Do we dare to Celebrate Children's Day?

Ever thought of dismissing the speculations and apprehensions of a child as absurd? Then this Children’s Day is an occasion to rethink this paradox. We Christians seem to be indolent towards the fact that we continue to follow the God consciousness of a lad. At the age of twelve, Jesus at the temple chose the metaphor of Father to describe God. Do not we foster the same till date?

Children are the most beautiful creation of God and childhood the most envious period. It is so important that even God while incarnating did not choose to take a leap. This is an age when relationships survive without the burden of names, when innocence spills over, when imaginations and actions are not at odds, when emotions are freely expressed without the fear of any sort, when smile and laughter are genuine and much more.

These are the dominant versions of articulating the whims and fancies of childhood.  How far are they true? We seem to be so relaxed in this complacency. Take a look at these facts to shed our oblivion.

1. India is home to the largest under-nourished and hungry population with 195 million people going hungry every day.

2. Close to 165 million children are stunted as a result of under-nutrition and infection, leaving them physically and intellectually weak. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, 24 countries with the highest levels of stunted children are concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia alone.

3. Nearly half of all deaths in children under age 5 are attributable to under-nutrition. This translates into an unnecessary loss of about 3 million young lives a year. In India itself, 3,000 children die every day due to malnutrition.

4. In India, the nutrition of children is particularly worse because of the state of their mothers. 36% of Indian women are chronically under-nourished, from their childhood itself.

5. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization it costs just $0.25 (INR 16) per day to provide a child all the vitamins and nutrients he/she requires to grow healthy.

6. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), climate change and erratic weather patterns will push another 24 million children into hunger in the future.

We must also not forget that India has one of the largest number of Child Labours in the world. According to the Ministry of Labour and Employment there are 1.26 crore working children in the age group of 5-14 as compared to the total child population of 25.2 crore. There are approximately 12 lakhs children working in the hazardous occupations/processes which are covered under the Child Labour (Prohibition & Regulation) Act 1986 i.e. 18 occupations and 65 processes. The National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) reports that the number of working children is estimated at 90.75 lakh.

India cannot even shy away from the ignominy of child abuse.  A recent survey conducted by humanitarian aid organization World Vision India with a sample of 45,844 respondents revealed that one in every five children do not feel safe because of the fear of being sexually abused. It also said one in four families do not come forward to report child abuse. World Vision India National Director Cherian Thomas stated, “Despite one in every two children being a victim of child sexual abuse, there continues to be a huge silence. The magnitude of sexual violence against children is unknown.”

  

Do we still have the nerve to celebrate Children’s day? Celebrations are not always about pomp and gaiety; it is about analyzing whether justice has been meted out timely and fairly. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru whose birth anniversary is commemorated as Children’s day once reckoned;

“The children of today will make the India of tomorrow. The way we bring them up will determine the future of the country.”

The future of India does not seem appealing but looks cataclysmic from the way the nation treats its own children.

Recently the Syrian Orthodox Church celebrated “Koodosh Eatho” Sunday which means “Sanctification of Church”. How many priests preached about Children? Not only because they are the future of the Church but also its subsistence. Jesus Christ himself is the product of a brutal infant genocide. Jose Saramago in his book “Gospel according to Jesus Christ” portrays a guilty Jesus who holds himself and his father Joseph accountable for that massacre later sanitized by Church Fathers as “Holy Innocence”. This may be the reason why Jesus shows profound love towards children. But unfortunately the Church seems to have forgotten that it has been built on the blood of those infants. How cruel is the church which equates the blood of Christ with salvation and totally overlooks the blood of those infants. The Church choosing to remain silent on the atrocities against children is a Church that digs its own grave.    

We live in a time when the consent and interests of children are taken for granted. They are considered to be entertainers to others. Parents are in the illusion that they teach their children. Angela Schwindt remarks, “While we teach our children all about life our children teach us what life is all about.”  

This painting by Bartolome Esteban Murillo depicts a scene from a Roman legend that tells how a prisoner was condemned to death by starvation and thirst. The man was thrown into a dungeon by the Roman prefect in Ghent. Only his daughter was allowed to visit him. But she was not allowed to take any food or drink to her father. Daughter was an adult. The father remained alive still after six months. Apparently the daughter had just become a mother; in attempt to save her father’s life she breastfed him daily with her milk. It is said that prefect was so moved by the incident that he released the man free.

I would like to conclude with the words of Kahlil Gibran from his book “The Prophet”

A woman who held a babe against her bosom said, Speak to us of Children. And he said:

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you.

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts; for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls; for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow which you cannot visit not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them but strive not to make them like you; for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite and He bends you with his might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.