A chilly morning of 26th Jan - (Indian Republic Day) in the upright northern part of India.Immaculately dressed in my shining white school dress, strolling to and fro between my Balcony and room recalling points about India's Yesterday and Present rehearsing for my speech, talking glories about country's development and modernisation, I happened to trace - an old man. An Old man - as old as rusty dreams of thousands of slum dwellers still awaiting for pucca houses, as hopeful as a 9 yr. old child selling tea in an iron kettle on a busy station, and as silent as as a drowning sun. And seeing him what I recalled was the character - "Kabuliwalah" of Rabindranath's epic tale who roamed streets with a big bag stuffed with raisins and nuts. A bunting of small flags fluttered in themselves seemed to shiver in the cold wind.
Returning back to my speech , My inner voice questioned - The development which I am going to praise my country about - has it touched all? Has it penetrated this flag sellers life? If yes, then old helpless man has to travel on foot on a chilly morning to earn his bread and butter for the day. How much would he be earning? I started calculating - 2 flags for 3 Rs.. Even if he has 50 flags- makes it 75 . 75 minus the cost at which he would have purchased those 50 flags would be his income for the day in case he is able to sell all 50 flags. !. I sighed and continued revising my speech which spoke of shining India.
Shining India ! Yes, Can't you see India glittering with Top MNC's , massive Industrialisation , Expanding markets, Increased GDP , Glossy Shopping malls , Fly overs being built across the cities, , can't you see my country shining??
Yes, it is but somewhere, behind those Finely Finished structures , Mighty Industrial plants , and world class developments - lies somewhere the blood and sweat of a thousand workers who are born and buried somewhere beneath the foundations.
The story of such an exploitation can be dated back to the time when "Shahjahan" built his magnificent Taj Mahal. It is said that soon after the "karigars" finished the structure , their hands were cut so that they could not build another one .
Well, frankly their is no evidence- for such a treatment, the dark reality which lingers in the present perhaps shall open our eyes.
How many of us know that ,that agricultural lands of even less than 2 hectares,sometimes the one and only possession are used forcibly sometimes to make a way for transportation of materials or for laying pipelines leaving the helpless farmers jobless .While industrial pollution changes the colour of water(which is provided to them) and contaminates the air, chemicals from factories gift them a cluster of diseases to suffer from. One such example can be quoted here is the case of NATHKUVA village of Gujarat. While working in the NGO I learnt that the villagers have been facing devastating effects from the noxious fumes and fluoride wastes emitted by a "Carbon credits" awarded industry-Gujarat Flurochemicals Ltd.
A documentary named- "Buddha weeps in jadugoda " talks about the devastating effects of Uranium mining , which has lead to congenital defects in new born, disabilities , miscarriages,impotency and skeletal deformities.
The word "development" perhaps has become synonyms with "irony". While our GDP increases by selling Uranium, the word development come across as slap on faces of villagers for being an inhabitant of a village which has been chosen for "development". They suffer because they don't leave their home and land and migrate to city as bonded labourers when suggested to do so...
But who says my country is worst??
Let's talk of the shopping capital and the hottest tourism spot of Middle East. Dubai. The city which adorns the pride of having the Tallest Building of the world - Burj Khalifa has a dirty little secret only some of us are aware about. Behind Dubai's breathtaking buildings, is an army of exploited migrant workers for modern day slavery. Poor workers from India,Pakistan and Bangladesh promised good earnings are exported in thousands by agents and are forced into modern day slavery on the name of employment. Hundreds of thousand workers are slave under temperatures of 48 degree Celsius at an elevation which leaves us stunned every time we see them unveiled. After tolling till late evening , late at night they are taken back to their dingy camps located in the middle of the desert where they are flocked like sheep with 7-8 people in a single room and plate of onion,tomatoes ,chillies and bread to end their day with. They are treated unfairly, health jeopardised and their passports confiscated by the agencies so that they cannot go back. The number of deaths from heat exhaustion,overwork and suicides was counted till 971 in 2005, after which the consulates were asked to stop counting.
The purpose of the above mentioned cases is not to leave you in grief, but somewhere its good to open our eyes towards the second world which is engulfed in the dark shadows of mightiest dreams.
While we count our GDP and celebrate the glitter of gold, Sometimes,somewhere while standing in tall sky high , whenever we think that the world is at our feet , its fair to realise that behind our altitude lies numerous stories of tear and sweat because Truth is in a place which most of the times , we can't see. .
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