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Children - We Can Make a Difference
Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta
Anybody who has been on railway platforms in a reasonably big Indian city might have noticed a surprisingly large number of unaccompanied children. They are the children who have been abandoned, have run away from abusive homes, were orphaned or simply got lost. And as it is when children fall through the cracks, these kids have become drug addicts, are abused, sexually or otherwise. They have no future and simply have become the jetsam and flotsam of modern society, condemned to be on the garbage heap. Unknown, and uncared for, they sink to the bottom and simply fade away. But not for a tiny institution in Bhopal, which has given the most valuable of all things to them. It gave them hope.
I have noticed one thing common between refugees, orphans, drug addicts and prostitutes. Their eyes are dead. They do not sparkle anymore, are dead to the world, incurious, and they do not shine with life. They might be alive, but frankly, for all practical purposes, their souls are dead. And I think it’s primarily because of the fact that they have lost all hope. What is there to put sparkles in your eyes if there is no longer any hope?
One of the everlasting regrets of my life is that I was not able to adopt an orphan. A combination of government apathy and obstruction, plus other circumstances made it impossible for me to adopt and fulfil the pledge and promise I made to myself all those years ago when I visited the Missionaries of Charity home in Indore, India. The eyes of those orphans would light up when visitors came and I wanted to do something about it. But in the absence of that, I was trying to do my little bit for these unfortunate children just to give them a bit of hope and to put some sparkle back into their eyes.
While I was in Amsterdam, I spotted a news item in an Indian newspaper RSS feed about a small institution that has opened in Bhopal, India, which helps orphans, street children and children on the Bhopal Railway Station Platform. My sister and I decided to do a little bit to help them by giving each of them their individual lockers, a small place to call their own. My parents, being there in Bhopal, went over to the charity, asked about their space, got the lockers built and installed. This was over four months ago and it is only now that I finally managed to get to Bhopal to see for myself.
This is a story of the worst kind and at the same time the best human behaviour ladled on to the people who can least withstand it, as well as most need it. I saw three small girls , aged 1, 3 and 7 years of age. They do not seem to have any place to stay, their parents squabble, and it is unclear where they live. This one hall provides them with a temporary measure during the day when they can come in from the rain and get some education. The 7 year old girl is apparently extremely intelligent and she is testing at 3 levels above her age related education levels. There is another boy of 5 years of age, who got lost on a train. He is from south India and speaks Tamil, but he does not know where he is from, or anything else. Since they know nothing about him, he is a lost soul. A mother and father would be grieving somewhere for their lost son, but there you are.
I saw a recovering drug addict, a boy of only 10. These boys sell bits and bobs, such as tea or biscuits, on the trains which pass through the railway station. And with the little money they earn, they go purchase a bottle of whitener (the fluid used to correct typing mistakes) which is very cheap at Rupees 15. This is then poured into a cloth which they will sniff all day long. And for some reason, they would also cut themselves on the arms, thighs, chest, anywhere, deeply with a rusty razor blade to let the blood flow. Apparently, it makes them feel like flying. They are not violent, but just go into a deep somnolent daze. This particular boy had scars up and down his body. I saw another boy outside the school, about 13-14 years of age, who wanted to come in and have lunch. He was zonked out of his brains. He is my son’s age.
There are three boys that I was introduced to, who were beaten so badly by their parents and families that their bones were broken. So they ran away from home when they were 4-5 years of age. Because they do not know where they came from, (unlettered, illiterate children), now they cannot go back. My mother told me about how she saw this woman speaking to a child in the corner of a school. On inquiring, it turned out that this was his mother who had abandoned her child at the school because she could neither feed nor clothe him. But she comes back once every few months after earning some money, to bring some sweets. Mother and child get together for about 10-15 minutes.
A young lady, Ms. Deepika Suri, kicked this entire thing off. She is a high ranking police officer and she noticed these children running riot. Now we all know the challenges anybody would face to get any government to do anything out of the ordinary. But she is perhaps one of the real heroines of India. A quiet, lovely young lady, who saw a need, and swung into action. She found an abandoned building and had it fixed up to become a school cum residential hall cum orphanage for thirty odd children. She linked it with a government school to provide education, got political cover and basically got it up and running.
She did not get anything out of it. She is, by all accounts, very retiring and quiet. I have not met her and have only heard about her from the children and the teachers who think of her as a veritable goddess. And so she is. She gave these children hope. She fought against the apathy that is so endemic in society. She did not give up and she made a dream happen for these children. After it was up and running, the building fixed up, food and clothing arranged, bedding fixed, teachers and helpers in place, to get political cover, she got the chief minister of the state to inaugurate the centre called as “Disha” (a Hindi word meaning direction). And when the Chief Minister asked, what they needed, they said, can we please have lockers for the children? My father said that eight people volunteered to provide them.
