Thursday, May 26, 2011

Bowling for Dharavi

A few days back as I flipped through TV channels I merely chanced upon Bowling for Columbine. I find it a rather brilliant and thought-provoking story. Imagine if there was no arm control in India. It is difficult to know what would have happened but the results would definitely been absurd.

This got me thinking about something else, we need monitoring. We have a law against child labor. But walk around any slum not just Dharavi and you will see children working. We have NGO's trying their best to stop the rot but it is not going to change until 'WE' stop.

I recently decided to stop going to a shop because he had a small boy doing the work and I made it a point to tell him too. There are thousands of small and big establishments in our country that are no different. Bombay according to me is also the land of chai tapris. How many of these do you know that where there is no chotu working?

But lets be real. There are a number of children who are doing this for money. Yes the government is feeding them to go to school but have you eaten what they serve? These kids need to be taught a trade not history. Those who want to become scientists and engineers should obviously be taught and nobody should be denied an opportunity but helping them learn a trade and setting up someway in which they can monetize that trade opportunity is more important.

This is what I feel. Your turn champ!

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