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Published: November 3rd 2011
Today I went to lunch at a restaurant in Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India. There was a boy who could not have been more than 13 sweeping the floor. As he wiped my table he gave me a lovely smile. On leaving the restaurant I went to a shoe repair roadside box-stall to have my Menorquines repaired. Dillip was about 12 and worked with hammer and nails as 5 peers looked on. I was very happy with the repair job. But being Tuesday Dillip should have been in school instead of being on the street ... repairing shoes.
Yesterday in Udaipur I was excited watching skilled workers lining carved tables and chairs with silver foil. What patience! Among them were two children. Their parents would benefit from the extra income coming to the home to supplement what other meagre earnings there might have been under India’s low pay regime and high unemployment. Everyone has a roll to play in such a family.
I was a week in Mumbai, a city which certainly contrasts with most I've ever seen .... There is a choice to really notice what happens to children: some sorting garbage, others doing laundry, working in construction, sewing
and selling coconuts .... Not to mention those sleeping under the shelter of parked trucks, or between debris in the middle of the street ... Not a good situation for healthy living, although, I must say that sometimes they seem happy.
I wonder what will happen to these children in the future? What kind of lives will they have? What opportunities? Where will they live? Will they be happy?
I firmly believe that education is the best weapon for people (and, consequently, by the people) to develop, carry out, fight adversity and injustice .... We could say that India needs all this? What is certain is that children from India and around the world, need and are entitled to attend school.
(Paul Drielsma, thank you for the edits!)
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