CHILDREN:DO WE CARE FOR THEM???

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn,
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight,
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy,
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty,
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient,
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence,
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate,
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice,
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith,
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself,
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

-Dorothy Law Holtz

A child, deep down inside the mother’s womb, is a human being in the making from moment of his/her conception. A little child is a creation, an image of some unknown superpower to be loved and to bestow love.

A question often lingers in my mind: Are we, as a nation doing enough for our children? Disturbing features like infant mortality, child morbidity, malnutrition, child abuse, child labour, child marriage, beggary juvenile delinquency, drug addiction, the broken homes…all these prove how by neglecting our children, we are jeopardising the future of the country. An entire nation at peril! While we boast of tremendous achievements in the fields of IT, space research, nuclear technology and medicine, we fail to provide the basic medicare and necessities to children. Even elementary education seems a distant dream for some. Without any care from parents and society, these children go astray and get caught in the vicious circles of crime and abuse. They become aberrant and become a recluse in the society. With such a bleak present, can we hope for a better tomorrow?

Though the Indian government has done a lot to better the life of our children, there still remains a gulf of difference between what has been done and what needs to be done. As human beings, don’t we feel a pang in our heart when we hear a child is killed before or after birth just because it carries the stigma of being a ‘girl’? Are not parents responsible for conceiving a child without proper planning and then either dumping it or blaming it? Such incidents are not just limited within the backward or rural areas. Even the so called educated class have turned a blind eye to the plight of children. Poverty, penury, illiteracy and apathy of the society ruin the young innocent lives on one hand and at the other extreme, children of rich homes feel alienated and orphaned despite all the riches lavished on them. All the wealth and material things in the world can never be a substitute for the precious time and loving care the parents alone are privileged to give to their children.

Look, look around you and you see an innocent child. Look at the child and you see his future. It’s up to you, whether you see a gloomy dark future or a mirthful, joyous one for him. Children are a joy by themselves. These cherubic beings need to be loved, need to be taken care off by every one so as to keep the joy in living and the joy of loving in our heart and share this joy with all we meet.