Children’s Rights: A Travesty Of Truth, A Mockery Of Justice

Nobel Peace Prize 2014 recognizes Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai who have relentlessly fought to uphold Children’s Rights

(Pics courtesy KailashSatyarthi.net and Claude TRUONG-NGOC, under Creative Commons License)

“Farhan Khan, an Afghan refugee, starts work early, before the sun has risen over   Peshawar in Northwest Pakistan. After a meagre breakfast of tea and dry nan, he starts sprinkling water on the mound of red clay. This clay he will mix with his bare hands and  form into bricks. Farhan works for 13 hours  every day.”

Farhan is four years old.

“A nine year old boy, Sagar, is sacrificed, to Goddess Kali, by his superstitious grandfather on Diwali  night. The old man had hoped  that the ritual would ensure the safe return of his missing son. While the whole country was celebrating  the ‘Festival of Lights’, the light  is snuffed  out of  young Sagar’s life forever.”

The first piece is part of a  feature  which appeared in a recent issue of Time magazine while the second is a news report  from Dumka, Jharkhand, published in  The Telegraph dated 20th November.

Miserable Plight

The plight of the majority of children, the most vulnerable section of the society, is miserable wherever you look

If you think the events in the life of Farhan and Sagar are isolated incidents,  happening to the citizens of  a war ravaged country or to the denizens of  a state  which is still caught in the throes of an existential trauma you are quite mistaken. The plight of the majority of children, the most vulnerable section of the society, is miserable wherever you look – especially in  our part of the world.

Take the case of  Subbu. He  is employed in a factory in Sivakasi which manufactures firecrackers. He works with hazardous chemicals whose toxic dust he inhales day after day. He works for 10-12 hours and earns not much more than the price of a hamburger.

Or think about Zaheer who works in a glass factory in Ahmedabad. It has furnaces where the temperature rises to more than  1400 degrees Celsius. And what about  Venkat who rolls beedis the whole day and will in all likelihood end up with tuberculosis by the time he reaches twenty. And then there is Meena  who spends the entire day in a carpet factory on the outskirts of  Lucknow,  her dainty fingers moving mechanically hour after hour.

The rag pickers who fight with dogs and pigs for pieces of scrap

Are these names too exceptions? No they are not. Just look around: the rag pickers who fight with dogs and pigs for pieces of scrap, the bhutru in the dhaba who gets thrashed even  for spilling water, the girl who works as a maid in your neighbour’s house and is  beaten  for expressing the desire to learn the alphabet, the shoe shine boy in the  train, the newspaper hawker at a busy traffic junction of a metropolis city and many, many more. They work for more than 12 hours a day without a break or holiday and get paid only half or one third of what an adult is paid. And where does this money go, certainly not to the child who gives his sweat and toil.

It is estimated that about 5.5 crore children in India between the ages of 5 and 14 are labourers. India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child labourers in the world – one in every four working children in the world is an Indian!

Even though a Supreme Court ruling in 1996 declared that no child under 14 should be allowed to work in hazardous industries no one cares a damn. This law is merrily flouted.

Children’s Rights

I don’t know how many of you are aware that UNO has pronounced 10 children’s rights. These are:

1. Right to be loved.

2. Right to nutritious food and good health.

3. Right to education.

4. Right to entertainment and  proper physical growth.

5. Right to get his/her nationality in his/her name.

6. Right to get other’s attention in distress.

7. Right to relief in cases of natural calamities.

8. Right to nurture and develop their inherent skills and abilities so as to be a useful   member of the society.

9. Right to nurture humanitarian values and goodwill with others.

10. Right to guard against forces dividing the country on caste, religion and other grounds.

How many of the Indian children can claim to enjoy these rights? It is pathetic that even after more than six decades of our country’s independence the majority of the Indian children have to struggle for even such basic needs like food, shelter and clothing, let alone think about such ‘luxuries’ like ‘developing inherent skills and abilities’ and ‘nurturing humanitarian values’.

Some time back I had the occasion to interact with juvenile delinquents in Rourkela Jail. I spent around two hours with them. I chatted with them, I told them stories and we even talked about the ‘crime’ for which they had been sent to jail. Most of them were in the age group of eight to fifteen.

Quite a few had been convicted of petty crimes while three of them were facing charges of murder.

The more I talked to them the more I was convinced that there was nothing abnormal about them. They were as normal as any child – they had the same dreams, the same hopes – they loved  Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan. They enjoyed singing and dancing, flying kites and playing cricket. They wanted to grow up and take care of their parents. And all of them wanted to go to school and study.

So what had turned them into criminals? A callous, apathetic and insensitive society. A system which refused to treat them as human beings.

Every 14th November we celebrate  Children’s Day with  great fanfare all over the country. Leaders, politicians, bureaucrats, industrialists and other celebrities visit slums, orphanages, jails. They distribute sweets, clothes, toys, give profound speeches, deliver sermons on the duties and responsibilities of the citizens of tomorrow.  And then they go back to their cocoons of  affluence and luxury leaving the children to rot.

Kids can’t revolt, they can’t take to the streets and most important they can’t vote. So naturally no one bothers about them. They can be used, misused and abused with impunity.

So then what is the solution? Obviously, there are no quick answers.