As it so happened, there is many a slip between the cup and the lip and many months later, nothing happened so we decided to get those lockers for them. Why lockers, you might ask? Why not clothes, or food, or money? Well, there was a lot of thinking behind it.
These children, in my opinion, do not have anything personal and individual, no assets, no home, not even a toothbrush, nothing. It is a totally transient existence. And it is horrible, not to have anything to call your own.
But the idea was, that if they have a locker, with their own locks and keys, it becomes their little piece of home. And that is what we saw, there were thirty lockers and each had been decorated individually by their owners. The key was hung around their necks with a piece of sturdy twine, but some had put up photographs, some had arranged their clothes in pleasing manners, one even had managed to put in a tiny curtain in that locker.
The children put on a show for us, and I was very impressed by their range of abilities. Whether it was singing, dancing, poetry recital, drumming, recitation of multiplication tables or the 3 R’s, they were pretty good. One tiny dervish of a small boy was so enthusiastic, he wanted to volunteer for everything and he danced for us. Apparently, before coming to the centre, he would earn money for food by dancing for train passengers. And now he danced just for the sheer joy of it, the blooming smile on his face, the shining teeth (yes, they now have tooth brushes and tooth paste nicely kept in their lockers), well kept clothes and groomed hair all pointed to a happy boy.
A boy of 15 odd years posed as a radio commentator and gave a full five minutes of a radio news announcement. It was very impressive. The kids knew Sanskrit shlokas and hymns; they would worship religiously every evening. The teachers would ask each boy to think about what they did well and what they did wrong, to learn from their mistakes. The teachers and the associated NGO try to place these orphans with families.
One boy was from West Bengal and he had tuberculosis. He liked to eat fish curry and rice, which were his traditional diet, but for some reason he landed in Bhopal, many many miles away. So the NGO spent quite a lot of money and then managed to place him with a family in West Bengal where he can now get a proper diet and medical care in a good middle class family. Guess what? The boy ran away from there and came back to the centre in Bhopal, apparently he missed them so much.
I can talk so much about this, but this is a series of disjointed thoughts about a frankly tear jerker of an experience. I was telling my old friend about it and he offered to do some construction work at the institution, by building up the boundary wall (to keep the drug addict, junkies and thieves away) and refurbishing the toilets.
Small things, but that is the power of feeling and caring. Think back about Ms. Suri who kicked off the start, and now 170 children have passed through these halls of this school. It gave them direction and it gave them hope. It was a humbling experience to see this.
I end with a plea; do something for the poor children or orphans of your city. Nothing much, you rally do not have to do much. And you do not have to go far from your city. Why don’t you just purchase some cheap and cheerful dictionaries or colouring books for them? What about getting them some board games? Give them something, anything, go sing a song to them or just talk to them. Just show them that somebody cares, and that they have not been abandoned. After having faced the world that we humans have brought down on their tiny innocent heads, show them that they can have a direction to a better life, they can hope, the dead eyes can sparkle again. It can and has been done.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!
Children - We Can Make a Difference
Article
- » Published on June 28, 2008
- » Type: Opinion
- » Filed under: .
- » This is part of a regular feature, With a Grain of Salt.
temporal
URL
June 30, 2008
12:35 PM
beady:
some comments take them as you'd from a well wisher...:)
am surprised to see not a single comment on such a well meaning topic and here are some thoughts on the reason why:
* the length - at 1865 words it is over the limit that can be comfortably read on the screen according to experts
* too many pictures...distracting... check out the papers such as the Independent, Guardian, NYT, WSJ, ToI and notice how many pictures they carry with their stories...usually one powerful picture
* always proof-read and spell check before submitting ("Nothing much, you rally do not have to do much.") ... as a reader typos leave a bad taste...as if the writer does not care for the reader
* and this has nothing to do with this effort per se...but you might want to consider dropping "All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!"...I have a feeling it has clichéd out its usefulness....also... when removed it might also motivate you to improve the closures...
DeeptiLamba
URL
June 30, 2008
01:10 PM
Its on the cultural spotlight:)
And I was deeply touched as well.
Kkumar
June 30, 2008
02:01 PM
This is good work but am surprised when I read that this needs funds while in Bhopal there is child rights observatory, a society promoted by UNICEF on child rights. Why dont they support this centre. Or what are they doing there ?
