We should be ashamed

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We should be ashamed.

The "GAP story" isn't the first time the horrific reality has come to light and wouldn't be the last. During the FIFA World Cup, several stories about how children were making footballs in a small village in Uttar Pradesh, just two hours away from Delhi, got their one-and-a-half minute of airtime. Nothing was done.

Every time a battered and bruised child maid manages to escape from the clutches of her "employer" or tormentor, angry debates ensue for a day or two and then it's wiped out, both, from the media and public memory. For the former, the memory is revived the next time a similar case happens. Background cases help you see. But, then that's it.

Our children are just not newsworthy enough.

Well, yes, they get their airtime every time an NGO manages to get the cops to raid a factory or sweatshop. Especially if more than a few dozen children are rescued and the authorities find it difficult even to house them till they can be sent back home. For a day or two people talk, hear and read about the inhuman conditions those children were working in, the inadequate conditions they are now housed in, and then its over.

Debates range for a little longer if the law is amended to include "domestic help" in the child labour category. After all, so many people are affected by it. Think of those who hire 10 or 12 year olds to look after their toddlers!

But, then again, in a few days, usually under a week, it's over. Again.

We simply don't want to face facts. We simply don't want to own up to the reality that we, collectively, have a responsibility towards these children. We owe it to them to bring their plight to light. To question. They are a story. A damn big story. And their story, told well, can make a difference to their lives. Then why do they get written off every time? The loopholes in the Child Labour laws may not be as glamorous as the twists and turns in the several high-profile legal battles that we see unfolding everyday. They do not make as pretty a story as people enjoying the first showers of monsoon. Do not have the euphoria that comes attached with an ever-climbing Sensex. But, ironical as it is, the day the Sensex crosses the 20k mark, international news channels are labelling India the "child labour capital" of the word and citing Unicef figures for it.

For an industry that sets its own standards and rules, it's not so difficult to "put more on the table." We chose what is news and what isn't. We still do. We know how to make a "story" out of obvious things and out of almost nothing. That's what we take pride in. Then why can't we now throw more into the ring? Why don't we take the issues that mater head-on? Even if it means being a little less spicy. A little more conscious.

I am not an armchair activist, but it angers me when people ask me to explain why a democracy, that's riding on an economic boom, tolerate instances of children being tortured and enslaved, their mouth stuffed with oily rags if they don't "well enough."

I don't want to know "How". I want to know "Why"?