On the Other Side

Round the clock advanced security, 100% power back up, parks, water bodies, lakes, sports grounds, and stadium; this is the description of Garden City, one of the many sprawling gated communities in India. As a proud owner, those are some of the many amenities you can enjoy inside the secluded world of comfort and luxury. As a contrast, outside those gates, hundreds of children flow through the streets and inside public buildings. Some of them offer shoe shine services, others extend their hands hoping to feel the texture of some rupees. Their naturally tan faces and clear eyes have the power to melt your heart as you see them barefooted roaming the dirt roads or burning asphalt. The warning is not to help them because they are their parents' responsibility and it is precisely them the ones sending these children to the streets as beggars instead of walking them to the school grounds were they belong at such a tender age. They are the ones who would become and remain the dalits of the Indian society. But, how to ignore their condition?

As a foreigner, I still have much to learn about this mystical culture. As a parent I can’t accept this reality. As a teacher, I know these children have the right to an education that would improve their lives and, as a consequence, the country. As a human being, it breaks my heart to see so much sorrow in their eyes, yearning for an opportunity to escape from a life they didn’t chose.

In India, over 150 million children work as bonded labourers, 8.1 million are out of school, and one out of six girl child does not live to see her 15th birthday. More gated communities represent the voluntary isolation of those who would not accept this reality, the way to trace the line between the affluence and the slums. As a community, those gates must be opened to bring hope to these children who are only waiting for a helping hand and a chance to dream.

In a country where 40% of the population is below the age of 18 years making it 400 million, the world's largest child population, priority must be given to their well being something that gated communities will not solve.