What Diwali Brings Back to me...
This blog post is very dissimilar to all the blog posts here till date. I am only writing this post to share a personal incident that necessarily springs back to me every Diwali, or in the days nearing it to be more appropriate as and when I start hearing the sound of firecrackers bursting, just like the time when I am penning this down.
The year was 2005, I was in grade 10. Every Diwali, my father would come home with huge assorted boxes of firecrackers for me and my siblings, which back then, we really enjoyed ourselves with.
That year, there was something very uncommon and highly uncharacteristic that my school did before Diwali. Something that i had not even thought of in my so called 12 years of formal education until then.
The school tried (I do not know how successfully, given everybody's attraction towards those assortments and crackers) to organize an Anti- Firecrackers campaign. My first reaction was - "the same old anti-pollution lessons". I really thought the school was trying to teach me why one should not indulge in burning of firecrackers as it will lead to air being polluted and of-course people contracting a host of diseases (as if I had not heard enough of it already). I stepped back and decided not to participate until of course the school management made it mandatory to wear little red stickers on our sleeves that read (something like this, the exact words elude me at present)
"I pledge not to burn fire-crackers and contribute to reduce child labour"
Fire Crackers and Child labour? It got that 11th standard girl forcefully wearing that small red badge really confused. I found it intriguing and listened to various explanations that were being provided by many of the senior faculty members. That is when I first understood that children of as old as many years younger to me were employed by factories that make these fire crackers, the same fire crackers that I had very joyfully burnt every Diwali prior to that year.
While, we the fortunate ones use our nimble hands to play, paint and write, the unfortunate lot in many interior villages of this country (children like me) who were working 10-15 hours a day, contracting various unknown health ailments while in the process of making that tiring effort in order to feed themselves and their families.
Guilt overtook me that day
It has been 7 years since that day when we (me and another group of friends) pledged not to burn firecrackers, yet we have enjoyed every Diwali post that year more than ever before. There are lights, there is a family reunion, all of that minus the feeling of guilt of making the heavens seem to fall for another human being,
The year was 2005, I was in grade 10. Every Diwali, my father would come home with huge assorted boxes of firecrackers for me and my siblings, which back then, we really enjoyed ourselves with.
That year, there was something very uncommon and highly uncharacteristic that my school did before Diwali. Something that i had not even thought of in my so called 12 years of formal education until then.
The school tried (I do not know how successfully, given everybody's attraction towards those assortments and crackers) to organize an Anti- Firecrackers campaign. My first reaction was - "the same old anti-pollution lessons". I really thought the school was trying to teach me why one should not indulge in burning of firecrackers as it will lead to air being polluted and of-course people contracting a host of diseases (as if I had not heard enough of it already). I stepped back and decided not to participate until of course the school management made it mandatory to wear little red stickers on our sleeves that read (something like this, the exact words elude me at present)
"I pledge not to burn fire-crackers and contribute to reduce child labour"
Fire Crackers and Child labour? It got that 11th standard girl forcefully wearing that small red badge really confused. I found it intriguing and listened to various explanations that were being provided by many of the senior faculty members. That is when I first understood that children of as old as many years younger to me were employed by factories that make these fire crackers, the same fire crackers that I had very joyfully burnt every Diwali prior to that year.
While, we the fortunate ones use our nimble hands to play, paint and write, the unfortunate lot in many interior villages of this country (children like me) who were working 10-15 hours a day, contracting various unknown health ailments while in the process of making that tiring effort in order to feed themselves and their families.
Guilt overtook me that day
It has been 7 years since that day when we (me and another group of friends) pledged not to burn firecrackers, yet we have enjoyed every Diwali post that year more than ever before. There are lights, there is a family reunion, all of that minus the feeling of guilt of making the heavens seem to fall for another human being,
Every fire crackle comes with made in Sivakasi tag.
ReplyDeleteHere's a video down there, please have a look at it and just think did we really help these ppl/kids by not using crackles. I don't think so. Bigger picture is why 40,000 kids at Sivakasi district are being pushed to work. why no one is complaining against the district. Why there are no alternative jobs there. School campaigns does not really help those 40,000 kids. Its the system that will help. Lets push this thing forward and be the part of change.
Lets take an initiative of speaking against the manufactures. That schools should have raised this topic instead of menacing students against fire crackles.
Another thing, when sales of fire crackles goes down, industry will not close, instead they will increase the production and sell at cheaper rates or they'll go for low quality products resulting into accidents.and push more child labours to work.
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/time-travellers-log/entry/the-fireworks-families-of-sivakasi
These were my views on child labour and crackles. Thanks for raising this topic. Waiting for some more interesting things to come. :)