by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
I am livid. The whole of yesterday was spent watching a news item that was splashed on all channels: a sting operation that revealed that the little girl who acted in Slumdog Millionaire was up for sale by her father! The sting operation had been undertaken by a British tabloid.
The article makes sordid reading. Is this not the worse kind of child abuse! Starry kids enjoying the delights of a five star hotel – be it the mattress you can jump on or the ice cream and cold drinks you can gorge on – while adults are discussing the price they would be sold at.
I had always been weary of the plight that awaited these star kids. I has watched in silent horror as the children were paraded by a fashion designer and used by a political party for electioneering. I have watched with sadness the innumerable articles about these children each highlighting the innumerable goodies offered to them: be it money, homes or trust funds. I have watched with dismay these children slowly losing the anonymity and safety of childhood and feared for them. Everyone was in the race for its pound of flesh and no one was bothered about the children and their future.
I will reiterate what I have said earlier. If anyone had the interest of these children at heart, they should have been quietly sent to a good boarding school without any ado. There was no need to herald and trumpet what was being done for them. The reality is that whatever has been done for them till now has been done to fulfill selfish agendas. No one is concerned about the children themselves. They are just be used like circus animals.
The truth is that no one is truly interested in the plight of slum children. I can talk with authority as I have spend a fifth of my life trying to muster help to do just that. The little children in the picture are all in a boarding school and are doing well. I wish I could do more but I have no glamour to barter. I simply have the hopes, dreams and morrows of children to give in exchange.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
A little girl died yesterday. She was 11 year old. She died because she was not able to recite her alphabet. She died because her teacher hit her head against the table and then made her stand in the sun for two hours. She died because her frail body could not withstand the brutal punishment.
My heart goes out to little Shanno yet another innocent victim of the beast called corporal punishment. The question I ask is how many more such deaths will it take for us to wake up and do something? This is not the first case and sadly this will not be the last. Corporal punishment is too deeply ingrained in our system. Once again the same drama will enfold: outrage and anger, some cosmetic dismissals and suspensions, some platitudes mouthed by people in power and then as always little Shanno will be laid to rest in more ways than one.
We too at project why had tried long ago to take on the hydra headed monster called corporal punishment. I remember the case of a child who had been mercilessly beaten by his school teacher and how we had taken up the cudgels on his behalf. I recall the innumerable visits to the education department, the endless petitions to one and all. The end result had simply been a cosmetic transfer of the teacher to another school. But that was not all. From that day onwards pwhy children were singled out in the school and beaten for no apparent reason.
Wonder what punishment will be meted out to the teacher whose cruel action resulted in little Shanno’s death. The whitewashing act has already begun. The blame game has started. As always in all cases of child abuse the victim is made the offender. The teacher has given her defense and the system will undoubtedly protect her.
But there are deeper questions that arise from the present situation. This is not an isolated incident. Children are beaten every day in schools in India. One wonders why? What is it that turns an apparent sane human being into a monster? What gives the right to a teacher to physically abuse a child? And why does it happen over and over in spite of laws and court directives. Questions that need answers.
Little Shanno may have been a child with a learning disability. Maybe she just was not able to cope with her studies. But the existing system has no place for children like her. And in all probability teachers are not sensitized towards such children. The disturbing yet inevitable reality is that even if the teacher is brought to book there will be many other Shannos unless the whole education system is reviewed and altered. But who will bell the cat?
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
Recession, recovery, turnaround are notions I have always found hard to understand. Perhaps it is because I decided a long time ago to invest in smiles, hopes and tomorrows! But one cannot remain impervious to the happenings around us. One realises that one is in the midst of a deep crisis and that every one’s morrows are uncertain.
