What is it to be a child in India?

A child is there in everyone and I see no child here.
Children are bhagwan ka roop here and I see no god.
Children are pure like milk and I see only pollution.
Child is me and I can’t see myself in the mirror.

What is it to be a child?
What is it to be a child in India?
A child born with a surname is a god’s gift and without that it’s a mere thing, consuming already running short of space on this earth, consuming already rarely available oxygen. However, child here is also the most awaited gift for some, and also a mistake no one is ready to accept. A child is a child if he is born rich…he is a child that world would know, but a child is a burden if he born poor.
Biologically a child is a human being in the age of 1-12 yrs. (my assumption) but here in India it starts at the same age and may extend up to 24 yrs of age or may end at 5. For a parent, a child will always remain a child till their last breath. Therefore, the term CHILD to me is a very relative term… it is dependent on the parents… there is no child without parents… No child without mother.
So the age group of children in India is not decided by the doctors or the psychologists… it is decided by the parents.
Being a child in India is — chocolate, toffees, balloons, alloo puri halwa, rajma chawal, gol gappee, mangoes, chatni, churan…and also the definition of child varies demographically too in India. At some point of time I feel that there is a child in everyone of us and India is a place where one can experience it almost at every stage of life (exceptions are always there). The mazza advertisement is such a good example of being a child in India – why to grow up was the question which shows one dimension of what it is to be a child in India.
Child in India is also a resource for organs for someone, amusement for others and workforce for many entrepreneurs of THE GREAT INDIAN economy. Cut into pieces for some bloody organs for a rich man is sometimes is a destiny of a child in India.
om bhoor bhawa swaha… om jai jagdeesh hare… vishnu ji, bharma ji, shivji be good, do nice, bhagwan se daro, pap mat karo, sabki sewa karo — this is being a child in India if u have grandparents.. cheen ke kha harami, chori kar suar (pig), bheek mang sale — this is also being a child in India if u have a GODFATHER .

A child is a child — a child is not a child
A child in India is a sahara for the grandparents in their rest of the life.
A child is the reason for separating parents to stay together their whole life (fighting whole life)… which might not be true these days.
A child is a God’s angel
A child is a reason for a drunkard father to quit alcohol
A child is expected to clear the debts of the father
A child is suppose to earn for the family from the day she can learns to count money
A child is a reason for a socially expelled mother
A child is a jamoora in india
A child is a chor badmash –jeb katra in india
A child is a child—- a child is not a child

Some children are born to live and some are born to die in India. But a child will always be a child with pure emotions and innocence. Born with no memories and dies with nothing; to be born again with a new face, new family. A child in India sees the world which no one else could see. I’m not sure if God is present in every human being but there is a child in every one.
What is it to be a Child in India?
Contributed by Astha Nagpal ,Student of Psychology