I am from Mumbai but read about in newspapers about malnutrition deaths in Madhya Pradesh, hunger deaths and many children news which state that they are suffering. Then my question is that What is the observatory doing ?
Guido
June 30, 2008
02:07 PM
BD,
I lack the expertise to criticize the editorial merits of your essay. But the content is apropos and deserves comment.
First and foremost, well done! The fact you contributed to the welfare of children in need is admirable and worthy of recognition...although I'm sure that wasn't your motive. Its one thing to pontificate generosity, quite another to put action to words.
Perhaps the lack of comment is not due to your writing techniques, but because (like me) folks feel a little guilty for not doing more to help those who need it most.
I can and should do more. Thanks for the article. And for us iconic minded folks (intellectually challenged) the more photos the better.
Ciao, Guido
kkumar
June 30, 2008
02:12 PM
Deepti This was in Central Chronicle website for children in Madhya Pradesh, about the government system.
State Pulse: Madhya Pradesh: Women change system for child survival
Caste based discrimination is a component creating challenges for children's right to survival -Lokendra Singh Kot
If survival along with development is a right, then millions of children in India need justice. It is essential to understand that the constitutional right to nutrition needs to be defined in accordance with the fundamental right to life in the Constitution. It is worth mentioning that 16% of population under the age of six is covered under Integrated Child Development Scheme and only 0.88% of total budget is spent for them annually.
In the context of right to nutritious food and Integrated Child Development Scheme, the experience of Madhya Pradesh reveals that Anganwadi workers are functioning under tremendous pressure from the State Government. Since the mal-nutrition is now being treated as the cause of resultant hunger deaths, therefore, the high-up bureaucrats and those at middle level are pressurizing the Anganwadi workers not to enter the names and addresses of malnourished children in their respective registers. This is being done under a well considered strategy to wriggle out from its responsibility of mal-nutrition deaths, that Anganwadi workers should not be allowed to register the names of those children who are the victims of extreme mal-nutrition of 3rd and 4th grade, because the Government believes that mal-nutrition of 1st and 2nd grade level is not a serious problem. That is why, due to this misconception, even the condition of children in the so-called 1st and 2nd grade level of malnutrition, instead of improving, is further worsening and bringing them within the fold of 3rd and 4th level of malnutrition.
There is a need to change in population criteria for establishing new anganwadi. As Supreme Court of India has clearly ordered Indian Government that each and every settlement should have an anganwadi without any discrimination by December 2008. The fulfilment of this order is a non-political activity, it demands a political mass movement. Caste based discrimination is a component creating challenges for children's right to survival. The location of Anganwadi in villages is also an important criterion for ensuring its accessibility for all the children without discrimination. In this regard of course, state is lacking behind but some of the women leaders make the things positive.
For example, Bawari panchayat sarpanch of Jhabua district, Suganbai, who is only 2nd class educated but fought with superstitions and wrong traditions in her area. She makes comfortable and recognized health practices for her own people through Anganwadi. She gave new life to "Chopal Panchayat." Actually, "Chopal Panchayat" is an old concept of solving the all the problems by their own panchayat people. Nothing goes outside the panchayat i.e. problems related to health, social, economic, political etc.
In Madhya Pradesh 35-36 women die per day during delivery or post delivery. These lives could be saved but our infrastructure does not permit. In the state 70% of deliveries are done at home and among them 72% deliveries are completed by untrained daies. If we take all these data into consideration and compared with some of panchayats which are headed by women sarpanchs, are shown batter results. We have now lot of examples, Bawai panchayat sarpanch Champabai, district Rewa, Titra panchayat sarpanch, shakuntlabai, district Sedhi, Rajod panchayat sarpanch, Ditubai, district Dhar, Khatia panchayat sarpanch, Sukhvatibai, Runija panchayat sarpanch, Madhuri and many more fought and do their level best in the areas of health. Specially, the health problems related to women and children. For a woman in a feudal society sitting with men and deal their own problems in a meeting, though in purdah, might be a big achievement while for some it may be just crossing the boundaries of their households in which they've been bounded since ages.
Deetu bai Narve, sarpanch of Rajod panchayat struggle for her Anganwadi. Although there is one Anganwadi, but it is located in the area dominated by upper caste people and as such, it is difficult for the children belonging to Dalit (scheduled caste) category to enter into the said Anganwadi. She fights for the shifting of Anganwadi at neutral place and till date fighting is going on at the panchayat level to district level. I never give up, she boldly said.
