Just books

As I fantasized  about art and education , as usual ,the world went ahead but seemed to slip back into the darkness. No, i don't mean to be mysterious. It's just my idea about myself.Deep down in some remote corner where my heart is there lingers  slight misgivings about myself.

These have to do with me. The way i am. How am i? I am the idealist  sitting pretty in my study ,reveling in my bookish knowledge. Isn't it ironical? As an educationist i ought to do just that. The revolution is in those books.

Agreed. I  believe. However, sometimes i wish the world would be easier to convince. What has got me unhinged today is a news item in the papers. It seems the government at the centre, the Indian government has decided to make revisions to the child labour laws. 

They are  going to be diluted. The children who work in family business are to be allowed  to work, in case , their education is not affected. I am still speechless. Speechless with shame, speechless with defeat, speechless at the wonder that is India.

Right outside my very door is one of  the city's busiest streets. Across the road is my family friend's mansion. Right outside his garden wall is an old tea shop. It is run by the tea seller and his brood. The current one is the young child of yore. Today his son's or nephews do the running around. Is this going to carry on forever? with government support?

This tea seller is an example of entrepeneurship , according to the government press release. The book on art and education written by Howard Gardner lay open on my table as i fumbled through the newspapers for an answer. Yet , my questions will be blowing with the breeze. But as i try to stop the bile from rising the questions i want to ask India rising  rise up to the surface.

Questions: What gives a government, any government to decide the fate of that country?

What right does a political party have to take decisions on matters of education and child rights?

Who are the experts that have been consulted?

Childhood is not the time to be yoked. It's every child's right to go to school, to draw , to sing, to dance. Parents should not be encouraged to think of the child as a meal ticket. Parents in India have children to help in their homes.It's one of the cruelest form of bonded labour.

It's instituionalised  by our traditions. Now it's going to be legal. Anyone who wants to help a child will now have to contend with  a counter law which protects the employer. Can anyone in their right minds support the claim that it will encourage business sense? What about the rich capitalists then? Will their children work in their daddy's factories, mines , offices or, will they go to school?

Or, are these laws made  for the hapless urban poor? So that their lives should remain wallowing in squalor and filth?  I have long realised the fallacy of  tying education up with a vocation. All of us need to become a part of commerce at a certain age, not before that. Nature gives us this right. Primary school education should be designed for development. Middle school should take us forward. When we reach the age of 14 or thereabouts we are ready to join the workforce and can be trained accordingly.

My main task is to eliminate the poverty of the mind. This phenomenon stalks us everywhere. Especially, in the corridors of power , where a man , who claims to have been a tea seller  is taking a decision that will affect  thousands of  India's future citizens. Their messiahs will be defeated and the claims of  capitalism for cheap labor will be realised. Will the world take notice?  Will our voices be heard?