The 'LionHearts' : Colours of Change

12^th March 2017...this is just another usual day. Some people can call it a sleepy Sunday; for some it is a working day and to many in India it marks the initiation of Holi, the festival of colours. But for me this day brings much more in the form of thoughts that cease to exist in this busy-busy life. These thoughts mostly surround the life of a child who “lost his spring” even before he was allowed to do so. A child, who came into this world in rags and destined to leave the world in same; a child, who played with rocks, sand and fire instead of toys; a child, whose sole purpose was to win bread from the leftovers for his family of 6. While running towards maturity at a tender age, one day the child forgets his way to home; he is lost. The untouched born entity now becomes bait for the world to consume. There are quite a many but repetitive paths that he might fall into. The well known among them is “Child trafficking”.

Courtesy: Google images

Lost his way, the child finds shelter under tunnels and out of hunger he prefers to sleep. He wakes up to find himself in the hands of the decaying “Butchers”, ready to sell him off at a whopping price for sexual exploitations, labour and many illegal activities. He will become one of the 20000s/year to face wrath in the hands of the flesh-eating men (Refer this for more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/almost-20000-women-children-trafficked-in-india-in-2016-govt-report/articleshow/57569145.cms). And if he survives then he will be the successor in this race.

Courtesy: Google images

The next easiest path is to find lost children like him and form a gang of “Juveniles”; extremely skilful in activities of robbery, murders and the worst of all “rapes”. Illiteracy and ignorance among these children will turn them into beasts and we are going to do nothing to educate them instead striking constitutional laws to make sure they are punished or to say executed, igniting more and more of them to do the same. Or at max, send them to Juvenile homes which are no good than hellholes (Refer the statistics here: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/juvenile-homes-are-hellholes-says-report-on-child-rape/article4637540.ece).

Yet another path is available for the child where he gets an opportunity to continue the family legacy. Lost his way, the child scouts for work and food similar to what he did before. And if all the conditions (considering the above two) are ignored, then he might be lucky enough to become a rag picker or a bangle-industry labourer.

Well the things that I have just written sounds too common and may be dull enough. But after reading it, one should feel the colourless life of these children amidst the gulal that paint the streets today. What is common in all these paths? The answer is the lost colour of rescue and education? How much are we progressing in this? Are we really in progress because the numbers don’t seem to be supportive. The 2011 census report still holds 40 lakh+ children as child labourers in India; there is a substantial rise in child trafficking by 22 percent in 2016 and hopefully will grow more if not checked soon.

This brings us to the question as to how we can bring these numbers to “Zero”. Well it is not just the children that have lost colours, in fact we have lost one of the essentials and that are the “Colours of Inspiration”. We need such inspirations from some of the folks who have given their lives for this cause. Some of them opened up shelter-homes and many of them adopted these children instead of conceiving new ones; thereby an attempt to rescue these children.

Creating mass awareness about these issues is also a part of inspiration. And this is what I intend to do. Now what inspired me to do that? 12th March 2017....Dedicating the entire day to office work, I retired back to bed. But sleep wasn’t my friend anymore so I planned on to watch a movie without knowing that this will lead me to switch on the laptop, but this time for good reasons. The day brought in much more thoughts surrounding the life a child who lost his way to home. After passing by the hands of beasts in the streets of Calcutta (presently Kolkata), he finds refuge in the upbringing of an Australian couple. Likewise, they adopt a lost child like him and give them another chance to be a part of a privileged society. Here is the #LionHeart campaign that speaks things loud (do visit www.lionmovie.com for more)

This encouraged me to write about it and express my feelings in 360 degrees.

Well I intended to be a ‘LionHeart’ of change to inspire beings. How about you?