INDIA challenged!
There another girl cries again, pleading to stop her
marriage, because she’s studying and had promised herself that she won’t get
married until 18..but she fails to convince her parents and moves to the school
headmaster. Another news that caught my eyes was ‘Babies for sale for Rs.
30,000/-‘. ‘Fair and beautiful girl child and the deal is fixed at Rs. 30,000/-‘claims
the broker. As media tries to unveil this human trafficking racket, there are
no records, nobody asks, how many children have gone from the home. It’s ‘pragmatic’
for some to put up baby girls and get remuneration for their needy family. When
will the stake owners, ‘so called’ dominating sex representatives consider
woman more than a piece of flesh!
“No girl world”, I read on the graffiti everyday as I make my
way, to only reinforce the belief that sadly it’s so true in the Indian
context. Why? Attitude! Yes, there’s one thing I learnt and agree from an
encounter with an activist from an NGO, which works for the upliftment of
children. He said no matter how much we try and struggle to improve the
conditions in society, the thinking or attitude matters and rides one to one’s growth
or downfall. And as my father always reminds us of the saying, “A man can
change his life by merely changing his attitude!” But how long, I wish to
question. An evolution or a revolution?
It’s painful and strikingly contradictory to see your PM
signing nuclear deals with foreign ministers or launching a larger-than-life
space missions to surpass the realms of the ever-known universe, when in some
corner of the same world you live in, is a child crying for food, for shelter,
for damn basics! A girl questioning her very existence, forget about the ‘extra
care’ and tenderness, someone deprived of the rights of humanity!
67 years post independence, Mother India is ‘developing’. We
need to face the truth that unless we address the issues of disparity, poverty,
hit the roots that needs immediate attention, we shouldn't build castles in air
as the dream of becoming a superpower is adjourned year after year!
I may sound so pessimistic, but as I ponder, this is the ‘real’
picture of the very India we live in and encounters we see day to day, and may
be if you have not noticed, it’s only because you have got so used to the mundane sight- seeing
the children begging that the system as a whole has simply got ‘immune’. But for those brave
hearts who would like to shoulder the responsibility and ready to stain their
hands for cleaning as Madhavan points in Rang de Basanti ‘Desh ki safai mein
haat gande kaun kare?’-if you are one of those, WE can make a difference, yes
we must start! Start joining bit by bit to bridge the gap between ‘poor’ and
the ‘rich’, ‘need’ and ‘luxury’, ‘right’ and ‘demand’ and may be then, ultimately between ‘developing’ and ‘developed’!
