Day2- Blogger Challenge-Child's Sake

A Bit late into the night thought nevertheless. The Day was spent in visiting a niece's campus in Pondicherry. She is a doctor and was pulled into a pleasant drive all along the coast line. Weather conditions turned out to be perfect for an Enid Blyton kind of picnic into the English country side.

The blog is however different. Along with my wife,I stepped out to buy a few eatables. As we were on our two wheeler my wife pointed out a small tea shop in one off the narrow by-lanes near my house. There was a small boy, may be around 12 years old, cleaning the pavement outside the tea shop. The mind took a beating. Its still on a trip of its own. restless that a boy of his age instead of having a book in his hand has a broomstick to do with.

But are we not faced with the same kind of scenario day in day, day out, in traffic intersections, someone tries to sell that plastic toy, or a National flag. Should they not be whisked into a nearby school. There has to be some compulsion as to why they are on the street instead of the classroom. I have questioned a few, in fact encouraged to pay their fees but have met with colder responses. Maybe the situation at home is bad enough, a drunkard father, a sick mother, a younger sister to take care of or even a few dozen.Who knows? They have hardly been educated and the family planning theories extinct in their own big world.

You might have seen urchins on the road begging for money, or that lady with a weak infant in her arms, so weak that the child seems to be in deep slumber. Perhaps the child seems to be mastered by an evil goon. I never really know, but compulsions can be many. A Child that is taught to be beg will only beg, A Child that is skilled into stealing will end up becoming a professional thief. A Child with a broom stick in his hand will, so forth and so on.

It brings me back to the simple question that a child with a book in his or her hand will end up getting educated. That is where the answer lies. If Child Labour is still prevalent in the country the government has not done enough to eliminate the problem. If kids are involved in the manufacture of fireworks in some remote town in South, why are they not being sent to schools instead.

The problem is deep rooted. Firstly there needs to be a serious recognition that child labour is indeed a problem, that there exists in society deep inequalities between the haves and the have nots. Secondly the Government has to make a conscious effort in getting the Ministry of Education to come out with a comprehensive policy to deal with child labour. If corruption is a problem that we face then Child Labour is a bigger problem. If we can think about Demonetization to solve Corruption and Black Money then why not Education to solve Child Labour.

Dear Readers, I do not have all  the answers in this blog of mine but I guess that this is a step in the right direction. Day Two of this challenge has thrown up a new challenge that will maybe make people to think not only about their own children but about the ones on the road, the one without a shirt, the one with no slippers, the one whose hands seem so rough, the one whose eyes cry for a few winks of sleep, the one whose mind wants a sneak peek into a few pages, the one whose lips wants to break into a smile but whose eyes breaks into tears, I am only talking about that child. Think people Think. Educate a Child.