If only childhood was carefree

Children’s Day is acknowledged on various days in different
nations and honours children belonging to all corners of the globe. Although
the dates vary, the aim retains its equivalence in encouraging healthy
interaction, mutual exchange and understanding among children so as to avail
and ennoble the welfare of children in the world.

However, it is alarming that despite several attempts to
initiate children welfare and safety, they fall prey to reprehensible practices
such as child abuse, physical and mental abuse and neglect, child labour and
child prostitution. In recent decades some extreme forms of violence against children,
including sexual exploitation and trafficking, which count among the worst
forms of child labour and impact of armed conflict, have provoked international
outcry and achieved a consensus of condemnation. However, in addition to these
extreme forms of violence, many children are routinely exposed to physical,
sexual and psychological violence in their homes, schools, and places of work.

Child abuse can’t be merely identified as the root cause of
such malpractices as there are a multitude of despair befalling children such
as starvation, malnutrition, abandonment, warfare and economic exploitation.
There is also a major difference between unintentional and intentional harm.
The most fundamental attribute of child abuse is that it is severely detrimental
to his/her well-being.

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Child labour, one of the commonest forms of child
exploitation is characterized by full-time work at too early of an age, and too
many hours spent working. The work often exerts undue physical, social, or
psychological stress. They are often exposed to high temperatures and
unsuitable atmospheres which not only snatches away their right to live life at
the fullest in their childhood but also end up threatening their subsistence.
They are even vulnerable to toxins and chemical hazards. When children are
forced to work by their families, they are deprived of schooling and shining
academically.

An estimated 6 million work-related injuries occur among
children annually, which results in 2.5 million kinds of disabilities and
32,000 fatalities every year. It is ironical that the worsening situation is
more common in the developing and developed countries where although, people
claim to work towards the betterment of their nation fail to realize the bitter
truth. Moreover, the wages paid off at the end of the day are not enough to
feed three or four members in a family. As a result, increasing numbers of
deaths are estimated which are either from poverty, malnutrition or suicide.

Physical abuse and emotional ill-treatment are also
consequences which give rise to neglect, fear and frictions in the lives of
children who are often prey to severe punishments or threats.

Armed conflicts is a major detrimental cause affecting
children all over the world, especially in the third world countries where
small children are taught how to play with guns and bombs instead of toys in
their budding stage. The resources which could have been invested in
development are disarticulated in arms. The disruption of food supplies, the
destruction of crops and agricultural infrastructures, the disintegration of
families and communities, the displacement of populations and the destruction
of educational and health services and of water and sanitation systems, all
take a heavy toll on children.

In today’s world where terrorism has become a staid issue,
children are constantly being used by terrorists, since children are easier to
indoctrinate and less likely to protest. They take solemn advantage of their
ignorance about their own morality and groom them to a heightened extent with
the use of arms. For increasing numbers of children living in war-torn nations,
childhood has become a nightmare.

Therefore, it is necessary that children must be allowed to
enjoy an unprecedented childhood with an uninterrupted multitude of opportunities
lacking the stains of terror, harm and abusive practices in their lives, for in
the words of Ruskin Bond it is true that when all the wars are over, a
butterfly will still be beautiful. It is also our moral duty to groom the
kiddies well so that they realize their morality to “protect” and
“protest”.

Let us all strive together to make Children’s Day worth its
importance and glorify the lives of children and adolescents all over the world
as there goes the saying, 
“Childhood should be carefree, playing in the sun; not living a
nightmare in the darkness of the soul.”

 By Sahasika Zaman

Coordinator. Cl. IX, St. Mary’s High School, Coochbehar

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