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A
small hand quietly slipping into our hands, a
shy and bright smile, innocent laugh, pure
giggles give us the happiness that money cannot
buy, the satisfaction that makes us feel warm
from Inside and makes our lives beautiful,
meaningful and much - much more…
Kids are the flowers that make our life glow
with the innocent sparkle of their eyes and
fragrant with the love in their hearts. Won’t we
try our best to retain that fragrance and glow
in our lives? Won’t we like to protect our
vulnerable flowers, to fulfill their needs to
let them grow and become a sincere, honest and
reasonable citizen of India? We all want them to
and many of us are working towards this goal.
Still, there are some facts that compel us to
extend our hands and support even more. Here are
some of the facts that have been compiled from
different sources.
• Every 2nd child has no access to primary
education in India, in other words Half of
India’s children are deprived of their
fundamental right to education every day.
• Every 3rd girl child does not live to see her
teen years in India…
• 111 million children of the 250 million child
labor forces are Indian…
• Every hour, four women and girls in India
enter prostitution, three of them against their
will.
• There are no estimates of the number of
children who are subjected to child-trafficking,
debt-bondage, forced labor, pornography,
prostitution and drugs, in India…
• 10,000 children die every single day in India.
More than in any tsunami, flood, earthquake,
famine or war.
• 51% of India’s children are blighted in
childhood by malnutrition in India, the country
that has food surplus.
The realization of these facts makes our hearts
bleed. We work towards the goal to make a
beautiful India, beautiful Bihar. We extend our
wishes, our help, our money. We provide our
support to the NGOs who are working towards this
goal. We do everything that we can do in our own
capacity, to feed our hope for a better future
for India and Bihar, but where is it heading
towards?
I feel the pain, I think… what is the Government
doing to uplift these downtrodden people, to
secure the future of these kids for whom their
parents don’t even dare to see dreams, the kids
who don’t know whether will they get their next
meal. Yes, there is the Ray of Hope…Reservation.
There they are, the messiah of poor, they are
trying to secure the future of these kids, they
are trying to reserve some good employment
opportunities for these kids, what if they don’t
get even their meals 2 times a day, what if they
don’t even have access to the Primary Education.
They don’t need a full stomach and of course not
the Education. Aren’t there so many
Angutha-Chhaap leaders? The same way, we can
have some Angutha-Chhaap University students,
IIT and IIM students. After- all these leaders
are deciding our countries fate, what can we
expect from them. Oh… I missed my theme, I was
writing on the social issue of the kids, and I
moved to the topic of Reservation. These two
seem so different, not related at all, because,
we all know the Truth ‘Reservation is not for
the welfare of the downtrodden, but for the
welfare of these leaders.’
The other bit of truth is that not all the
people who are downtrodden are from the
so-called OBC class, So, what about them? They
don’t deserve anything because they didn’t born
in an OBC community?
I know, we are having discussions, most of the
intellectual people hate this word
‘Reservation’, but it won’t help. We will have
to face a hard truth again that, our country is
in the hands of politicians who don’t give a
damn about the welfare of country and it’s
people, and for reservation issue, they will get
support of the creamy class of the co-called
backward communities, because, this will be in
favor of them. They are writing comments
exploding with what they call ‘facts’ with
figures, but deep down in their hearts, they too
know what the truth is. This is the time we need
to stop being selfish and oppose Reservation
with a strong and united voice. With all the
events and outsourcing of Jobs from USA and
other countries, India is on the path of being a
stronger and developed country; let’s not
destroy the future of our country for very
impractical selfish motives.
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Comments: |
The truth is — and this is the
bottom line in the entire
‘reservation controversy’ — that
although we have abolished
unsociability and outlawed
backwardness in our Constitution,
many of us — even the most
distinguished of us, alas — have not
eliminated it from our hearts. In my
last visit to India I asked one kid
why you don’t go to school. He said
Master Sahib who belongs to upper
caste beats him because he is a
lower caste. That’s how people
conceive hatred. 10% of urban Indian
don’t know what is happening in
their village.
If the under-privileged have been
oppressed for centuries, its
backlash in the psychological
make-up of the ‘privileged’ cannot
be underestimated. “Dalits can ask
Brahmins that if they were so
meritorious, why is half of our
country’s population still
illiterate?” If meritorious
economists and administrators manage
the affairs of our country without
any reservation how and why are we
still so economically backward?”
