Innocence with dream in their eyes

picture credit: sangeeta dayal

The Photograph is from Laitkor a village in Shillong in the year 2013. The father and 14 year old son are working together carrying fertilizers. 

Like many poor families in small villages of India they too are struggling for food and a good lifestyle, in so much cold weather they had no choice but carry it. 

While clicking it I wondered how bad it is that even this little boy has every right to go to school and get educated like any other one of us.

picture credit: sangeeta dayal

This little girl “Mariam” is from a small village in Shillong. She does not go to school regularly and spends her day in collecting woods for household wood selling business and working at home helping her mother.

 While talking to her I felt at this age she does not know the importance of going to school but may be later in coming years she will realise it and probably start going to school.

But what about all the other children like them who do not have such facilities.

Kailash satyarthi – “Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains, but I will see the end of child labour in my lifetime”.

Child Labour is the adverse practice which is hampering childhood, the mental and physical abilities of children. The major cause of this is poverty, lack of education opportunities.

Families with low income take their children as extra hand for additional income for their household. They say larger number of children in family means extra income for house. So they prefer sending their children to factories and industries instead to schools. Other reason is they can be paid less so are cheap for the employers.

Government has many laws stating several industries as hazardous for employment of children.

Various initiatives and regulation acts for prevention of child labour in hazardous occupations have also been there. Nowadays many NGO and other institutions are also working in this field to prevent child labour. Govt of India has also mandated Free and compulsory education for children till class 8 by enacted Right to Education Act in 2009 for children of age group between 6 & and 14. 

Building shelter homes for those children who are living in streets and giving them better education opportunities and they can learn a career to get a better job and future.

Child labour is a serious problem. Children are our future and we have to take better care of them if we want a better future of ourselves.

Next time you see child labours I suggest try inspiring them through your words to be an educated person and tell them the importance of education because I feel at this age this is the biggest hidden truth of life to them.

NATURE’S FUTURE

Nature’s wonder in danger- think of the solution not polution

Nature and mankind met some thousands years ago but what have we done to nature. Causing so much harm to nature we never realised how big the problem will be for our upcoming generations. It is also about nature’s future along with ours.

 Here through my photographs I am trying to expressing how I felt when I realised how badly we have polluted the Mother nature.

Mahatma Gandhi oncesaid “Nature has enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”. In 1909 in his book “Hind Swaraj” he wrote about the damage that humans are causing to nature.

The wind blowing with a surreal sound, making the leaves swing but the freshness of it is getting lost day by day.

Cutting down of trees for human settlement, polluting water and air are some of the reasons due to which a large number of species are under threat and some are nearly extinct.

When I came across the fact that Britain’s Royal Society of Protection of Birds has enlisted the house sparrows in the 'Red List’, it made me so sad, I have grown up seeing sparrows every morning and evening. Now they are on decline.

Other major problems are Global warming and ozone layer depletion caused by greenhouse gases like CO2, methane and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) respectively. Soli pollution, a damage that human beings are creating. Pesticides, large landfills, and wastes from industries destroy the soil and spoil it to such extent that it is unable to grow anything.

Now not only physically but we are living in an environment full of human generated electromagnetic fields or EMFs and to which research have shown it causes problem to human’s mental health.

We need to pay a serious attention to this issue as it is not just about you and me but about our upcoming generations. It was a horrifying experience this year on days post Diwali, the smog was so strong I was feeling a burning sensation in my eyes and itchiness.

It melts my heart when I imagine how our little brother, sister, child, will live here, how will they breath in so much pollution, which quality food will they eat.

Each human being can make a difference by planting a single tree, by not wasting water or polluting it, by not polluting air through limiting the use of air polluting gases etc. I do it. In my school we use to have one day in a year when we all planted trees.

It’s high time we think about Mother Nature and protect it in each step day by day.

I know it is easy to say but hard to implement but if not now than it will be too late