KINDERITE

As I write this piece, India is in the middle of an election season. India’s electorate is 700 million people (almost double the entire population of the United States of America) and due to the magnitude of electorate and security concerns, our election season lasts for about a month. In our elections, children’s issues have no say. Disproportionate spending (in relation to the gross domestic product or GDP) compared to the size of the number of children of India (Indian children under the age of 18 constitute 41% of the population) suggests that Indian leadership has no desire to address children’s issues. Children need our attention because they are defenseless. Recently I also read a profound statement on the status of India’s children (to describe why they need our attention) published in the Hindu newspaper on May 3rd, 2009 which states the following: “ If you are a child below the age of three, there is a 50 per cent chance that you are malnourished …If you survive this age, and...

Did you buy your gift for the mother’s day yet? If you hadn’t figured it yet, ‘Mother’s Day’ is observed on the second Sunday of the month of May (tomorrow). I am not going to do a product review of PDA’s (Portable Digital Accessories) for your mom but talk about another kind of PDA. There’s also a PDA that refers to ‘Public Display of Affection’ but what I am about to write is called ‘Private Display of Affection’. It is believed that children learn everything by imitation. Therefore private display of affection (PDA) is a good way to help our children to understand and learn the concept of love. Recently I read an anonymous quote that read, “If you want your children to know how much you love them, love their mother first”. I think for any little child it is the mother that comes first before anyone in this world and reserve their first love for her in their hearts. It is in this context that above said quote is suggesting that you love their mother first to win them over. I had neve...

Both my girls completed their academic year in March and we got their report cards in April. Both have been promoted to the next class and their marks amazed me. Lydia’s overall score is in the lower 90’s and of course Lily didn’t have a score but a descriptive grade such “Excellent” and “Good” as she is still in the kindergarten only. Every morning as I complete my workout and return home at about 6:00 AM, I see kids coming for private tutoring and I still see kids with a huge load of school bags as late as 7:00 in the nights. Now and then we read and watch news about school kids committing suicide because they didn’t perform to their expectations in the exams. This brings us to a question “Why is education such a big deal for Indians”? If I may state it simplistically, it used to be the only source of our survival for the future. If one has to work and earn a living, it was believed that one has to study hard and excel. Other avenues such as music, art and sports were less enco...

Recently I was talking to a government officer who was insisting on having a scavenger for a government children’s home to clean the toilets and he even insisted that Gandhian thoughts like cleaning one’s own toilet in a government children’s home would be considered as child labor. I couldn’t disagree more. As a father of two girls it was a joy to do their self-care activities when they were young but as they started growing up, gradually they were introduced to taking care of their own needs. For example, girls play with their toys all evening and they expect mom to put them all away at the end of the day. It doesn’t work like that. When they can play with toys and put them away, we insist that they put them away. It took a while for them to get the hang of it but once they learnt that what they use ought to be valued and protected it was very easy. I don’t see much of a difference between my girls in my house and the children in a government home as far as teaching them their r...

CWC ( C hild Welfare Committee ) is a statutory body created by the act of Parliament of India under the JJ Act (Juvenile and Justice Act) to cater to the children that are in need and care and protection. CWC-India is an initiative to build a network of all the current and former CWC members to exchange information along with others (such as academicians, lawyers, child rights activists and social workers etc) that could contribute ‘information of value’ can join. CWC-India is a simple yahoo list serve and the sign up is self-explanatory. Simply type in your email address in the box below and click on "Yahoo Groups Join Now" purple box.  Then simply follow the instructions. I really hope you would join. Subscribe to CWC-India network