For this children’s day, instead of me, my friend offered to write a post. She wants to share her childhood memory related to child labour, and how it affected her.
This post by Dr. Nilofar Attar is part of Shankhnaad for happy children. To contribute a post, or read other posts which are a part of this campaign check ‘Happy children equals to a happy world’.
------------------------------******--------------------------------------------********-------------------------------
We had gone to Juhu Chaupati with my family friends, I was eleven years old and my younger brother was nine. We enjoyed snacks with our friends and had tea. When we finished my brother, always a good boy took all the cups to place them at the counter. Immediately our friends interrupted him and signaled one of the few boys working in the hotel, saying ‘it was their job, let them do it’. I looked at their innocent faces. The shame that they have to serve children of their age was reflected on their faces. When the boy cleaned our table with the cloth placed on his shoulders, it seems as if he was carrying the huge burden on those weak shoulders. I saw tears in my brother’s eye which he wiped away. I was disturbed. What if we were one of them? What would be like if we didn’t have our loving father and mother that we had now. I still get the same feeling if I pass any child who is struggling to fulfill his needs. It is said that the childhood is the best time anyone has. but when these children are forced into labour, exploited as servants in households, dragged into begging racket,human trafficking, how can we as human ignore another innocent human’s trouble? Someone who is just like us, and whose wounds hurt as badly as ours.
