Do we really value our children?

Author : Sharanya Iyer
Country : India

“Mom, Mom,……… somehow no matter how much I shout it doesn’t quite seem to have any effect. I can’t remember how much time I have spent here. Every effort I make to climb up ends up in vain. There is hardly any space for me to move. I want water more badly than ever. I can barely see the light above. Maybe I should just rest for some time………In a few minutes I will be free from this place and my mother will be hugging me, comforting me and everything will be over……… I smile and close my eyes.....”

“IN A TRAGIC CULMINATION OF A 50-HOUR ORDEAL, A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY, WHO FELL INTO A BORE WELL WHILE PLAYING AT A VILLAGE 35 KM FROM JAIPUR, WAS PULLED OUT ON FRIDAY NIGHT, BUT WAS LATER DECLARED DEAD.

RESCUERS FROM THE ARMY AND CIVIL ADMINISTRATION PULLED OUT THE BOY SURAJ BANZARA FROM INSIDE A 13-FEET PIECE OF RUSTED IRON PIPE OF EIGHT INCH DIAMETER WHERE HE HAD REMAINED STUCK EVER SINCE FALLING INTO THE BOREWELL IN NIMEEDA VILLAGE ON WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.”

This piece of news has been among the top stories of every channel here in India since last week. People all over our country prayed for the young lad over those two days, but in vain. By the time a parallel bore well could be dug and the boy removed, it was too late.

What is most shocking is that this is not the first incident of children falling into a bore-well. There have been SIX similar cases of death in the year 2007 alone. In spite of repeated incidents the concerned authorities who are in charge of digging the bore well have not learnt any lesson. It is high time that the government take strict action. This is the time to lay some rules and regulations for borewell construction. Bylaws should make it mandatory to fill the hole after the tube well is installed and the owner should be made responsible for it.

Any further loss of such innocent and young lives will only shatter the faith our people have in the Government. Ours being a democratic country, it is the Government’s binding duty to serve its people first and foremost, failing which it loses its very meaning.

Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Indian prime minister saw the children of the country, as future citizens whose guidance and contributions would make India sail through the next century as a superpower and yet it is sad that we have not yet learnt to respect the value of human life-especially when it comes to our children.