Waiting for someone to hold my hand…
December 13th 2007 by wizWriters in Child Safety & Protection
We say that every child has a right to survival, right to protection, and right to development. Does it really hold true for every child?
Read the statement again…
- A child has right to survival (But what happens when a girl child is killed just because a family prefers to have a boy child),
- right to protection (But what happens when a child whether boy or a girl is being sexually molested),
- right to development (But what happens when a child is not allowed to go to school and forced to become a source of earning bread to the family).
This is just the trailer; the real picture is still to come…
According to the statistics collected by the major NGOs in India working for the upliftment of those children, who are deprived of their fundamental rights:
- 1:10 is the ratio of disabled children in India.
- About 70% of children in India aged 3 months or below that are found anaemic.
- Over 20% of India’s children are underweight after birth.
- Out of 1000 children of India, around 70 are not fortunate enough to celebrate their first birthday. 1 million girls out of the average of 10 million girls are not given a chance to be present on their first birthday.
- Only 35% of India’s children aged 2 years or below that are immunized.
- 1:4 is the ratio of girls aged 4 years or below that who are sexually exploited.
- Over 50% of rural girls are illiterate.
-Around 20% of rural children are mentally or physically challenged.
-Many are doomed to become child labour, and do not get hold of an opportunity to get even primary education.
-Often children of poor families are “sold off” by parents themselves to contractors and are sent to cities where they either get hired in hotels or for domestic work.
And still there are various surprising facts that keep on adding every single day…
I am sure this is not just the statistics of India; it is an epitome of every such nation where children are subjugated, exploited and deprived from their innocent childhood.
According to an axiom, “a child is the future of tomorrow,” but when we see such future of children scattered, it is no shame in saying that “a child is a dark side of tomorrow.”
Now the question arises, who is responsible for crafting this statistic? You will be not only surprised but shocked to know that it is none other than WE to whom the credit goes. A child is unaware of the complexity of the world, but it is we who make them every single minute suffer by depriving them of their fundamental rights. There is inequality amongst boy and girl child, deprivation of basic education, deficient health care, making them work in harmful conditions, high infant mortality rate, and homelessness.
Giving birth to a child and leaving him to meet the fate of exploited world is not what makes us to call parents. Parenthood does not only mean bringing the child to this world but we have other responsibilities to fulfil. It includes making our child an independent and responsible citizen. Parenthood also does not mean taking care of your own child but also to hold the hand of unfortunate children too. Before making our children learn these values, we ourselves as parents should understand what does a responsible citizen or parenthood means.
Beyond doubt, Government, media and child welfare organizations in India has left no stone unturned to make every child smile. Child welfare organizations in India like CRY, Smile Foundation, SOS, Udaan, Akshara Foundation and many more are abysmal, undertaking every single effort to make children live a normal and healthy life like any other children.
I whole heartedly express my gratitude to such organizations who understand the pulse of such situation, and work for making a healthy world where every child can smile, play and learn for their bright future. Hats off to such organizations who take measures in spreading awareness amongst our sleeping masses on issues like child safety, population control, adult education and AIDS.
Ask yourself…Are we as a parent or a part of this society even giving a thought to it???
Though being collective imparts power but you will be amazed to know that even an individual can make a difference too. An individual identity has power and authority to bring smile on these little faces than any government or a child welfare organization. Adoption, sponsorships, donations, visiting various child welfare organizations, and celebrating festivals, birthdays among parentless children, are some of the exit doors and windows that can be used by every individual to bring such children out of this murk world.
Last but not the least, my aim to pen down this blog is not to make the people aware of the issue as each one us knows the hard core reality, but my little effort is to jolt people’s inner conscious so that we together wake up and take a step forward to build a small and real world of happiness for every child.
Through this medium, I just want to express that child welfare organizations or government bodies are just a bridge but we are the builders of it. Each individual of the society should come out of their lackadaisical, and step forward to change the lives of these children permanently as they are also just like our own children with the only difference that they are waiting for someone to cuddle them.
Article by the wizWriters group in New Delhi, India. Photo of Indian Street children by mantasidhu at stock.xchng
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December 15th, 2007 at 12:53 am
A very lovely and positive article to encourage community care.
Are girl babies still left to die in some areas of rural India?
December 16th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Hi.
Its not about ’some areas’ of rural india. Every village in India still has many such cases. I captured the image that you saw at the link. It is from a construction site in the capital, new delhi. The children;s parents worked there as unskilled daily wage construction workers. And ‘left to die’ is quite an understatement. They are killed, in most cases, at the time of birth itself. There are many methods of killing the newly born girls that are widely followed here. Most commonly they are drowned in milk or water. In some cases, the baby is continously overfed with spoonfuls of salt, until the system of the body collapses and the baby dies. Even today there are cases of newly born girl babies abandoned in garbage dumps and railway stations.The plight is pathetic and the core reason is overpopulation, which leads to a lack of education.