In 175 Anganwadis of Khandwa district of Madhya Pradesh, coarse gain food - Dalia, contaminated by fungus, was distributed. Similarly, since almost 75% of Anganwadis are situated in kucha houses, therefore, it is extremely difficult to maintain the quality of food being stored in such places. Thus, for the sake serving quality food, it is also necessary that Anganwadis be opened in pucca houses and proper arrangements are made for storing the food items there. In this process, many women leaders like Chatar bai, sarpanch of Pachakvasa panchayat made her first priorities to buildup pukka Anganwadi kendra. She succeeded in her efforts and regularly monitored the quality of food provided in anganwadi.
In this connection, even the Comptroller Auditor General of Madhya Pradesh, in its report, raised fingers over the quality of nutritious food in Anganwadis. The report points out that the required ratio of Dal, Gur and Salt was not applied while preparing the nutritious food, meaning thereby that children are not consuming - rather not being provided with standard amount of calories, protein and carbohydrate in the food being served to them. Madhuri Rathore, Sarpanch, Runija Panchayat, a home science graduate lady taken care of nutritious food supplied to the children. She made a committee to cover all the sensitive issue of food supply to the children of the panchayat. Many time she made complaints against the poor quality and got replaced best quality food material.
Generally, the workers for Anganwadis are appointed either out of local area or those belonging to deprived sections of society, because of their psychological attachment with the area and being face-to-face with the reality of the situation. In many women dominated panchayats, the needy women were given preference as anganwadi worker and they are also exposed to training. Looking at the comprehensive and sensitive nature of their duties, the children are divided into two categories i.e. (i) in the age group of 6 months to 3 years; and (ii) in the age group of 3 years to 6 year. To serve the children, two Anganwadi workers be appointed - one for each group categories of children. Generally, about 80 to 100 children are registered in one Anganwadi and, as such, it is just not possible for one Anganwadi worker to properly look after the whole lot of children single handedly. This kind of practical problems faced by the real workers in the panchayats.
If government wants more effective operation of anganwadi, they must look at the sensitiveness of women. Of course the above example of women leaders are not enough but, trends shows that through proper human resources management we can change the overall situation.
smallsquirrel
June 30, 2008
04:41 PM
BD, it is heartbreaking, and the sheer scale of the problem sometimes tires people out. it seems so insurmountable that the problems get ignored. when people ask me about india, one of the things I usually say is that you have to round the rough edges of your sensitivity or you will be eaten alive. and so it goes, we all round the edges and we become numb.
but you have done the right thing. all we can do is act locally. I gave a lot of possessions and items to local orphanages, whatever my daughter outgrew, as well as some new items and formula. we also were good to our maids... because that was a way we could help someone we knew.
I applaud becoming personally involved. what you have done is what everyone should do. and I share your sadness about the utter crappiness of the adoption procedures in India. My husband and I would love to adopt but from what we've heard the chances are NIL. So sad... so many unwanted kids and no interest from the government in placing them!!!
Deepti Lamba
URL
June 30, 2008
10:52 PM
Its getting tougher for NRIs to adopt from India. Someone in our family adopted two children but the procedures they had to go through were quite a few but then again one needs to be careful in such matters.
Chandra
July 1, 2008
08:10 AM
BD
Great show!!
More needs to be done by all of us!!
rgds
Ledzius
July 1, 2008
09:02 AM
A good post. Another related topic is children begging and selling stuff at traffic intersections in India. I have read that most of the children are kidnapped and forced to beg by some mafias. Is this true? If so, what are the govts doing about it?
annamma
July 1, 2008
10:23 AM
Good for you!
rahul
URL
July 3, 2008
03:59 AM
awesome post!!!
I think everyone of us can help in some small way or the other.I am volunteering with another such organisation in Delhi-NCR 'udayan care' http://udayancare.org.
I think anybody who says proudly that this is my country has an incumbent responsibility to help the down trodden in any which way, to help this country become what it really deserves to be!!!
rumana husain
URL
July 3, 2008
06:56 AM
I have read this with interest - the length of the article and the photos not withstanding. Also, the other post "Mommy Dearest" before this. The initiative taken by the young lady, the police officer, and other well-wishers like yourself, BD, will surely bring more sparkle in the children's eyes. We don't need saints, only humans to take up such causes.
bd
URL
July 3, 2008
03:54 PM
thank you folks, for your comments, apologies couldnt respond back earlier, got a bit tied up at work.
Well, yes, that's basically it, we just need to do our little bit and it helps out such a lot! :)
sangita atkinson
June 14, 2009
10:18 PM
This is something I would like to contribute to financially, how do I get in touch with the administrators?
BD
URL
June 15, 2009
12:39 AM
Thank you for your comment, Sangita. I have sent you an email with a contact name/number who can assist.
May God bless you.
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