In the end, the vexed problem about
‘reservations’ will only get
resolved with more meaningful
opportunities for better education
of all sections of our society,
particularly the under-privileged
child.
But one thing is certain: as long as
poverty continues to stalk the land
and gross disparities between the
rich and poor remain a fact of life,
the ideal of an egalitarian society
envisaged by the founding fathers in
our basic document of governance
will remain a bad dream. -
Narayan Prasad - May 1, 2006
All human beings are same or equal
was communist ideology which is
proven to be wrong .
Truth is few people are superior
than others and they are the one who
will enjoy better life always.
For others only way to reach high is
to work hard and struggle.
If lower castes of India understand
this sooner it will be better for
them. They should stop living in
"Fools Paradise" of "Reservation",
otherwise then will land in
"Reserved" territory like American
Indians sooner or later. - Manoj
Gupta - May 1, 2006
I find it humiliating for the
oppressed classes themselves to be
considered "Intellectually
Inferior". I consider that throwing
quota at them is declaring them
inferior. I find this to be an
insult for OBCs, SCs ansd STs to
offer reservation to them.
Have you seen the movie Iqbal? This
is what I consider OBCs to be. They
are intellectually capable of
challenging everyone. Yes, they do
need economical backing or even
mentoring. BUT, I DO NOT APPRECIATE
govt's reservation system to declare
them Intellectually inferiors. -
Subodh Kumar - May 3, 2006
Narayan Prasad Ji, your story about
the little kid is heartbreaking. My
advise to the little kids family
will be to move out of the village
to another state. Once you are out
of your native place, and move to
another state people will know you
as a Bihari rather than as such and
such caste person. This will help in
building dignity and self-confidence
in the children who are the future
citizens of the society. I know that
it is difficult for someone to move
out of his or her native place but a
place where you don't get dignity is
worst that hell. You can still
install dignity in a person if
outsiders rather than his/her own
kind humiliate him. One cannot even
imagine such kind of situation in
the US because of very strong laws
against discrimination that are
implemented strictly. To protect
their children most people cannot
escape to the US but they can
definitely move out of the state. -
Som Vishwakarma, USA - May 4,
2006
Hello Som,
Your suggestion for the kids family
to leave the place is not viable.
Where will they go?? Do you think if
they move to different state, the
situation will be better? I guess
not. Instead one good action should
have been to take strict action
against that Master (who is elevated
to the status of teacher and is
directly responsible for spreading
the caste hatred instead of telling
children not to think about caste).
This "CASTE" is the greatest evil of
today's society and even if you
leave one place and go to other you
will face it. It is ingrained into
each and every person no matter how
much educated he/she is. True,
poverty is also problematic but even
in poverty there is hierarchy. An
upper caste poor will still be
better than lower caste poor. This
is the truth of our society.
Anyway one thing is that people do
not look for reservation. They see
reservation just as a tool to gain
some DIGNITY. Alas there are so many
Laws and Acts to prevent it, but
none is followed. If that would not
have been the case then there would
not have been mass conversion to
Buddhism (remember the father of our
constitution also converted to
Buddhism).
There is one very interesting piece
of article http://www.asiasource.org/asip/dalits.cfm.
This shows what is the percent of
conviction rate for caste related
crime. Also it gives an insight as
to how things works in our society
and what can be the various ways to
discriminate between castes. The
only way we can achieve a better
society is not just by hitting at
the grass root level but also at the
branches simultaneously. Education
is the first step that should be
handled and implemented. And also
how the education is being given.
Compulsory education to all (grass
root level). I think the best way to
deliver the right kind of education
will be to put the child right from
the very early age in the hostels
and let them grow with other
children. This way they will be more
influenced with other children and
diversity and less with the family.
Also we have 'n' number of acts so
we do not require more laws and
acts. But those laws and acts should
be implemented strictly (branch
level). And it does not stop at
that. If each one of us tries to
convince at least one of other that
caste is evil and we should remove
it from our heart and see the other
fellow as just human being, then
probably our mission will be
successful and hopefully the caste
system will go away. And then we can
proudly say that our children will
be able to live in a better society
where each one of us are more or
less equal. - Gunjan, Bangalore -
May 5, 2006 |
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