Skip to main content

A Small Small Girl in a Big Bad World

The newspaper headline screams at me - a leading school faces the issue of child molestation in Noida, so close to the national capital.
                                       
I sit next to the newspaper, horrified,terrified petrified, dumb-founded. 
The kids are close to three and half year, pre-nursery, much below the Khap prescribed marrying age.

Where do we hide those kids, tell us, our honourable (they insist being addressed thus, else they call it
infringement of parliamentary privileges, notwithstanding their behaviour in the parliament). leaders, 
"pray, do tell me, Is there any one concerned?"
I cradle my child in my arms, hold her so close to my heart, that no one and nothing may pierce through the impenetrable circle of my embrace to reach her. She looks up at me with those dove like eyes, not understanding me any bit. Suddenly, the winter morning is no longer pleasant not even in Delhi, and I leave for work, with worries hanging over my head. 
We claim to be country of tomorrow; by 2020 we 
expect to be producing around 17 percent of the
 global GDP, and we are meek enough not to be able to even protect our children. 
Do we realise that human race has survived this far primarily because of the strong intent of the parents to protect and nourish their offsprings? Our future, not only as a nation but as a human race resides in them, they hold the key to our future.

 The traditional politicos are busy with mission 2014, 
the newly emerged one, civil society ones, struggling with a conventional dress code of Gandhi topi ( am I the only one who finds this dress regressively cliched?), is busy in their weekly scoops. I had some hope with the latter, but they have become anti-corruption fanatics. (Is Mr. Kajriwal listening)


Do you hear me, Mr. New Age Neta, I have a daughter, and while I do fear what larger issues like corruption and communalisation is doing to the nation, I want the state to protect my child. I would like to see what my vote seeking politicians plan to do to create a better world for my child. Is there anyone talking of creating a framework of child protection network maybe, aligned with the police, as a neighbourhood watch? Why not, because kids don't vote and do not know why they are being subjected to what they being subjected to? It would be worth your while, Sir, to note that though they do not vote, as their parents, we do, and this is a concerned vote bank which cuts across, religion, quota, non-quota, and poor and not-poor. You can not ignore the young of this nation, not for long, we will stand for them, won't we? 

Comments

Saket Suryesh said…
Thanks for the visit and comment, Purba. What is more important than the knee jerk responses is to have a proper framework established which would act as a deterrent. Gruesome punishment can not help much, and might even cause greater threat when prohibitive framework is not in place. Why can't we have designated officials with legal powers at block level for child protection and welfare?
November 15, 2012 at 1:02 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Teaching Kids Read Early Makes Sense?

Picture Courtesy- GettyImages I am an only child, though not a child anymore. My childhood went in search of friendships outside the home, and waiting for the evening to come by to immerse into those rare moments of camaraderie. Our days, the Pre-Appu childhood, was largely supervised by our parents. I do not much remember visiting my friend’s place in childhood. Much unlike my daughter and her friends who keep meeting up in their homes. My friends were kids of my father’s colleagues and we met when they met. Friendships were formed and finished in the children park.  The interspersed period of loneliness was filled up by books. It was from Comics to pocket-books to Geeta Press to even, Indian Classics like Ramayana and Mahabharata . They filled up my days of solitude with rare happiness. I was called introvert and adults left me alone. It was an arrangement which we both liked. There was no other arrangement in the view. For some reasons, parents those days did not appr...
2 comments
Read more

पुस्तक समीक्षा - मैं मुन्ना हूँ - लेखक - मनीष श्रीवास्तव

  जिस प्रकार वनस्पति घी डालडा होता है , जैसे प्रतिलिपि ज़ेरॉक्स होती है , मनीष श्रीवास्तव जी श्रीमान जी होते हैं। कम लोगों को पाठकों का इतना स्नेह प्राप्त होता है , जो उनके कृतित्व एवं लेखन से आगे निकल जाता है। इसका कारण उनके लेखन में   सत्य का प्रतिबिम्ब परिलक्षित होना होता है जो पाठक ने उनके व्यक्तित्व में देखा सुना हो। लेखन मेरी दृष्टि में वह माध्यम होता है जिसके द्वारा अपने सत्य को वह कपोल कल्पना का आवरण पहना कर सार्वजनिक कर देता है और आत्मा को एक पिशाच के बोझ से मुक्त कर पाता है। कलम के माध्यम से लेखक वह कहने का साहस जुटा पाता है जिसे अन्यथा वह संभवतः न कह पाए।जब कोई कृति यह कर पाती है तो वह न केवल लेखक की आत्मा के पिशाच हटाती है वरन पाठक की आत्मा के धागों पर लगी गिरहें भी खोल देती है और उसके मानस को मुक्त कर देती है।   इस दृष्टि से मनीष की यह पुस्तक " मैं मुन्ना हूँ " अपने दायित्व का पूर्णता से निर्वाह करती ...
Post a Comment
Read more

On the Eve of Formation of New Government

The long dance-duel of democracy has finally ended. The rulers and wanting-to-be-rulers have now decided to rest after a no-holds-barred battle is over. The unapologetic political parties and apologetic, righteous neutral commentators, jumping in and out of the discourse. In fact, the case for the commentators was the most curious, under the thinly wrapped veneer of neutrality and forward-thinking lurked the opportunity to shoot and scoot.   This was a campaign which made people see through the charade of intellectual bourgeoisie, who pretended to be neutral but treaded the thin line between the public and private. Thankfully, the campaign ended and hopefully we are left with few things still left to believe in.   Narendra Modi has a task cut out for him. Swearing-in happens tomorrow evening. My view he has things to do, new paths to tread.   He has invited the SAARC countries, all of them to attend. That to me is a good be...
Post a Comment
Read more