Footpath child – Birth!!! Isn’t it a special occasion when a newborn infant arrives in our house?
We celebrate it like a festival. Distribute loads of sweets, spend money etc. as a source of our happiness.
But what about those born on footpaths? Footpath child ? Are they not humans? Are they not a gift of God? Are they without any special qualities? If you want answer to all these questions, just meet a roadside child and ask his experience.
Life of a child born along the roadside first revolves around all sorts of hazards. Footpath child is forced to stay in such surrounding where willingly or unwillingly he has to survive in the hazardous pollution and revolve all day around in dirt and dust. With a single or sometimes even no clothes to wear, the child start eatng whatever he finds. “Kya kare? bhuke pet ka sawaal hai” But is this the desired justification? Is this the position of India what was dreamt by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Sir?
Today, when we talk of massive progress of India in all fields, we are somewhere neglecting this issue.
A footpath child too has desires possibly not outsourced because of the lagging platform or due to parent’s pressure. He is being brought up under the circumstances where he is just made to beg and beg and beg only. And someday, if no one offers him food to eat or water to drink, he is even forced to eat or drink whatever her finds in garbage.
Today such children either beg and earn their food or eat whatever they get. Next section of this community are picked up for illegal activities such as child labor, drug trafficking, women/girl trafficking, etc under the hypnosis that they will be paid well to support their family. Irrespective of this, eating or working under unhygienic conditions cause serious health problems for which they either have to rush to BMC’s or just wait for someone to help them out or at the most die asking help. These children become vulnerable many diseases which takes a troll of their lives.
Today every minute, we speak about the reservation system for the backward strata of the society neglecting the fact that are they really in need of such systems?
Being a youth voice of better India, today what I feel is, we should all stand up with one voice for providing reservation to this excluded section of our society for a better tomorrow.
Progressive India should contain progressive society with 100% literacy rate. No one can ever wonder that amongst those footpath children one could have been a doctor, an engineer or even a scientist, etc and drive India to the next success horizon. I strongly believe that there are many initiatives already being undertaken by various NGO’s and individual’s too. What currently the need of the hour is to take such initiatives in every nook and corner of the society.
Skilled India programmes can be undertaken for the adults so that even they can earn a respectful living by working hard in upbringing their talents and not by begging. It is a high time alarm for the government to tackle this hindrance in progress with active involvement and truly live upto their words of “Padhega India, Tabhi Toh Badhega India”.
