The mother weeped, over her dead child.
But before we grieve we must perhaps know
How the child died..
Was the child kidnapped and murdered by friends?
Or a victim of drunken driving?
Or perhaps washed away by the flood waters?
Or did the child die of a disease, due to contaminated water?
Did the child die because the doctors were unavailable or on strike?
Or because the terrorists decided to strike?
Did the child due to its religion, caste or gender?
Or just one among the 7000 Indians who die EVERYDAY from hunger?
There might be financial compensation in some cases
There might be extensive media coverage in some cases
The child could be the topic of drawing room conversation in some cases
People would, think the child deserved to die and doesnt deserve an outrage in other cases.
Many ways for a child to die
But before we grieve we must know how it died
Unless it could happen to us, they perhaps deserve to die
Though the grieving mothers, wonders, why my child had to die..
PS :Shameful condition of children in Mumbai’s Aarey Milk Colony went ignored. A child died of hunger and more deaths will likely follow because of the desperate poverty in this semi-urban suburb but for some reason this does not bother us
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Worst_floods_in_living_memory_UN/articleshow/2257910.cms
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2006/05/do-u-know-underweight-under-five.html
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2005/09/do-u-know-maharashtra-child-hunger.html
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2005/09/do-u-know-children-hunger-deaths.html
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2005/03/do-u-know-india-neonatal-mortality.html
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2005/02/do-u-know-delhi-female-foeticide.html
http://wisedonkey.blogspot.com/2005/02/do-u-know-child-commercial-sex-workers.html
http://newshopper.sulekha.com/news/2007/08/while-cong-bjp-fight-boy-dies-in-ambulance.htm
yo donk...
ReplyDeleteactually i have seen slum living outside of a slum. I live in an area of chennai called Parry's. apart from being a commercial hub, it also has people living on the roads.. I mean, hoardes of families literally living on th already crowded roads. theyre there every day morning noon and night, that i really dont know if they even bathe..
and their children grow up in public scrutiny (or rather unscrutiny, because people are loathe to even look at such an eyesore)in filth and exposed to all sorts of vulgarity. not even knowing wat is cleanliness.
but the worst part is the dogs. they are also homeless. and they most often come and sleep next to the kids.
sometimes we have everything to be thankfull for. that God gave us a previleged upbringing.
seeing this lifestyle day in and day out is wat changed my attitude towards doing something for people. like, you can talk about India, you can talk about development and all that. but nobody who really matters is doing anything that will change the life of these people for the good.
well...even after the few good Samaritans and organizations like CRY who try to avoid child deaths n such, you sometimes stop and wonder if its really enough.
ReplyDeleteThe next question should be...are each of us doing enough? that is the question really worth asking, and answering.
P.S I've moved my blog to www.emptyhead.in Please take a look and update your blogroll.
i read ur comment when u posted, ab and have been thinkin of a reply since..
ReplyDeletebut after reading more of the distressing news, right now in no frame of mind to think or be positive..but in principle i dont believe in being intimidated by the size of hte problem or my minor role in solving it..
better to do something than nothing..
@$#!$# will check out the new blog. and no i dont think we are doing enough...