"here is one intersection of life in metropolitan India where ‘life’ indeed goes on. It flows in a ribbon of continuous movement that is required, every now and then, to take pause at what are called ‘traffic junctions’ or ‘traffic signals’...........Some months ago, in Chennai, my three-wheeler had stopped at one of these junctions. In that throbbing wait of no more than a few seconds, a little girl wove her way into the road, twisting her tiny frame in between lorry, tempo, taxi, three-wheeler, two-wheeler, cart and limo. I was about to shout ‘Watch it, kid!’ when she fell flat onto the steaming tarmac. I thought she had fainted in the heat but no, she was up in a trice doing, in the narrowest of spaces between the traffic, a perfect somersault. I realised that this blithe girl with limbs of rubber was a street acrobat....I could see she wore a thin coat of make-up that is not to be expected in a girl of her age. I shuddered at the thought of what the future held for her. Perhaps the ‘future’ had already taken hold of her. Perhaps the traffic signal had already signalled another ‘traffick’ for her? On the other hand, who knows, she could become an Anna Pavlova. But Pavlova was not born to the street...............................But the sheer numbers — estimates put the number of streetchildren in India at 15 million, the world’s highest, at a 15 per cent of the global count of streetchildren — make the challenge mind-numbing."
And this is not something new, which will surprise anyone of us. Daily while commuting to our offices we come across these kids either begging or picking rags. It would sound hard to say but have we become so insensitive that it no longer bothers us?? If in place of those unknown kids, our siblings were there on the street,, would our response be the same !! If not, then Are we waiting for someone from heaven to come and assist them live a better life ??
I don't have an answer, but it really pains from within. The number "15 million" is just a misnomer, m sure it would certainly more than that.
What's the way out. My limited cognizance shows two ways...one is preventive other curative. People in villages have meager income generation opportunities and so they come down to cities in search of work and then how these kids come down to street to earn(beg !!) petty sum is not a story which needs an intellectual explanation. Preventive solution is to create income generation opportunities right at the village level which ensures sufficient money to live a decent life, provide education to children, meet their medical expenses etc. The experiment of Mayurbhanj is a small step in this direction. As is emerging in Disha it will take not just months but years to set a sustainable process (cooperative) of income generation for the people within the villages (and that too in just 100 villages of one district of one state !!!)) , preventive solution will take time to reverse this process of migration of unskilled (less skilled) people to cities. By the time preventive solution starts delivering its results , Curative solution possibly should be brought in to provide immediate assistance to the one's whom Mr. GK Gandhi termed as "Anna Pavlova" who are already on street. As I see, it will not be possible for everyone to put many many years of life and take on with the preventive solution but Are we willing to take start work with atleast curative solution
My experiment started with the curative solution in Orphanage of Baroda on weekends while working in GM. And believe me its not so hard, all it would need is forming a small group of friends, spare few hours of weekends for these kids instead of malls and movies...who knows this small support can help those kids "relive their life".
Are we ready to take the baton or will keep blaming the systems around?
*Full article can be read at http://www.hindustantimes.com/Walking-a-tightrope/Article1-554056.aspx
simply great sir...
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