Mrs. Ruchi Ghanashyam is the former High Commissioner of India to the UK. With a career in Indian Foreign Service for over 38 years, she has been posted in many countries including South Africa, Ghana, before arriving in the UK. She was only the second woman High Commissioner to the UK since India’s independence and during her tenure, she witnessed a number of significant developments in the UK-India relations.
A couple of weeks back I happened to see a short video film sent by someone in a WhatsApp group. These days, with technology making it simpler to make short films, one gets several unsolicited videos every day on social media. Like others, I too delete such videos from my WhatsApp regularly. Something about this video invited one’s attention. Perhaps it was the description, ‘award winning short film on child labour’ that caught my attention. I was glad to have watched it!
The short film, titled ‘Baitullah’ is about a young boy called Baitullah, who works at a tea shop, carries small glasses of tea in a wire rack that holds twelve small glasses of tea. These are filled with fresh, hot tea, every morning by the tea stall owner even before sunrise. Baitullah goes from shop to stall to private homes, giving people their morning tea. He repeats this routine later on during the day! He looks healthy and doesn’t look unhappy. Having seen a little boy carrying glasses of tea innumerable times in life and in films, one tends to accept Baitullah’s routine unquestioningly. Hints of things not being right come when he looks longingly at a plate of fruits and more so at children going to school. It’s at this point that one begins to realise that the smiling and happy-looking boy is missing out on his childhood.
Towards the end, the tea stall owner slaps him for dropping and breaking glass. Baitullah gets angry; a police officer steps in and asks him why he isn’t going to school. Baitullah then reveals his dream by asking what it would take for him to become like the police officer. The next instance, resigned to his fate, Baitullah picks up the broom to clean the broken shards of glass from the ground!
In the end, the short film reminds us that every child has a dream and he/she shouldn’t have to spend a lifetime picking pieces of that dream. It cites a figure from the 2016 report of the International Labour Organisation, that 152 million children worldwide, between the ages of 5-16 are being forced into child labour under unspeakable conditions. According to UNESCO’s 2017 GMR report, 264 million children worldwide are denied the right to education.
These statistics are not the latest, but we know that the impact of the Covid pandemic has been disastrous for families, especially children. Several children were orphaned or lost the main breadwinner in the family during the pandemic. Others lost their livelihoods. Even when children did not lose their parents and the latter kept their jobs, they faced struggles with online education; and often a mobile shared between siblings would be the sole means of connecting with the school.
It is learnt that data from the national child helpline and anecdotal evidence from the ground point to an increasing number of children being subject to abuse and violence, or being forced into labour, early marriage or other gross child rights violations. National and global authorities also highlighted the spike in cases of online exploitation of children, as further evidence of the worsening situation for children.
The film, Baitullah, is a reminder of the lost childhood of millions of children around the globe. It has been sponsored by the Mukul Madhav Foundation. I was delighted to discover that my friend, Ritu Prakash Chhabria is the Managing Trustee of this Foundation. On asking for details of their work, it was heartening to learn that the Foundation is working not just with children but with women and transgenders too. Its major intervention in India for children has been with the British Asian Trust (BAT) for the elimination of Child Labour and Protection in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh, and for preventing Child Trafficking in vulnerable districts in Bihar.
From providing hot meals to the homeless and in schools; to supporting children with education scholarships, stationary support, mental health awareness sessions and with regular health camps to assess their well-being for those at school, to rescuing children and their rehabilitation, including of trafficked children; are some of the activities of the Mukul Madhav Foundation.
There are other individuals and organisations devoted to protecting and nurturing children in India and the world. Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work protecting children from child slavery. Many recognised global NGOs are working in this area, apart from UN development agencies. All of them need help.
Each one of us can find a way to help this noble cause in our own way. Let us try and give each child a childhood. Let us try and save childhood.
Photo Credit: Short film -
Baitullah (Matheno Films)
