Rise and shine

I remember how my friends and I complained when our university blocked social networking sites in campus. We thought that our basic rights(!!!) were denied when we were restricted from accessing them though the university internet. We used proxy to access those sites and kept in touch with one another within the campus. Updated wall posts from canteen and informed our friends in the library what they missed. We complained about not having the latest mobile phones and always tried to update to the latest model once they are out in the market. We made a fuss when we were advised to avoid wearing round neck T-Shirts and worn out jeans inside classroom. I believe that is how some of us behaved in our college days. We thought it was cool to be a rebel and cool to break rules. Not everyone behaves this way, but I strongly believe that there were others too who must have did this during their college days. But when I think about it today, I contradict my own ideas. I feel that I could have behaved better.

This is not same allover the country. Not everyone enjoys high standard education. It took sixty two years after independence for us to pass a bill that made education compulsory and free to kids aged between 6 and 14. The social division between different classes in our country is clearly visible. While some complain about wearing uniform to schools, some kids long to have a uniform to wear. While some kids ask their parents to put them in different school because they do not like a particular rule or teacher in school, some kids long to go to school. That is the reality of our country today.

Instead of only teaching them the greatness of the country, Kids should be taught about the existence of poverty and the way to overcome it. Let them KNOW to say NO. There are villages with no schools and children have to walk miles to reach their schools. There is no proper infrastructure in most of the rural schools. Some children are sent as child laborers due to poverty.

Once a friend and me met a young boy at a Dhaba (restaurant) who worked there. He was hardly 10 years old. We tried to make conversation with him. First he was hesitant and later he started to respond us. He was a migrant child labor and his parents were at village. He sends them money every month and he sleeps at the Dhaba itself. I asked him how old he was, instantly he replied that he was 19. It was clear that he was trained to say that he was above 18 by his employer. Though it was funny to hear from a clearly visible 10 years old to say that he is 19, the truth is harder. He had no other choice other than supporting his family in their poverty. Many children like him can be found around India. And almost every Indian would have come across at least one kid like this.

There are some parents who, in spite of their poverty send their kids to school and hope for a brighter future for them. Now the government has made it compulsory for children to attend school till the age of 14, there are few other aspects that has to be taken care. No parent would like to send their kid to work at an early age. It is the poverty that drives them to do this. The government should take care of the poverty to eradicate child labor fully.

To make it easy for the rural children, schools have to be built in every village and this would also pave way to employ thousands of youths who are unemployed. More funds has to be allotted to state government to provide an excellent infrastructure for the children to study. It might take time to implement all this, but this is a start which will surely make India a fully literate country in near future and free of child labor.

I came across this article few days ago. The money spent on advertisements to show how India is shining can be used to support these kids, at least they would truly make India shine one day. Do not miss this too, children today are smart and they know what they need. I hope at least in future we would have educated people to lead this country.