Crap

Child Labour. India. Always intended to touch upon this. So, below, is a verse i wrote fairly long ago. A complete debate on child labour, ought to follow this post – hopefully – soon enough..

Ps. I’m rather uncertain as to when this was composed, most probably it was around midnight somewhere in August, 2003. I was fifteen then. So, don’t heed the churlishness in the verse, willya..

I

His mother wept, as the boy
Was dragged by men in boots,
To a factory of toys
Owned by men in suits.
He had no shoes, no gloves, no stick,
Only a rag that held his body sick.
Few days later, at work,
He stood for a break, “Bang” came the stick.
He wept, but sat down (to work) again,
Around him the same sound fain,
Another child to earn a family,
Whose mother wept, father maimed.
He was to suffer the father’s fate,
After a mill explosion, on a future date.

II

The Eighth son of a jobless man,
Worked on tar, a can in hand,
Sad was he, to beg for money,
At the end of the day, a whip got he.
Next morn he’s sent off again,
His back, pitiful, maimed.
Later, His hand sliced off,
The other one, to save a roadside cough…
(…Or cry),
His legs trimmed to size,
To fill his weeping eyes.

III

O you men in boots…er…
And the ones who wear suits,
O you child labourers,
O you wicked things,
You filthy sins,
Pushed by even the Devil,
Yes, you will.
At least not the children,
Please don’t till,
Their backs with whips and feet with chops.
Give them something -
To get a better rag and
Begin some shops.

IV

Please don’t till,
Their feet with chops,
Give them something,
To begin some shops,
A Smile on their face, and,
A tissue, to save you disgrace.

~FIN

Yea, okay. I know that was pretty childish. Chuck that.. Only, do reread the last stanza – that’s all i wish to convey.

I hope to follow up this post with a structured debate on Child Labour in India, soon. I may have given up debating, but it still runs too passionately through me, to let go of. Not so soon [sob] …

update on [0ct 08, 2008] : the post i promised for..well, framed the points, but never managed to upload it. and since i shall soon-after quit [no, take a sabbatical from] blogging, i doubt the article shall find it’s way here anytime soon. apologies. misinformation, i agree, is far more serious a felony, than lack of it.