In many countries of the world, including India, there is a lingering silence in the name of Children’s Rights. It is not that no one wants to speak on it. The truth is that most people do not even think or know about it. Political parties do not talk about children’s rights in their manifestos and election speeches because children are not votes. While taking decisions on big and big issues even in the family, the desire of the children is not asked because ‘the interference of the children in the affairs of the elders is not right’. How many generations of children in this country may have become young after hearing that ‘Let it be, it is not a children’s game’ but, the matter is not just that much.
On April 1, when there was news that after the coup in Myanmar, 43 children have been killed in 2 months, then I wish I thought of ‘Save the Children’ (an organization working for children’s rights). The news would have been wrong, but the fact is that in Myanmar the army is crushing its opponents and children are also being crushed. (What a terrible feeling to write these words too)
Violence against children is the biggest crime
In ancient times, there was also a code of conduct for war. Weapons had to be stopped as soon as sunset. In Mahabharata, Ashwatthama, son of Guru Dronacharya, entered the camp of his enemy Pandavas and killed the five sons of Draupadi while they were sleeping. In return for this great sin, Lord Krishna cursed him that Ashwatthama will always wander in this world in search of salvation.
After the Mahabharata period, now come in the modern period. Even today, 102 years ago, a woman faced children living in the enemy camp. During World War I, a 43-year-old British woman, Eglantine Jeb, cried when she saw a picture of starving children in Germany and Austria in the newspapers. In fact, England and its allies had stopped supplying ration to their enemy countries. When Jeb played the whistle against this inhuman act of his own country, he was presented in court. The pocket was fined for this ‘Kasur’, but the judge was so impressed by the compassion of the pocket towards the children that he paid the fine from his pocket. This fine was the first donation of ‘Save the Children’ and it was the Eglantine pockets who established this institution. Jeb said that the first right of a child in any disaster is that he should get relief first.
Every year 1 lakh children are getting affected by war
A report by ‘Save the Children’ says that between 2013 and 2017, 5.50 lakh children were killed in 10 violence-hit countries of the world, i.e., on average, more than 1 lakh children are killed in violent conflicts every year. Former CEO of this institution, Helle Thorning (who had been the Prime Minister of Denmark), while presenting this report, said that ‘the principle of morality is very clear. You cannot attack children, but in terms of morality, we are coming back even in the 21st century.
So in such a situation, the question arises whether in this age of extreme un-morality, Ashwatthamas should be expected to get cursed or not?
Give food to a hungry child, shelter to an orphan
In 1924, at the Geneva Conference of the League of Nations (later replaced by the United Nations), Eglantine Jeb presented his small document on children’s rights. It is very easy and important to remember and read. Jeb said, ‘If the child is hungry, feed him, take care of the child if he is ill, help him if he is backward, if he has made a mistake, improve it and if he is an orphan If he has gone, then give him shelter. This idea of pocket proved to be a milestone in the history of children’s human rights. This is the basic spirit of the United Nations General Assembly, which passed the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on 20 November 1989. This agreement came into effect on 2 September 1990.
It is signed by 193 countries of the world. Myanmar also signed it in 1991, which means that it is committed to following it but who in the world is listening to the voices of the children of Myanmar or Syria or Iraq?
Somalia, South Sudan and America’s ‘G-3’
It is to be noted that even Uncle Sam, the self-proclaimed contractor of democracy, does not consider it necessary to speak out on the cruelty against children. The US is a member of that unannounced ‘Group-3’ with Somalia and South Sudan, which has not approved the United Nations Agreement on the Rights of Children. In 2008, then US President Barack Obama himself said that “It is an embarrassment to see America standing with Sudan”.
Once upon a time, there was a glut of lost coins in England, then Queen Elizabeth I issued new coins. Surprisingly, new coins started disappearing and again the same worn and worn coins started running in the market. When this happened, again and again, the Queen asked her advisor Tomas Gresham to investigate the whole matter. What Gresham came to know about this is worth pondering. Actually, the people of England used to hide the new coins, that is, they were removed from the market and in this way, the khoya coins continued to dominate. The ‘Gresham Principle’ teaches us that it is easy to exclude good from evil.
All the modern societies of the world including America are following the same principle of Gresham, where goodness, goodness and goodness are outdated. The biggest money is now for public welfare governments. On the basis of age, the system of ‘half ticket made for children in the railway is abolished because the government needs money. The age of drinking alcohol is reduced from 25 to 21 because the government needs money.
Nine soldiers killed in terrorist group al-Shabaab attack bombed two camps of the Somali army
The children of Myanmar and Syria have no one in this world?
Article 19 of CRC says that any country should take legal, administrative, social and educational measures that do not cause any physical or mental violence against children, do not injure children, do not speak abusive words to children and their sexual Exploitation could not be done, but when these basic things are not taken care of, then who is worried about the children of Myanmar and Syria?
A few years ago a picture of a war-torn Syrian child went viral, in which he is soaked in blood. It was told that the child injured in the bomb blast said before death that if I go up and meet God, then you will complain to everyone. It was later found out that this news was wrong, but imagine, in a world where every year one lakh children are dying between gunpowder and bombs, such complaints would not be lost in the form of scream, tear or silence?
Hey Santa Claus! This December, when going out to distribute chocolate on your ice cart, do not go anywhere or go to countries like Syria and Myanmar. Perhaps there is no one in this world of children.