State of the nation

The picture news ‘Slum Children and Pigs’ (HansIndia, Dec. 22, 2014) is shocking. It makes a sad reading, while we are in the process of ‘Swachh Bharat,’ which I am sure, includes ‘Swachh Aahaar.’ It is in the country of the Mahatma who said: “There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.”

“There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread but there are many more dying for a little love. The poverty in the West is a different kind of poverty – it is not only a poverty of loneliness but also of spirituality. There's a hunger for love, as there is a hunger for God,” said Mother Teresa. There any number of quotes on the subject.

In social and religious functions, a large amount of cooked food is left over and wasted on the leaves and plates. Even in buffet systems, where guests serve themselves, a large quantity of food is thrown. Can't they help to take only as much as they need or consume? There may be hundreds of items. One person, at a time cannot eat more than a KG of cooked food; apart from water. When there are more than fifty items, samples of each item weighing about 30 to 40 gms. is more than a kg. So precious a commodity, water is also wasted.

It is all thrown into the dustbin and the instant photo is, perhaps, snapped at such a place. This reminds one of the heart-wrenching narration in the Bengali novel of Bankim Chandra Chattarjee ‘Ananda Muth.’ It screened, in words, the attitude of the British Rulers, when Bengal was reeling under a famine and drought: hosting luxurious dinners and the human beings and the animals struggling and quarrelling to share the leftovers in the dustbins. If the children shown in the photograph are below 14 years of age, it is for the NGOs, champions of 'Elimination of Child Labour' and the different government agencies, charged with the responsibilities of 'eradication of the child labour' to set the things right.

Yet, I want to point out, where the children are above the age of 14, following the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation, they can be rehabilitated in some employment. There is a dearth of unskilled labour in all commercial and industrial activities. There are two places in this country, wherein your ration is assured – Jail and Hotel.

I hasten to add that conditions in both the places have changed a lot for the better. They are not as uncongenial as they were a few decades ago. But for the migrant labours, the tribals from the north (Bihar, Nepal, Odissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand), the South Indian restaurants would have gone into the oblivion.

There are other avocations which absorb even the unskilled physically challenged one. The able bodied person (male or female), above the age of 14, can walk into any one of the restaurants anywhere in South India and he is given a job, provided he is not suffering from any contagious diseases. There is no need for sharing the domains of the pigs.

Let me quote the prophetic note struck by Justice Chandrachud in the monumental Keshavananda Bharathi case: “We are all conscious that this vast country has vast problems. And it is not possible to realise the dream of the Father of the Nation to wipe every tear from every eye. But if despite the large powers now conceded to parliament, the social objectives are going to be a dustbin of sentiments; then woe betide to those in whom the county has placed such massive faith.”

People are also expected to participate, contribute and help the wings of the Government in the process.

“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!” ― Swami Vivekananda.

By: K C Kalkura