(Pic Courtesy - Here)
Pretty hand as soft as feather
Tiny feet as good as smiles
Twinkling eyes with dreams so high
My heart with hopes as true as love
Desires, energies to do some good
To hold the pen to scribble the book
To know the history for a better now
To learn, to grow and develop potential
But…..
Here I face the adversity of time
The shackles of poverty
And here I am
My hand smothered with dust and ash
My feet burnt and bruised so deep
My eyes in tears, I could barely see
Dumped desires and energy no more
I hold the mop and scribble on floor
My present is smudged and future is dark
Should I learn to accept this morbid
reality?
“Or is the angel coming my way, to re kindle
the flames of faith and belief?”
This
short poem is dedicated to child labor, something very close to my heart. It
pains to see small kids going on the wrong path, encouraged to begging, petty
thefts due to lack of education and right guidance. Sight of a kid washing
utensils, mopping and doing all sorts of labor instead of going to school is utterly
unacceptable.
I
am yearning to do something, in this field if you guys have any ideas or
suggestions please share.
“Together
we can and together we will bring in some change”.
Really painful to see the innocent (who don't even know the world yet) getting pushed into labor!
ReplyDeleteYes Alok, It is indeed painful.
DeleteHope the signification of your poem will be listened and I second your thought together we can bring some changes... :)
ReplyDeleteTogether we can bring in some change. Education and employment will help a lot.
DeleteVery touching lines.
ReplyDeleteChild labour is an agonizing reality in our country.
Let's all do our mite to eradicate this evil from our slowly.
Kids doing labor is a painful sight.
DeleteAwareness, education and employment is the anchor.
Poignant. It's really so painful to see little kids working :(
ReplyDeleteThanks Purba.
DeleteExploitation of kids is much prevalent in our society, lot of work is needed to be done to remove this menace.
It hurts me to see children working to earn a living mostly to augment their parents' meagre income. And then they suffer exploitation. :(
ReplyDeleteYes Rachna, it is much hurtful. Circumstances burdens them with responsibilities at much tender age and they continue to face exploitation.
DeleteThis is so heart-breaking, and given the viscous circle of poverty-need more working hands-poverty most of these children are caught in, it's difficult to chalk out a concrete rescue plan for them.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, it requires lot of effort. Such problems are deep rooted.
DeleteLovely verses...wish we had a magic wand to do away with the delicate hands doing tough work!
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot.
DeleteWish the magic fairy takes away all the pain.
Those were some really touching lines.Children being exploited and forced to work,deprives them of their childhood.It would need an honest collective to wipe out this evil.
ReplyDeleteThe whole scene is really troublesome. These kids are deprived of even basic necessities.
DeleteHi Swati, I like the poem. I never give money to beggars but unfortunately there are others. The problem is of population and if the government stop providing free baby delivering centers then may be these people will think about family planning, I might sound rude but for most of the poor people more kinds means more hand for work.
ReplyDeleteI work in a project with a NGO on mother and child health and in absence of free delivery scheme, these ladies continue giving birth at home or somewhere with no proper medical aid which in turn increases maternal and child mortality. Yeah family planning is the keyword where we need to impart more awareness.
Delete