Manta Sidhu
New Delhi
India.
December 16th, 2007 at 7:56 am
PJM and Manta thanks for your comments.
What is the Indian Government doing about the child killings? What do the community agencies do about education.
Is there something we can all do from afar to help improve the life of these children?
It is such a shame when there are adoptive parents in the West,often longing for a baby to adopt and care well for, but there is a lack of babies placed for adoption.
Great photography Manta, thanks for that. And another great consciousness raising article from the wizGroup.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Hi Megan.
Apologies for the very delayed response. Had been travelling extensively.
The sad truth is that government agencies and NGOs have not been able to do much about the killing of the girl child, despite the greatest efforts. Because the root of this evil is embedded in the cultural system of India…which gave birth to the arranged marriage system and the disgraceful dowry system which is practiced rigorously in most parts of India. Herein, the girl’s family has to give unbelievable amounts in cash and kind to the boy’s family during the daughter’s wedding. Dowry most commonly includes - apartments, car, furniture, TVs, washing machines, all possible electronic goods, gold for the entire extended family of the boy, expensive clothes for the entire extended family of the boy, not to forget a lumpsum of cash etc etc etc. The amounts are demanded by the boy’s family in most cases, and if not met with, become a cause for the girl to get rejected. In fear of not finding a good house for their girl, parents of the girl take heavy loans and empty their own banks to make the boy’s family happy. Even after doing so much, the boy’s family often expresses discontent at the ‘little’ amount being offered in dowry. Dowry is not the only expenditure needed to be taken care of by the girl’s family. The entire expense for the marriage ceremony, includng venue costs, catering, guest accomodation - all is the responsibility of the girl’s parents - which also is subject to judgment and comment by the boy’s family. If in case the demands of dowry are met at the time of the wedding, the giving does not end here. After the marriage, the girl’s parents have to send gifts and cash to the boy’s family at every religious festival (which go upto almost 15 to 20 a year) Then again, the boy’s family get to judge whether the amount sent was less or okay.
Till today, and in metropolitan cities too, there are several cases of ‘dowry deaths’. Meaning that the bride is either murdered or burnt alive because her parents did not give enough, or, many times, brides commit suicide because of the constant pressure on her to bring more and more from her parents’ house. Every day, a newspaper would carry at least one report on dowry death. Small wonder then, that as soon as a girl child is born in some of the more educated, advanced families, a bank account in the name of the girl is opened, meant for savings for dowry until its time foe her to get married.
Now, in a society where this is the ultimate fate of the girl’s parents, how do you blame these parents killing the girl child, either by abortion or after birth? The governemtn of India in an attempt to abolish the increasing numbers of female foeticide, banned ultrasound procedures during pregnancy in all parts of India. This resulted in increasing numbers of killings after birth. Not to forget, medical clinics started taking huge sums of money as bribe in order to secretly let a pregnant woman undergo an untrasound test.
If you go around the maternity wards in hospitals, what you will experience is very unfortunate. The families will be waiting anxiously outside the delivery rooms, waiting for a good news of a baby boy. At home, there would already be a band of local musicians ready with drums and insruments to celebrate the arrival of a baby boy in the family. Celebrations are grand if the news is good. In the back of everyone’s minds, there is the happy thought that his marriage would bring in loads of wealth. But all is quite the contrary if its a girl. Not a smile to be seen on anyone’s face. The local musicians waiting at home are called up and asked to leave. And the woman who delivered the girl, is not spoken to for days together - ’she gave birth to a girl. How dare she.’ The girl child is treated inferior to her male siblings all through her childhood and growing up years. The good food, good clothes, good toys - all for the boy.
They all seem to forget that it is the man who is responsible for whether the child turns out to be a boy or a girl. More importantly, they forget that if there were no girls, who would give birth to the boys and the men?
We will not say that things have not changed. The new generations are progressively modern and evolved in their mindsets. They often stand against customs of dowry. Their biggest challenge though still remains fighting the traditions that have been followed within their families for centuries together, Many of them unfortunately, are never able to fight these traditions.
In my view, the only way that these evil practices can be made to rest is through the educations of children. They have to be made to understand the relevance and importance of their mindsets and thinking on the future of the country - socially and economically. Where I think the education system is lacking, the world over i must say, is that important social issues such as these are not a part of school curriculum. Instead children are made to mug up dates in history and theorums in math and science that are not going to hold any relevance in the practical socal lives of these children in future. Organizations - Governmental and non-governmental must plan and execute special educative programmes towards social empowerment issues such as these at the school level. And this must be done extensively and frequently, till the messages dont become a part of the childrens’ mainstream thinking. This ofcourse, will be just the beginning.