ARE WE HONESTLY SERIOUS FOR THE WELFARE OF MALNOURISHED RAG PICKERS, ESPECIALLY THE CHILDREN

The life of child labours working in hotels, restaurants and in rag picking at open dust bins and dhalaos in Delhi and other parts of the country is really a worrisome sitiation and extremely little is being done by the NGOs’, law enforcing agencies and government departments dealing with child welfare responsibilities.

Children of adoloscent age in a group of four or five seggregating degradable and bio degradable waste from dust bins and dumps of rubbish and picking plastic bottles on the roadside as well are the common instances visible everyday by all of us. Looking towards them make us feel pity on their extremely pitiable socio economic status.

Lean and thin these mal nourished children has no future of any sort, may it be relating to their academic career or job avenues. Majority of themare suffering from several skin and lung related ailments completely careless about treatment as meeting two ends meal and creating sustenance is their parents is their primay concern.

While some of themwork willingly as rag pickers constrained to spoil their entire lifedue to non existence or availability of any outside goverental support, many work on the pressure and instrction of their poor, dejected and hapless parents. What sounds shocking about this whole affair shocking is the fact that these poor children finally get into the trap of thieves, professional criminals and drig eddicts and kingpins and enter the narrow and dark lanes of dampened life of a druggist finally meeting a sad end.

Not talking of such rag picker children of India but in Delhi itself one can find them in thousands with no future and healthy life rather growing up as liability on the society as druggists, criminals, thieves and anti social elements. But who’s responsible for their such a petty and pitiable conditon. It’s we, the governmental departments responsible for their welfare drawing large financoal budgets, the NGOs who claim ofdoing so much for the children of the lowest ebb of the society against heavy funding from India and abroad, the big corporate houses who earn thousands of crores as profit but hardly allocate a minutest portion of it for looking afterthe welfare and well being of these most suffered lot, the rag pickers whose whole life is nothing but a symbol of hell.

Noble proizes are being presented in the name of discouraging child traffic and child labour but what about these millons of malnourished and uneducated rag pickers children of our society. Don’t we or our government agencies owe any responsibility to improvise their future who are literally leading a life in hell? When will we wake up? We want an answer? What’s your take friends?
SUNIL NEGI