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Will 'Azadi' mean a meal for me, ask street kids
Dressed in a worn-out shirt and shorts, Rodu, all of 11, hopped
past swank sedans and intimidating SUVs at a busy traffic
intersection in south Delhi. Clutching a bunch of tiny Indian
flags and waving them
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64 years of Independence, and we still celebrate our
independence day with full
enthusiasm and vigor. The day marks the freedom of our country from the atrocities of
British rules. But after 64 years of Independence can we really
sense freedom in air we
breathe. The chains of restriction of so called costume practices
of contemporary India
still play a major role in our society.
While everyone is busy celebrating independence day in their own
manner, Raheem, a 65
years old labor, is sweating hard to earn a little money to add to
his daughter’s
marriage which is scheduled for next month. He has been doing this
for the past 30
years. He has been collecting money so that he can offer a bike
and a handsome amount of
cash to satisfy the greed of his future son-in-law and his family
members.
58 years old Shambhu has been working on fields day and night so
that he can recover
from a huge debt which he took to get his daughter married and
get back his mortgaged
house. How can he sense freedom in a country run by a society led
by such practices?
The problem is not only with the weaker sections of society. A
middle class person
suffers the worst. Satishjii, a 52 years old clerk at a small IT
firm, looks much older
than his age and is already taking anti-depressant pills. Her two
daughters, one
electronics engineer from a private college and another a M. Com.
are to be married to a
Jr Engineer at a private firm and a teacher at primary school
respectively. He has
already spent all his savings to get his daughters a good degree
so that they can get
married. Now he is visiting banks for loans so that he can he can
purchase the two son-in-laws with a lavish car and a flat at a posh locality in Noida.
This is the story of each and every father of a daughter in India.
People sacrifice
their lives and start saving money as soon as a daughter is born
in their family. On the
other hand a son’s parents feel proud to attach a ridiculous Price
tag and auction him
in the market. The scenario is no different to the time when
people used to auction
their slaves in the market and the price used to vary depending on
their beauty, body etc.
Parents educate their sons, invest on them insanely, so that they
get good degree and as
such a higher market value. The higher the degree, higher the
price. A teacher costs you
30 Lacs, whereas an engineer 60 Lacs and if you want to purchase a
doctor for your
laadli you might have to pay upto a crore (prices are not
recession flexible)
India is the only country in the world which socially accepts the
practice of selling
their children. Yet we dare to call it an independent country.
The saddening part is
that the sons of such parents feel proud in getting sold. In the
world of
commercialization where dignity and self-respect have lost their
meaning, people feel a
sense of achievement in getting sold by their parents for some
lacs. Even the daughter
feels satisfied after getting such Gifts (as they camouflage it ) which their parents
were never able to afford in their whole life. It is pathetic, and
it makes me wonder
that how can a son and a daughter feel the joy of independence
after being sold by their
parents to a family or by leaving their parents indebted for life?
We, the Indians have so naturally accepted this fact in our social
lives that we don’t
feel the shame and offence such practices bring with them. Not surprisingly, we still
believe that India is an independent country.
The writer is the Hon.
Secretary of Aligarh Muslim University Students' Union (AMUSU). He
can be reached at secretaryamusu@amu.ac.in
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