However, I firmly believe that it is illiteracy which is the root cause of poverty and exploitation. If  the poor could be given education, made to understand their rights and responsibilities they wouldn’t subject their children to such torture. If they were educated they would realise the importance of family planning and small family norms. With lesser mouths to feed there would be less reason for children being sent out to contribute to the family kitty. If  the poor were educated they would understand the value of education and send their children to school rather then  sending them to hell holes  to earn  money.

Now the question comes do we, the privileged and the enlightened members of the society, have a role to play? Of course we do. We are the fortunate ones who have been given an education and it is high time we  share  this knowledge  with  those who have been denied the option of acquiring it.

Each One Teach One

Government had launched a literacy programme called ‘Each One Teach One’.

Some time back the Government had launched a literacy programme  called ‘Each One Teach One’.  Even then I had liked the idea immensely,  though it had failed to take off. I think this campaign should be re-launched-not by the Government but by us, you and I, if  we consider ourselves the concerned and committed citizens of  Mera Bharat Mahan. We  should identify the illiterate in our vicinity and teach them the basics of not only the three Rs but also about hygiene and health. We should encourage our children to follow suit. Father and daughter, mother and son can teach together and also be taught together. That I think will be a beginning in  banishing  the scourge of illiteracy and ensuring real empowerment of  children.

This might sound simplistic to many of you. But please keep in mind that all great revolutions have begun with a simple step and eventually led to terrific results.

An old and frail  man picked up a handful of salt in 1931 and rang the death knell of the biggest empire in the history of  human civilisation.

We too can make a small beginning. Each of us can pick up a single soul shrouded in ignorance and lead him (or her) on the well lit path of knowledge.

All it needs is little bit of  effort, a little bit of commitment and a tiny voice in our minds and hearts that will urge us on to make the lives of those around us a little better.

Only then can we hope for a world where a four year old Farhan does not have to slave for  thirteen hours and a nine year old  Sagar does not have to be sacrificed to Goddess Kali.

Before I end I would like to share with you a little poem I have written. It is a prayer of a girl child to her mother. I hope it conveys a feeling which is close to my heart and I am sure your hearts too – that is the right of a child to read and write.

Can I Go To School, Ma?

Let all the children of the world
Get a chance to study,
Let them all go to school
And grow healthy and happy.

Ma, dear ma,
Can I too go to school?
To work very hard
Not merely to play the fool.

I want to learn to read
As well as to write,
To make my future
Happy, healthy and bright.

When I learn to write,
I’ll write your name first,
In the whole  world ma,
You are the very best.

After I learn, I’ll teach you
All that I know,
So that before the world
You will never have to bow.

I’ll work in the day
Go much after noon,
I’ll study by the light
Of my friend, the gentle moon.

Don’t say no to school ma,
Give me a chance to learn,
Many kids get this chance
Then why should I have to yearn?

If I go to school ma
I can say without hesitation,
Tomorrow my child will not
Have to ask this question.

What was denied to you ma?
Please don’t deny me,
Let us make our tomorrows better
Than our yesterdays could be.

Last night in my dream
I saw my fairy God mother,
She granted me a wish
And you know what I asked her?

Let all the children of the world
Get a chance to study,
Let them all go to school
And grow healthy and happy.

Let no one deny a child
What is her basic right,
To know to draw, to count
And to learn to read and write.

Each of us can pick up a single child shrouded in ignorance & lead him/her on the well lit path of knowledge. http://t.co/iqu76j8yd3

— Learning&Creativity (@LearnNCreate) October 13, 2014

About the Author

Ramendra Kumar ( 117 Posts)

Ramendra Kumar (Ramen) is an award-winning writer, performance storyteller and inspirational speaker with 49 books. His writings have been translated into 32 languages and included in 26 textbooks and many anthologies in various countries. Ramen has written across all genres ranging from picture books to adult fiction, satire, poetry, travelogues, biographies and on issues related to parenting and relationships. His writings have been published by the major publishing houses in India. His books brought out by National Book Trust (NBT), India have notched up sales of more than 4.9 lakh copies in just one year. Ramen has been invited to several international literary festivals as well as Indian events such as Jaipur Litfest and seminars organised by Sahitya Akademi and IGNOU. The author has won a total of 41 awards in the competition for writers of children’s literature organised by Children’s Book Trust (CBT) over the years, which is among the highest by any writer. Ramen was chosen as the ‘Author and Storyteller of the Year’ (2022), on ‘Talking Stories’, London, UK’s number one Radio Programme dedicated to the art of storytelling. He was nominated as a Jury Member for the Best Children’s Author Category of The Times of India’s ‘Women AutHer’ Awards, 2020. Ramen was also selected as a mentor for the Scholastic Writers Academy. An alumnus of the prestigious Hyderabad Public School (HPS), Ramen is an Engineer & an MBA. He and his inspiration, his wife Madhavi, were General Managers at SAIL, when they took Voluntary Retirement to pursue their respective passions. Their children are bonsai celebrities in their own right. While Ankita is a youth icon and a travel blogger with an Instagram following of 296 K, Aniket creates cool Apps and designs covers for his dad’s books. Ramen is now a Cancer warrior and an inspiration to many. His website is www.ramendra.in and he has a page devoted to him on Wikipedia.
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