Yesterday I was sent a link to a note on the popular social site Facebook. The note was simply entitled The Last Turnaround and talked about a Golden Era that would come after some terrible apocalyptic times. The author urged us to prepare for such times just as you would for an impeding calamity. A true doomsday scenario that one would like not to believe, and yet…
I am no economist or specialist of any kind, but in my humble and limited opinion what we are facing is a moral crisis more than an economic one. If we do not mend our ways we are heading straight to the times our friend predicts. In a former post I had tried to unravel the mess we are in and had submitted my views. I still feel that we are living in a void that we are trying desperately to fill with the wrong things. We live self centred lives with scant regard for the other. We break laws and rules with impunity and revel in doing so. The way we treat our planet is a perfect example of what I am trying to say. In our city in spite of laws banning plastic bags or disallowing tube wells, everyone is carrying such bags and tube wells are being dug everywhere drying up the much depleted water table. And the list is endless and depressing. More cars, more ACs, more lights, more of everything as long as it meets my needs.
We are not interested in the other, whether it is one who lives on the other side of the fence or the one yet to be born. I was deeply moved by my elder daughter when she walked into the kitchen holding her child and urged us to stop wasting water for his sake. It was a true wake up call.
But let us get back to the morrows that await us. If we are going to be taken by the lure of the ephemeral turnaround that is around the corner and continue doing what we do so well: borrow senselessly and spend carelessly then we are paving the way to the kind of crash predicted by our friend. Sadly it seems we may just go that way unless we realise that we need to look within and accept to change.
Once again I will quote the little prince and his friend the fox: if we want a tomorrow then we need to look at everything around us with our hearts.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
I do not write about TV programmes and reality shows. And yet today I write about one such show that is the buzz on the Internet and the talk of many a town. The reason is a rather cryptic message that accompanied the link and simply said: this video reminded me of pwhy!
The clip in question for those who do not wish to waste precious time for the download, is about a middle aged, frumpy, unemployed woman taking part in a singing contest. Everyone laughs and jeers at her when she says that her dream is to be a singer. When she starts singing everyone is stunned. When she finishes every one is blown over. Even her choice of song seems perfect as she ends her song with the words: Now life has killed the dream I dreamed. (I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables).
Like millions who have watched the clip I too felt moved. Yet I wondered for a long time why my friend had been reminded of us as she watched Susan Boyle sing. Then it struck me. She was an underdog just like all the children of project why, a little guy with huge dreams. One that people will always jeer or scoff at. The one no one believes in. The little child in his tattered clothes who dreams of being a star, the boy who sits in front of his hovel and dreams of being a pilot, the little girl who watches her sick mommy and dreams of becoming a doctor. The message was clear: if the little lady from a remote Scottish village can make it big, so can each our children. You just have to dream big and hold on to your dream. That is what we do at project why!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
A recent mail from an activist friend brought to light the plight of senior secondary government school girls who were told not to come to school if they did not purchase all the school books needed for their class. Most of these students were from extremely poor families and could not afford to buy the said books. Many of the girls had actually stopped going to school for fear of the reprimand they would be subjected to. It seemed that the latest reason for dropping out off school could just be the inability to purchase school books.
That girls from poor and deprived homes reach senior classes is nothing short of a miracle. Very often parents who are more than willing to provide tuition classes for their sons, find doing the same for their daughters a waste of money. Girls are often left to their own devices. Moreover their study time is often truncated as they are given innumerable house tasks: from looking after their siblings to cooking and cleaning. Parents would rather see them drop out of school than purchase books for them. And if the schools sing the same tune, the girls are doomed.
Every election manifesto has heralded the need to look at the girl child and better her plight. Yet while such lofty ideas are being trumpeted, girls in India’s capital city are at the risk of dropping out of school because they cannot afford to buy school books. There has to be a way out. Schools could keep a pool of books and lend them to needy students. This would be eminently doable if curriculum did not change every year, as the books could be passed on to the next batch. A fine could be charged if the books were spoiled.
It is unacceptable to have children drop out of school in senior classes because they cannot buy books. Something needs to be done… now!
