Failure of my entire education......

                     It's a very small incident which you all might had experienced sometime-somewhere in your life. It's a story of a boy; probably 12-13 years of age  who is working in a small hotel run by a couple for their survival in Pune. That boy is  from a small village in Andhra Pradesh. His mother is a widow and mentally a bit unstable. He has to look after his mother and his elder sister. I happened to meet him at that hotel and asked him wether he goes to school or not? Before he could answer anything, the hotel owner started scolding him, and forced him to continue with the work.
       
                                    This small  incident forced me to think about the social and legal system of our country. On one side the boy is working for the survival of his family and if he stops working his whole family would collapse financially and there would be no one to look after his mother and sister and on the other  side I am seeing the failure of Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act-1986 and Rules-1988; and Right to Education Act, 2009. If I inform the labour Dept. about the incident then one raid will be conducted in that hotel and that small boy will be shifted to some observation home where not only he will be suffering but his family will also suffer. Why a child is forced to become a child labour is the question?

                         Just a mere mid day meal or some facilities like observation home, Juvenile Board etc will not be enough to eradicate child labour from a country of more than 100 million population. There are many laws which were already passed and many more may come up in future but the problem will remains the same. I don't have any concrete answer nor the  solution but the words that clearly made a mark in my heart as said by the boy that day-," I want to study, but I did not get an opportunity to be in the school. I got beaten up for this. If I would have gone  to the school, then I would have been in class 8th by now."

               This words echoes  in my ears and it makes  me realize  each day that the education that I  had got till now was a failure!!!http://www.facebook.com/tapas.sutradhar.9