This year I believe is a year of grace and favour for us and I am looking forward to it! We started it by celebrating it with young children from the outskirts of the city, some who stay in slums and rough it out in life and some who have been abandoned or orphaned and stay in a home run by dedicated people. When you see the 'joie de vivre' in children, it reinforces ones belief in life. There they were singing lustily and then enjoyed games like passing the parcel and musical chairs. Even the older ones became like children for this....and then the punishments were so hilarious and without any self-consciousness, the children would tell jokes or do 'kalaabaazi' an Indian word for turning somersaults, and even dancing to the latest Bollywood tunes!
Living on the streets and in slums is tough - many are rag pickers or daily wage labourers or even beggars at traffic light areas. Rag pickers make a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets to collect material for salvage. Scraps of cloth or paper could be turned into cardboard, broken glass is melted and reused, even dead cats and dogs are skinned to be re-used. The rag pickers do not recycle the material themselves, they collect and whatever they find, they turn it to a master rag picker (usually a former rag picker), who in turn sells it by weight, to investors with the means to convert it to something more profitable. They start as early as five years and are illiterate and susceptible to diseases and bad habits like chewing tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Children working as rag pickers do not come under the 1986 Child Labour Act, so it is difficult to take them out of this environment.
India tops the list with the highest number of child labourers in the world. Child labourers of the age of 5-14 years are said to be 17 million in a 2001 census. The informal labour force statistics however puts the number at 60 million children as "hidden workers" working in homes or in the underground economy.
Organized begging involves the abduction of children and is known as the begging mafia all across India. An actual number of child abductions is around one million a year. Children are maimed and then sent to beg by the begging mafia. The hearts of the mafia greedy for money is such that they are blinded to this being a heinous crime.
Jesus says that the love of money is the root of all evil. He also says that it is better for a person that a millstone was hanged on his neck and that person was put into the sea than that he or she should offend the children. Stern words for anyone who thinks that they can get away with it, there is a judgment ahead after this life...there is only one life and after that is the judgment.
I have gratitude in my heart towards God that He gives us opportunities to serve children and to make a place for them where they can grow in an atmosphere of peace. God gives grace to us when we love and respect the dignity of children and allow them to grow up as good citizens of the country we live in. You can watch the video here.
Living on the streets and in slums is tough - many are rag pickers or daily wage labourers or even beggars at traffic light areas. Rag pickers make a living by rummaging through refuse in the streets to collect material for salvage. Scraps of cloth or paper could be turned into cardboard, broken glass is melted and reused, even dead cats and dogs are skinned to be re-used. The rag pickers do not recycle the material themselves, they collect and whatever they find, they turn it to a master rag picker (usually a former rag picker), who in turn sells it by weight, to investors with the means to convert it to something more profitable. They start as early as five years and are illiterate and susceptible to diseases and bad habits like chewing tobacco, alcohol and drugs. Children working as rag pickers do not come under the 1986 Child Labour Act, so it is difficult to take them out of this environment.
India tops the list with the highest number of child labourers in the world. Child labourers of the age of 5-14 years are said to be 17 million in a 2001 census. The informal labour force statistics however puts the number at 60 million children as "hidden workers" working in homes or in the underground economy.
Organized begging involves the abduction of children and is known as the begging mafia all across India. An actual number of child abductions is around one million a year. Children are maimed and then sent to beg by the begging mafia. The hearts of the mafia greedy for money is such that they are blinded to this being a heinous crime.
Jesus says that the love of money is the root of all evil. He also says that it is better for a person that a millstone was hanged on his neck and that person was put into the sea than that he or she should offend the children. Stern words for anyone who thinks that they can get away with it, there is a judgment ahead after this life...there is only one life and after that is the judgment.
I have gratitude in my heart towards God that He gives us opportunities to serve children and to make a place for them where they can grow in an atmosphere of peace. God gives grace to us when we love and respect the dignity of children and allow them to grow up as good citizens of the country we live in. You can watch the video here.
