A few days back i made a stop near the local market because i had a pick a few things up. As i was waiting for the driver three little children showed up. You would have seen the type sometime in your life if you live anywhere in India. They have dirtied torn clothes and faces which are difficult to tell apart and those simply magnetic and pitiful innocent eyes. They won't speak a word and the only thing they know is to outstretch their hands, begging for alms. They won't leave you alone until you either give them money of dirty looks or both.
Now, we work with child labourers and street children. We run three schools with 50 children each in the district at three places, Joda, Keonjhar and Banspal. We also have 20 Non-formal education centres in 20 slums where non-school going and drop-outs are taught in play-learn methods and gradually enrolled into regular schools with periodic monitoring to stem the drop-out. We also worked with 700 such children and their parents in the past where we gave importance on the capacity building of the parents, sensitization, micro-enterprise development and decreasing the work hours of the children alongwith compulsory education.
That was just a background and besides the point. That's what makes me think about those children a bit closer from a different perspective or maybe vice-versa.
I asked them what they would do with the money (there were two girls aged anything between 6-8 and a boy who was maybe about 10-11). First they kept quiet looking at me with those idiotically sweet eyes and nudging at me. Then after i gave them one of my best smiles and sat with them they finally relented. They said they hadn't had anything to eat since the morning and they would get something to eat. Now, i usually don't give alms to able-bodied beggars and specially when they are children. But try as i could, i just couldn't ignore this. I asked a shopkeeper nearby to get three packets of some good biscuit or crackers. He told me, "Vini, let them be, they are all little devils". Little devils or not, i had to talk o them and there wasn't any other way. I asked them about their lives. They belonged to a nomadic tribe. At the risk of going off topic again, most nomadic tribes in India are not in any schedule, they are generally treated as "born criminals", they do not have most of the civil rights, they are denied the basic right to vote because they do not have a "permanent address", they cannot even open an account in any bank and lets forget the passport and other things that we all take so much for granted. As is obvious their children are not sent to any schools. You would argue, who would take them. I, partially agree. Yes, no one but that's because we still haven't thought about them or accepted that they are Indians too. They live like foreigners in their own land. They make those lovely idols with plaster and china clay which are worshipped in every Indian home, be it a Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or those tablets in a muslim household.. They give 'jadi booties' for a zillion ailments and before shitting those let's have a research on those traditional herbs and medicines.
Ok..back to the children. i gave them the biscuits and told them to eat it in front of me. They did so, very reluctantly. I promised myself to visit their families after i came back from a week of meetings at Bhubaneswar and would spend at least an hour with their children everyday. That was more selfish on my part. I wanted to know how the children adjusted to the nomadic lifestyles. I wanted to know how the kids felt being unwanted at every place they went. I wanted to know what was the normal life for these children. I wanted to know what the children thought of the only profession they had been taught since childhood -begging.
I reached here the night before the last. Yesterday was Diwali so stayed at home. I came early today so that i could spend some time with those children and their families.
Their tents are gone as are they.
My dreams of talking to them will get fulfilled someday. And meanwhile, thousands of such children are getting robbed of a childhood without the basic rights to health, education and shelter.
There are so many "only ifs" but none to drive away those innocent eyes that haunt you long after they gone...
Now, we work with child labourers and street children. We run three schools with 50 children each in the district at three places, Joda, Keonjhar and Banspal. We also have 20 Non-formal education centres in 20 slums where non-school going and drop-outs are taught in play-learn methods and gradually enrolled into regular schools with periodic monitoring to stem the drop-out. We also worked with 700 such children and their parents in the past where we gave importance on the capacity building of the parents, sensitization, micro-enterprise development and decreasing the work hours of the children alongwith compulsory education.
That was just a background and besides the point. That's what makes me think about those children a bit closer from a different perspective or maybe vice-versa.
I asked them what they would do with the money (there were two girls aged anything between 6-8 and a boy who was maybe about 10-11). First they kept quiet looking at me with those idiotically sweet eyes and nudging at me. Then after i gave them one of my best smiles and sat with them they finally relented. They said they hadn't had anything to eat since the morning and they would get something to eat. Now, i usually don't give alms to able-bodied beggars and specially when they are children. But try as i could, i just couldn't ignore this. I asked a shopkeeper nearby to get three packets of some good biscuit or crackers. He told me, "Vini, let them be, they are all little devils". Little devils or not, i had to talk o them and there wasn't any other way. I asked them about their lives. They belonged to a nomadic tribe. At the risk of going off topic again, most nomadic tribes in India are not in any schedule, they are generally treated as "born criminals", they do not have most of the civil rights, they are denied the basic right to vote because they do not have a "permanent address", they cannot even open an account in any bank and lets forget the passport and other things that we all take so much for granted. As is obvious their children are not sent to any schools. You would argue, who would take them. I, partially agree. Yes, no one but that's because we still haven't thought about them or accepted that they are Indians too. They live like foreigners in their own land. They make those lovely idols with plaster and china clay which are worshipped in every Indian home, be it a Hindu, Christian, Buddhist or those tablets in a muslim household.. They give 'jadi booties' for a zillion ailments and before shitting those let's have a research on those traditional herbs and medicines.
Ok..back to the children. i gave them the biscuits and told them to eat it in front of me. They did so, very reluctantly. I promised myself to visit their families after i came back from a week of meetings at Bhubaneswar and would spend at least an hour with their children everyday. That was more selfish on my part. I wanted to know how the children adjusted to the nomadic lifestyles. I wanted to know how the kids felt being unwanted at every place they went. I wanted to know what was the normal life for these children. I wanted to know what the children thought of the only profession they had been taught since childhood -begging.
I reached here the night before the last. Yesterday was Diwali so stayed at home. I came early today so that i could spend some time with those children and their families.
Their tents are gone as are they.
My dreams of talking to them will get fulfilled someday. And meanwhile, thousands of such children are getting robbed of a childhood without the basic rights to health, education and shelter.
There are so many "only ifs" but none to drive away those innocent eyes that haunt you long after they gone...
Footnote: UN defines every child of 6-14 age group out of school as child labour.
