WHERE ARE THE PARENTS?

After going to the income tax consultant in Panampilly Nagar I decided to walk to my bank at Pallimukku which was only one bus stop away. On the way there is a railway over bridge and I walked under it. When I reached the railway tracks, this is what I saw.

A small child belonging to a poor laborer’s family was standing on the track and screaming for his parents. He must have been crying for quite some time and his voice was hoarse. A passer by felt sorry and gave some sweets to the child. The child threw the sweets on the ground and shouted still more loudly for his parents. Then he started rolling on the tracks. The passer by put the sweets in the child’s shirt pocket. The child took out the sweets and threw them out again, still wailing for his parents. The passer by also became desperate and started shouting for the parents. After some time a bedraggled laborer came and picked up the child. The child at once stopped screaming and started sobbing. The passer by scolded the father in the strongest possible words for neglecting the small child and walked away angrily. As he walked I heard him saying that God should not give children to such useless parents.

The child’s parents are migrant laborers from Tamilnadu where the daily wages are very low compared to Kerala. They live under the over bridge. They cook, eat and sleep there. They work for the waste paper dealer having a shop under the bridge. The child’s play ground is the unused railway track. I need not tell you what will happen if the child strays on to the used track when a speeding train is approaching.

Whether a child belongs to a laborers family or to rich parents, the child is the same. The parents are the child’s world. The child is not interested in where he lives, what he eats, and what comforts are there as long as the parents are close by. The child wants the parents when he gets up from sleep, he wants them when he is hurt, he wants them when he is hungry and so on.

So what happens when both parents are working to earn money as in the case of these poor laborers?