Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Children, the centre of life...

A child is the same, born to ourselves or anyone else...

I start with the above premise. Its now a premise. But I hope anyone who reads this would come to this as a conclusion at some time.

We all see the world now. For those who stop a moment to look at what's going on, there r different things that come to our mind. One would say "This age is a revolutionary one. In no consequetive ten / hundred years have so many scientific discoveries and inventions been made that have helped man". Another would say "Kaliyug has begun. Evil has outgrown its limits and a god mounted on a horse is coming to destroy all evil." Yet another would say "We humans are destroying the earth by polluting it, exploiting it..Wake up".Let me present another view point that comes to my mind..

I look not too far around the world. I look right here in India. Whats happening here? I look not what's happening up in our skies. I look whats up here on the ground. Whats happening all around us in India.

India despite witnessing the best ever economic growth in its history is not doing so well on another front. Most problems that our country is witnessing including lack of enough employment, poverty, internal caste based fights can all be traced to one factor, mostly if not fully. Thats the population! Causing a greater demand than supply.

Tell me which so called upper caste person would fight with so called lower caste persons if each had enough food, enough air around him, a house each, good jobs, a secure life, a loving partner and nice children. Fight is always between the limited, when demand exceeds supply. Thats when the stronger, either physically or mentally exerts his/her superiority over the rest and fights arise.

There are a multitude of reasons for the population being high. It has been seen that it is not necessarily the rich who have more children. Its mostly the poor who have more children. It intrigued me for quite some time as to how this could happen. Why would anyone bear a child if one has not enough resources to raise it. Two probable reasons. One is they know not how to prevent having one. That is being addressed to some extent by various state governmental agencies. But the other important reason I found was this.

A poor woman in Vidharba, a region of Maharashtra which has seen a spate of farmer suicides said this when asked the above question. "What gurarantee do I have that even one or two of these five children I have will survive and be able to support me in my old age?". This sums it up all. The state governments have failed miserably in maintaining basic public health. This has lead to a higher population and the spate of problems it brings along.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum where people are rich enough to be able to raise and support their children, what is happening? It could be agreed that most often in this generation, one does not see more than three children very often. Fine. They can support them all. So, who should have a problem? Our Indian government, unlike China has imposed no 2 child norm. So, everthing seems ok.

But put these two pictures together and do you not see a problem? On one side, there are poor children malnourished and not cared for, languishing somewhere. On the other hand, we have children playing with mobile phones and laptops from day one. This is the law of Capitalism. We live in an age of Capitalistic power. Democracy is the base that capitalism needs and that is more the reason George Bush is pushing for democracy. Not that he cares for human rights being violated in kingdoms or communist countries.

Given the fact that Capitalism and Democracy are unavoidable in today's circumstances, what can one do on the ground to address the issue? We can. Thats by allowing diffusion of energy at the lowermost ground levels that we exist in.

A child is born with no evil in it's mind. It has no religion, it has no caste, it has no nationality. Yes, it has a certain colour of the skin and it is either male / female. Those are the only differences you would find between any two children. A child is joy for one who has the eye to see it. A child is a re-affirmation of love and of humanity for the heart that can feel. A child is energy, a child is a symbol of inquisitiveness and innovation and spirit of enquiry...

If we have the eyes to see, with the above attributes common to all children, they are all the same. They only change as we bring them up, as the exposure that each gets. If they are our own blood, yes we would feel more attached. But thats our perception and it has nothing to do with the child. They are all the same...

They are our future. Its our duty to give to them what we got. To give to them the love and care we got. To give to them the oppurtunities that we got. To give to them the exposure that we got, the knowledge we got. And also the beautiful earth as we got it. To also give to them what we missed..

Why do I say all this? All theory stands nullified if not followed up by action. If anyone does feel that some truth exists in the above paragraphs and that one needs to do something to bring some parity among the children, we need to offer something that we can. One could probably just teach one of our maid servant's child. One could sponsor a child. One could Adopt a child... (the population also does not grow that way...) One sees many married couples run from pillar to post when they at times find out they cant have a child of their own for some reason. But not often does the idea of adopting a child come to them. Adopting a child is probably the best way of repaying to life, for what we have got...

Children are all the same... They are the centre from where life blooms... Help those in need.. They are going to keep our human race flourishing and evolving....

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