The Indian Children Long for Butterflies

November 14th is celebrated as ‘The Children’s Day’ in India, commemorating the birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the freedom fighter, the first Prime Minister and the architect of modern India. He loved children so much that he wanted to his birthday to be celebrated as the children’s day, which is celebrated all over the world on November 20th.

Children of India

In the emerging evolution of Indian society the role of children is very vital. India has the largest population of children in the world since the population policy of China has made its children population shrunk due to its one-child policy. But the future of these children is facing a great problem because of unsteady government policies and the job-oriented education thrust. They are growing like horses with visors because it is their parents who chose the education courses which their children are forced to study. Middle class and upper middle class parents are very particular about sending their children to English medium schools aiming at only engineering or medicine courses. This has created a lot of socio-economic and psychological problems in the country.

Let children have their own life

But children are children wherever they are. They have their own expectations of themselves and their lives. Thy have their own dreams. They want to grow themselves.

Children want to be free. They want to play. They want to hear stories and sing songs. They want to hum with the insects and fly with the birds.

I have seen many children requesting their moms to treat them as children and not grown up machines!

Indian children have a very heavy burden of studies. They have to rush to school, attend so many tuitions to equip themselves for their future job, have to do a lot of home works and are rarely given freedom to watch TV or any other thing. It has become an education mania in urban and metro areas of India children being treated like concentration camp slaves to achieve the dreams of their parents!

I am not exaggerating. But the pitiable plight of India children fills my eyes with tears! The Indian parents dream that the ‘maximum benefit’ of education is just accumulating material wealth and not fulfilling heart and soul! I feel sorry for these numerous children who are in the dilemma of either pleasing their parents or themselves!

Brain-washing and ‘brain drain’

From childhood the children are brain-washed and pressurized to study what their parents prefer. The parents have scant regard for the aptitudes and aspirations of their wards and never appreciate to choose a ‘road that is less traveled’. Those who study and reach certain stage fly to distant lands in search of ‘huge money’. They are not bothered about the place they are born, the persons who gave birth to them and the nation that stood for their aspirations. The country becomes barren when loses the talented children of her bosom.

On this children’s day, a request to parents and communities

Parents and communities have a great responsibility in guiding their children. God has given us children to make them best personalities of the future world. I just want to remind the parents and communities the words of the Persian Poet Kahlil Gibran in his ‘The Prophet’.

“Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself;

They come through you but not from you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For, they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For, their souls lie in the house of tomorrow,

Which you cannot visit,

Not even in your dreams!”