Children of lesser GOD!

Torn, festering and dust laden robe, a cloth on flanks and face brimming with naivety.No twinge or sense of divestiture in eyes. Devotion for his job. And a perky grin when being teased.This is Chotu for you.

Chotu may be a help in your’s or your neighbour’s abode, Chotu may be working at chai ki thadi in vicinity of your office or in your neighborhood dhaba.

Chotu is incognito of any child worker whom we watch everyday. Chotu serves us every day. Chotu is responsible for the paltry cost of keeping our house clean, and cutting chai that we sip and even food we have in these dhabas. Chotu makes sure that the cost of these things doesn’t escalate by keeping his wages low.

 Chotu is exploited by me, you and everyone daily. Bright fireworks that bring sheen on face of our kids have toil of some chotu behind it. Chotu works for a meager food ,a meager salary or sometimes just to fulfill debt that has been taken  by his parents.

Chotu works hard. He works when children of his age play and study. Chotu takes orders from children of his own age. Chotu serves all delicacies which he just dreams of.

Chotu……………….. He must be a child of some lesser god.A god who was lesser than god of us all who are blessed. Who have lives that are less difficult than his. Chotu’s only fault is taking birth in a family which is poor and a country where being poor is a curse.He will never realize his loss.And even if he does he cant help it out.

He is beaten, brawled and sometimes raped. He has a future of turning up into HIV positive, a grown less paid worker or into a pickpocket.

He is living a life that promises of being more miserable every day.

We take services of chotu every day.No we are not cruel.We empathize with him.We empathizes with him by asking him about his life and discussing him in our elite circles. We empathizes with him by writing articles about him and getting accolades for our touching articles.

And we empathize with him by keeping him in his job. After all he wont have anything to eat we do not take his services.

After all that is all what we can do. There are government agencies, NGO’S and people working for them. If they cant help them how can we.

That’s our escape from chotu’s life.Our soul which used to pain initially looking at chotu has stopped itching now. After all how many times can it itch in a day. We are happy in our busy lives pampering our children with all the beautiful toys made by some Chotu.

Its time for being less hypocrite. Its time to think about all the chotus. Its time to not just think. If we really want these children of lesser god to live their childhood we will have to be less hypocrite.We will need to discard all the services where childworkers are used.

We have to revive and redesign our book of ethics. We will have to act .And we will have to be honest in our endeavor to give a second chance to these children of lesser god