by Anuradha Bakshi | Aug 19, 2006 | Uncategorized
A well rated TV channel has been airing dramatic pictures of instances of child labour, and we all agree that child labour should be banned as it goes against the essence of human dignity.
Then why have I been so disturbed by some of the stories and in particular the one of the little Mania?
This little child has nowhere to go if he stops working at his dhaba. His whole world will crash. His huge deformity will bring endless taunts and without his work he will have no shelter, no food and not even his surrogate family.
There are many many Manias who will suddenly find themselves alone and lost. Mania did want to study but circumstances shattered his dreams and though he has a right to education enshrined in a constitutional amendement, the law executors cannot find the money to make sure it gets to the likes of him.
True child labour should be abolished, but what are you going to replace it with particularly for children who have no homes to go back to, or whose parents can barely feed the siblings that are still there.
My work on the field for the last six years has taught me that things are not quite how they look and making laws without keeping the human factor in mind is more dangerous than the prevalent situation, however abysmal. Kids like mania will roam streets, steal to feed their hunger pangs and then find themselves branded as thiefs or bad elements. The number of working children is staggering, and a month down the line when the ban comes in force they will have nowhere to go.
Has anyone thought of mechanisms to get them back home, if home they have, or to give them a safe shelter and three meals a day; are there schools where they can learn or does the powers that be expect small organisations to do the job while they bask in the glory of having passed a great social law. Organisations like us are constantly trying to survive and prove that we are not crooks. But we also are the ones who open our hearts and meagre resources to anyone who is hurting. But how much can we do?
And who will bell the cats a.k.a the professional, well educated, well connected people who employ so many children in their homes and sometimes treat them in disgraceful and terrible ways while nodding their heads in public places and parties while someone disparages the practice of child domestic servants.
And last of all, has anyone looked into the number of little children just a walk away from where we sit comfortably who are taken out of school to look after their siblings while both parents work, maybe to build that extra room we need?
mybe little mania will find someone after his national TV debut, but what about the other little manias who can barely comprehend what awaits them.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Aug 19, 2006 | common school
Three news item caught my attention today. Little Pakhi, age 6 is thrown out of her school bus as the driver brakes suddenly and dies on the spot, her school barely a 10 minute drive away from her home; 665 migrant labour come Delhi everyday and four years down the line, our government has not found the time to ensure that the the 82nd amendment is passed as mandated by the constitution of India to ensure that every Indian child has a right to free and compulsory education..
In my mind, all these issues are linked by one thread: education. If pakhi could have walked to school she may not have dies, if the 665 migrants had better options for their children – read good school – in their habitat of origin they would not have come and as for the last item it simply that the right to education bill is a bill without a will!
I would like to ask our politicians and law makers if the 3% extra allocation needed to give children their fundamental right at a time when we boast of a 8% increase is because children are not yet a vote bank to woe, or because they do not have a voice or because having large number of illiterate people will ensure manageable and influenceable vote banks: in a word, is this right not been given to children for some Machiavellian reason.
There are others rights enshrined in the constitution that are the right if everyone born in this land, but without education they become superb tools of manipulation and political battles using the cleverly nurtured illiterate base.
What our law makers do not understand is that education is the only way India can change. A citizen who can read, write, have access to knowledge, will undoubtedly rid the land of corruption ensure that projects are executed, make the rulers accountable.. and democracy functional.
But then the question that comes to mind is do we really want democracy or have we just shrouded our feudal ways in the garb of democracy.
I get appalled and my blood runs cold when i see the sustained care with which governments are wanting to privatise education. Why not democratise education and have a common school to which little Pakhi could have walked.
The 665 migrants who will bring kids with the hope of a better education will soon find that education is better in small towns as we have seen time and again. They will go looking for some shady mother nonsense convent and spend their meagre resources on trying to get their kids educated till their own illiteracy because the cause of the kids dropping out, their homes relocated to barren areas or too poor for join the tuition raj and though they belong to the OBC quota policy, the system would have made sure that they are never likely candidates.
Common schools all children would walk to could have with peer bonding may have made that possible. Mothers like mine wanted their child to be born a in a free India, but 60 years down the line are Indian children free..
by Anuradha Bakshi | Aug 12, 2006 | Uncategorized
Away from the petty problems that we are facing with misguided staff and our plethora of ‘well-wishers’, little Deepak fights his valiant battle vindicating thereby the raison d’être of project why.
His journey has not been easy. What should have been a simple heart surgery, turned to be, once again because of external adult games, a battle for life. The wrong doings of a quack lead to his heart stopping and his having to be revived, a true code blue, just as in movies! Then a total strike while he was in hospital resulted in an abdominal abscess that took over a month to heal.
he came visiting today, a little disoriented and very tired, but two days from now he will be admitted again and we hope that the much needed surgery will finally happen.
To me this braveheart’s battle is almost the sign from above that i needed to find in me the strength to carry on. I must confess there are moments when one wonders why one tried to do something positive in a world that abhors people who do so. Why does one have to prove at every turn that one is honest, sincere … Even an accused is presumed innocent till proved guilty, but no so in the case of people just trying to make a difference.
I get emails asking me how does one know whether a person is genuine or fake.. and frankly I do not know the answer. But I know that if I give up then there maybe another deepak somewhere who would lose his battle without a fight.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Aug 5, 2006 | Uncategorized
many a times I have felt defeated in the work I do.. you think you have got somewhere and one ugly incident takes all sense of achievement away from you.. your first reaction is to say: were people better off without us..
Then you stop and think and realise that somewhere the incident is due to the fact that you are succeeding and that change and transformation is bound to meet with resistance and obstacles.. A recent incident led to my having to take disciplinary action against one staff member. it was to be a temporary suspension necessary to maintain dignity. To my absolute horror it has turned out to be a nightmare due to the meddling of small politicos by bete noire!
Instead of keeping quiet and trusting our ways, the staff in question fuelled by the mischievous advice of our detractors reacted – and the last nail in the coffin was beating up in public the woman who had thought it her moral duty to inform me of the bad mouthing and slander..
This of course has forced me – much against my will – to file a complaint with the local police station, as I cannot take the risk of another misplaced action on their part. It is the question of the safety of children and their parents as well as my staff.
The other side of the coin is that by this action, the dismissed staff has closed all possible doors. it is with extreme dejection that I learnt that she has now fallen prey to the ‘local unions’ that wait like sharks for any prey, not getting them anything but ensuring that a large chunk of a settlement they would have got anyway, would become theirs.
At such moments, it becomes important to hold on to what one has achieved and realise that one cannot change everyone.. but that one has to continue hoping. I must confess that there are times when one feel like packing up.. but once that fleeting angry moment passes, you realise that actually too many would lose too much.. so you swallow pride, anger, hurt, irritation in one large gulp, hide the dejection behind dark glasses and put on your clown’s mask.
the show must go on…
