Childhood lost

A unit of the Mahamandal is organizing weekly literacy and awareness programmes for working children and other children who are even younger and cannot yet work. It is a novel experience and an eye-opener for some of the young men who are conducting the classes. The children are very eager to learn new things and play. They enjoy even the smallest gifts, for perhaps no outsider ever loved them from the heart before. The adolescent boys did not know their country's name or map, nor that the earth revolves around the sun. They knew no games, for they work from dawn to dusk. We see such children at every roadside tea-stall, we know they are there in so many hazardous occupations throughout the country. There are a few crore of them, nobody knows the exact number. They are from villages, they are from urban slums! Educated young men who are associated with the Mahamandal should understand these post-Independence problems emerging out of lopsided development. Do you apply your minds to these problems with a bleeding heart?