By IANS
New Delhi : The innocence in their eyes has not been lost despite the burden of problems they carry on their shoulders. On Children’s Day Wednesday, children affected by terrorism, insurgency and violence voiced their thoughts and put forth questions which no one has concrete answers to.
Zuber, 12, from Godhra in Gujarat wanted to know if the people who burnt down his home and mercilessly killed his father in the 2002 riots would ever be brought to book.
Pranjal, 16, from Assam wanted to know when his brother’s murderers would be punished.
Zafar, 7, from Kashmir said that his father, who was a militant, was the reason behind the destruction of his family. “He is gone, but now no one is ready to take us in schools. Will we ever get employment?” he asked.
In response to the queries that these children posed, Minister of State for Home Affairs Prakash Jaiswal could only say that the healing process would take time.
“It will take time. Justice will prevail. It is your responsibility now to distance yourselves from the negative forces in society. That is the strongest stand that you can take against them,” Jaiswal told the children who had gathered for a programme called the National Campaign for Protection of Rights of Children in the capital Wednesday.
Nearly 1,500 children from various riot- and terrorism-affected places across the country, like Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat and Assam, came together in the capital for this programme.
Chandan Majumdar, who runs the NGO Anand Ghar in West Bengal for the benefit of HIV positive children, said that for the innocent children every day is a struggle for survival.
“The hospital that we run doesn’t have adequate Anti Retro Viral treatment facility. The children are shunned by society and not allowed to attend school,” Majumdar said during the programme.
While some children narrated their problems, millions of kids across the country went about their daily chores — washing dishes, chopping vegetables, scrubbing floors — unaware that they can even voice their thoughts, let alone be rescued.
Raju, 9, who works in a dhaba in the national capital, does not know what Children’s Day is.
Raju is one of the million children whose tiny hands are tired, not of holding pens and pencils but of making tea in the dhabas, rolling out rotis and washing dishes in restaurants or scrubbing floors in houses. Instead of a colourful dream, all they see are their chapped and scalding hands.
Children’s Day is celebrated in India on the birth anniversary of first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Giving a puzzled look on being asked what Children’s Day meant to him, Raju said: “It’s just a normal day…I will work until night”.
Raju’s statement was yet another reminder of the failure of the law which came into effect last year and prohibits children below the age of 14 from working in hotels, restaurants, dhabas and homes.
For those kids who were luckier than the others, it was a day that they have been looking forward to eagerly. After all it’s not everyday that one has no classes, gets to wear anything but their uniform to school and, for a change, have their teachers regale them.
Anoushka Gupta, a class four student of the Shri Ram School in the capital, for instance, was unusually excited by the thought of school Wednesday.
“We went to school in clothes that we chose and our teachers danced, staged plays and sang for us. Some of the children also painted their faces,” she said.
Similarly, Shreya Ghosh of Amity International School said she and her friends had a gala time, with face painting and quiz competitions in their school.
To celebrate this day, the National Council for Education, Research and Training (NCERT) film club screened films focussing on children across the capital. The film festival will be on till Nov 18.