As I am in hurry to be at home today..and would not have access to Internet at home..here are some impressions I have about children in India. I will leave you to ponder over these images today on the eve of Children’s day.
Children at mid day lunch at government school
Rag picker Girl: Where is her childhood?
Privileged are they?
A hole in the wall! (NIIT Experiment)
Child Labour
Innocence!
Any ideas about what we could do to retain that innocence?
Visceral Observations 
I don’t think it’s possible to retain a child’s innocence in the kind of situation the country is in today. Not many of the kids are happy. The rich ones are angry that they’re being made to study and the poor ones are sad that they can’t study. It’s all discontent discontent discontent everywhere. 😦
Poonam: Ish, that is true that none of us are content with what we have. But there must be a constructive way to change that discontent. Like rich kids being involved to help poor kids, I am sure they will appreciate what they have. Actually I read a news report, most parents in Delhi were taking their kids to orphanages and other places on birthdays. They asked their relatives not to spend money for birthday kid but gift those underprivileged kids.
Hey why didn’t you ask for my photo? 😛
discontent discontent discontent everywhere.
Discontent has been in Human DNA since the beginning of time. Humans are engineered in such a way that they are never happy with what they have. Some find it as inspiration to move on to other things, some waster their lives cursing for not having things they want. 🙂
Poonam: Well said, Ashish! 🙂
wondering why you kept “happy” childrens day
Poonam: There were some happy kids too, but perhaps in my hurry I did not give them a fair representation. But the post was bit sarcastic to remind about unhappy kids. 😦
The photographs posted definitely depict the sad state of kids in the country. Some kids do not get the privilege of going to school and the others who manage to go sometimes do not value the education. I can vouch for that as my mum is a school teacher in a government school. Majority of the kids are more interested in collecting the lunch and goodies supplied by the government for these kids. They might bunk their classes on and off but, can be seen in full strength when something si being distributed.
Some kids are forced to leave their innocence behind to earn while others who get a chance to make their future better may or may not use the facility given to them. Should I conclude it’s the parents and the upbringing responsible for this?
Poonam: Welcome to Visceral Observations!
You made two valid points:
1. Children are more interested in mid-day meal than studies in government schools. Actually mid-day meal is only reason why they have been sent to school by their family. Only government should be more proactive in capitalizing on this parent decision. We need proactive teachers. Instead government create all sorts of obstacles for teacher’s (obstructing their salary, blah blah) killing their motivation. And sadly, there is no way of accounting of teachers. Instruction design, as you know, plays important part in countries abroad t engage students in learning. Our government is sleeping over it.
2. Some kids are forced to leave their innocence behind to earn. True! But as is evident, conducting raids and “rescuing” children from child labour is not helping. Children go back to work after media attention fades!
Problem is not parents, problem is poverty. Parents need their children to work to keep their hearth burning. Which is why they send their children to school because they get meal. 😦
Poverty eradication requires multi-pronged approach: More jobs, equal pay, aids, community prorams involving corporates and schools. No politician is interested in that. 😦
Its a huge topic in itself to discuss about how we can improve the life of such childrens…
I have read about how childrens are picked up from orphanges and made to beg on mumbai streets/signals..
I even dont trust NGO’s …i think they too eat up good chunk of the pie(donations) before it reaches the childrens.
Poonam: That children picked from orphanage to beg is true. I read it too. Begging is now a profession and an industry in itself. 😦
Nitin, is there a particular reason why you do not trust NGO? I know corruption is everywhere, but did you have any personal experience with NGO?
the pictures posted by you are truly moving…I wish something cud be done abt it.
Poonam: I was hoping my readers will give me an idea. Something surely can be done, but we need teamwork.
I think it is unfair and truly terrible that some children aged just 5 hav 2 work. Employers would rather employ children for jobs because 1 adults wont tolerate it and 2 they can be paid cheaply. 16% of the world children (250 million)work and 1 on 12 die or have their health permanantly damaged by the age of 10 and that is sad.Most of them dont have an education and that is not fair. I wish people would and could help but they wont or they cant.