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A side of the story
This is the story of an 'Educated Beggar' as told to me by one of my friends when interviewed. Continuing in his own words -
"During winter vacation, I got the opportunity to attend the marriage of my relative in Vishakapatnam. Luckily, this time, as marriage was during December as I already missed some of the marriage because all kinds of special 'Muhurut' comes in between the semester. After the celebrations and spending a day in exploring vishakapatnam we went to the Railway Station to take Hirakund Express for the way back home in Bargarh.
The train was late by half an hour, this is the minimum you can expect from Indian Railways, lucky again. I was with my parents. I put the luggage on one side of the floor at the platform. My Father started to find a place to sit properly, since it is very difficult also to find such place in the Railway Station. Me and my mother were standing near the luggage.
Suddenly a person who was looking good enough came to us. He was wearing blue check shirt with some wrinkles in it and some cuts on the shoulders. The shirt was not very much dirty. He had a small uneven beard. Basically, he was not looking like a typical Indian beggar whom we see regularly on the streets or on Railway Station too, but he was very scary and his eyes were full of fear. Soon he started crying in front of me and said - 'Sir, I am not a beggar, Sir I am not a beggar. Sir, I am starving. Please feed me.' I was surprised at first sight that someone looking like a beggar at the Railway Station is talking to me in English!!!!
Even after my looking at curious expressions he continued ' Sir, I did BCA but I am not getting job and I don't have money to pursue MCA. Please give me something to eat, I am hungry from the last 12 days.'
Firstly, it was difficult to believe, but the accent of his English making it difficult to deduce.
I gave him some papaya to eat. Then he stood in one corner and eat patiently as if he was really hungry from the long period.
This is not the single case of such mental torture, there are lots more. Adding to this majority of the workforce in unorganised sector lacks basic social protection. Uneven recovery from the crisis in the previous decade also increased the figure of unemployed. This large increment will surely pose a challenge for the policymakers too.
2nd side of the story
Sadly India is having the largest number of child labour in the world. There are many stories or you can say the instances when I got to see child labours working in various hotels in rural areas and urban too. The most recent that I saw was in New Sac at IIT Kanpur itself when a small guy of around 10 years of age was busy with cleaning the tables. If this is the case here what one can expect from the hotels in rural areas.The next story is poignant enough to get moved.
Once I visited my village back home in Rajasthan. I spotted such some cherubs working in Hotels and Dhabas. In most of the places they have one common name as 'Chotu'.
I asked one such 'Chotu' "Kya Naam hai tumhara?
''Chotu" He replied.
"Ye naam kisne rakha?" I asked again in curiosity.
"Pata nahi" . He replied looking at his own dress which I guess was a school dress with one half of the shirt coming out of the torn and small trouser. He does not have any shoes to wear.
"Yaha kya kaam karte ho?". I floated another question to him.
"Glass, plate aur table saaf karta hu" he responded after checking out some glasses in his left hand ready to wash.
"School jate ho?" this question of mine made him feel good as he smiles and replied "Ha 10-2 school jata hu fir yaha aa jata hu"
I also felt relieved hearing this from him.
Commemorate those days when we used to play after coming from schools, but the childhood of these special ones squandered in these dhabas. (Although one more thing that are responsible now a days in exploitation childhood to some extent are the cartoon channels. I am thankful to my parents I does not had much access to any of them. )
Article 24 of The Constitution of India prohibits child labour below the age of 14 years. Inspite of this various laws like Factories Act, Mines Act, Juvenile Justice of Children Act provides a footing to stop Child Labour in India. It is a national level Socio - economic problem demanding serious attention to meet out the burden.
3rd Side of the story (The Hypotenuse One)
Only criticizing things won't work. There are stories which teach us a lot more than we know about our surroundings. There are certain organisations, NGOs or Individuals working to eradicate the roots of Illeteracy from India. Some of these are -
Pagdandi : Organises reading events for slum children in Delhi
Uncle Moosa : Set up 13 Bamboosa Libraries in the villages of Arunachal Pradesh
Akshara Foundation : Runs an accelerated reading program in Karnataka
Bookworm : Takes story telling and book camps for children in poor areas of Goa
Pratham Books : Prints Story books and cards in English in various English Languages
Teach for India : Working towards eliminating education inequity
And there are many more like Pratham, Barefoot College-India, Cry, Make A Difference (MAD) etc.
Although it came out in report that there are only 41% Class v Govt. School students who can read class ii text, but despite these dismal figures, still there is a lots of hope because of the kind of efforts the organisations are putting in.
So, since these three problems are like pre and post requisite to each other, making policy for only one of them won't work. Collective efforts need to be put on simultaneously for the all three. Although steps were taken, but still lots of more collective efforts are required keeping in mind the whole vicious cycle or triangle.
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