores once girls are in school.
With all this in mind and the need of money the two sisters are sent for the work. Now we can observe with the above statements that it is not one social issue which is leading to the above result but a mixture of many.
If we want to work for preventing the child labor then it is not simply one pill solution. It has to be a blend of all different doses called the MAGIC PILL. We all are against the child labor and want to send these children to school but do they really want to go there? And do their parents want them to go there? Who will pay for the books and the school dress. For sending any student to a school parents need back up of money, manpower, time etc. They cant just send them to school. I ask one question to all of you ….that you are on a remote island and have to live there for at least 10 years, with a choice to make a educational and training institute or a food processing atelier. What would we want first to survive? The education or the food. The main target of we the rural managers should be first to sustain the public the poor people and then develop them. Education is a value addition to the being , but not at the cost of ones life. If the person is not living then what is the use of the education, human rights, voting, technical skills etc. The human should live first and then and only then will it develop.
Lets go back a few thousand years back when the humans were evolving from the monkeys. The development was surely there and man became with his own brain and consistent hard work and determination the supreme of animal kingdom. But would that have been possible if there was a single interruption in the food supply or the basic living amenities. The cranial capacity increased for the humans in that evolutionary process and their intellect got a buoyancy, just because of the reason that there was a shift of focus from the food to the development side. The man didn’t have to spend his 24 hours only for the food but a bit for a few lot other things. And this resulted in man here what is today. Will these two girls ever be able to develop? And what if we give them food. Every day they are spoiling their future and losing the every enjoying bit of childhood. Or should we send them to school and again stop a income source to their family. And for what education system will they go for? Spend 8 hours in school and still not learn anything…we know why? No teachers, poor quality of education, poor classes, no books, no value addition…... will you send them to such education system prevalent there. So can we let them work on the road and earn livelihood for themselves and family and support their brother. Why we all are working or getting educated? Just for food and shelter right? Other things we are coming to our mind are just because these things are satisfied. Think of development when you have butterflies in your stomach. Think of others when you are yourself in need of the things. We can only proceed further if we are first fulfilling our daily requirements for sustaining life.
Suppose the so called social activists come to watch this sort of scene, I believe they will surely take an action against this sort of problem and act accordingly. The result will be- Rani and Gita are no more selling popcorns on the roads and their parents are being compelled to send them to school and also not perform any sort of labor. Happy about it. Yes! I am also happy, very happy, that they will no more be on the dusty and filthy roadside and no more will suffer from the health problems. But look on the other side that what these two girls are doing then. The parents have not sent them to school, as they cant afford the fee. They are just sitting idle at home doing nothing. Is that we wanted. One more income source to family has stopped. It should have been done at the cost of idleness or exploitation or at the cost of labor but not at the cost of living. Either we provide them with the food and shelter and other basic amenities and then be a critic for asking them to be in the school. The choice is ours only when we fulfill the conditions mentioned.
As discussed earlier it is for sure that there are n number of problems in the society and the situation in the above picture is said to be one of the ramifications of these problems. We can only see the despair in eyes of these children. Didn’t they want a life where they could play and enjoy with friends. Life gives us and has given to all of us who are reading this critical analysis, happiness and basic amenities at every stage, whenever we needed them. Why is it not their right? They too are citizens of India and they belong to the so called Homo sapiens sapiens species. Then why is this discrimination. Not one not hundreds and not thousands but millions of children are living a life which we are observing in this photo. We can never ever infer whether this child labor is good or bad. It depends on the conditions. The underdeveloped countries have child labor as a good work for the society. While the same is a misfortune for the developed and above-developing countries. The rules are rules for a particular sort of situation, and they change when the situation changes. We cannot say that something is perfect….for being perfect….. something can never be anything or it can be everything. Scenario is not about what is constitutionally right or wrong, it is about the feeling that makes us believe that what may have been a good alternative for the particular moment. It think the quotes need to be modified now - “Everything is justified in War Love and Poverty”
On the one side we can be sad that the girl child is getting exploited and child labor is still on…while on the other side we are happy that at least the girl is earning something for her family. Something is much much better than nothing in this context. We say that there are no alternatives, there are no plan Bs for such situations in this world. Yes we may be right. It is only our perception which has to change for the situation. What if we do it for this particular child? So what about others….. the millions…who are left unseen. We need a revolution then, a great revolution, where we can eradicate this menace from the society. We need to repeat the history…that history by which man has reached this stage on this planet. It was not one person to develop or evolve but many…and more clearly everyone. No one was left behind and halted, but moved with similar pace for the development. We need to do this again and it will be done. It will be done by those who are on the way to development….by those who work for others….for the society…for the mankind…for the humanity….and at last for their satisfaction. The stand has to be taken by each individual and not a group. Each one of us will have to be the part of this Revolution for changing and developing our society otherwise they may be a day when the future heads may see flashes of 50,000 years old scenes of this planet, and I think no one would ever want this to happen.
“This is not reminiscence this is evolution…
I don’t go by others coz I prefer Revolution”
No comments:
Post a Comment