When Childhood turns a Nightmare
Ever thought of dismissing the speculations and
apprehensions of a child as absurd? Then today being the World Day against
Child Labour could be an occasion to rethink this illusion. 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
disturbing 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.
Today we must 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.
Today it is all about analyzing whether justice has
been meted out timely and fairly to the children of our world at large and
nation in particular. 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 the way the nation treats its children.
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 her subsistence is the blood of those
infants. Thus the Church choosing to remain silent on the atrocities against
children is a Church that digs her 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 her. 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.
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