For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn

Yesterday, while shopping for shoes, I was reminded of a story my teacher once told me. It was about an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh who was a domestic help’s daughter. At thirteen, she rode a train for the first time, something I had done at two. She didn’t know what an airplane looked like up close or on the inside. She earned for a pair of shoes. She had never owned a pair, but looking at the feet of all the people who walked through the streets of the big city made her want one. Finally, some generous person her mother worked for gave her a pair.  When she got her first train ride to Kolkata, right after she took her place and the train and the train whistled off, she took off her shoes and sat on them. She wouldn’t wear them for they might get dirty and she wouldn’t keep them on the floor since she thought her Rs. 50 chappals would get stolen. Somehow, I was reminded of Ernest Hemmingways’s infamous six-word short story: ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’.

Destiny crosses the paths of people from different walks of life. Every morning, I see two kinds of children walking by my house. The first kind have well polished shoes with nice, tight socks underneath. The second kind are barefoot. In big cities, both co-exist as if they are symbionts. The difference between the two stares at us in the face, but we don’t seem to notice it. Somehow, we are used to the sight and see nothing wrong with it. We ourselves may not be able to imagine not having a room to ourselves, but we overlook the families that live under bridges, for whom basic things like shoes are a distant dream.

In Lost Springs, writer Anees Jung has highlighted the plight of ragpickers in her neighbourhood. She writes, ‘Wherever they find homes, they pitch their tents that become their transit homes. Children grow up in them, becoming partners in survival’. The children in question think life and struggle are synonymous. It’s a belief they have grown up with, but that doesn’t mean whatever dreams they have don’t go from being a cracked mirror to shattered glass. As children, they at least own their life. But soon, poverty snatches away their only true possession- their freedon. Their fate, quite unfortunately is sealed- they will live the life their parents lived. They don’t have the education to break out of their insufferable situation and although they do dare to dream, when given an option between survival and dreams, the former is the obvious choice. After all, it’s almost impossible to keep fighting for a simple thing like a better life when you have so much going against you. In short, they’re helpless.

Thinking about helplessness made me think of another set of helpless people. It’s the people who despite having a comfortable life dream of a better life for others. It is true that such people are rare, but exist they do. Just like ragpickers and beggers, they don’t have a strong organization to help them reach their goals. There are non-governmental organizations and charity groups, but up until now, neither have been able to come up with a permanent, innovative solution for the pathetic lives millions of children have to face these days. These people, despite having the desire, don’t know what to do to make the world a better place.

Blaming the government is something they have to resort to. Honestly, people who don’t care about children living in abject poverty are quite fine with blaming the government for everything too, but that’s abother matter. In many ways, they are right. India doesn’t have a childcare system half as good as developed countries. In fact, someone from a developed country like the scandinavian nations may think India doesn’t have a childcare system at all. But we also know the ones who graduate at the top of their class in college take a flight to the US or take a job that assures them of a luxurious apartment. Who wants to be stuck in the politics business?

So this is how the blame game and the accusations and the escapism continue to go in round circles while children who are still too young to understand the vicious cycle continue to beg on streets, barely clothes and barefoot.

Right now, the simplest thing to do would be to develop a good childcare plan. It’s no secret that laws passed for benefit of children are not implemented because some families are so poor they can’t help but force their children to work. Children with poor financial backgrounds should be taken under the wing of the state. Living facilities similar to hostels can be provided for them where their parents can come to see them whenever they want. Of course, this one suggestion is a big deal to implement since it needs to be assured that the children are always treated well and get exactly what they were promised- safe and healthy living quarters and an education to go with it.  Understandably, this will require a lot of money, but children are the future of the nation, so what could be more important than to ensure a future for them.

For people who really want to help, here is my advice- DON’T BE AFRAID. Yes, simple as it seems, it’s the first thing we all need to do. Even after we graduate from high school we somehow can never really get ourselves out of the place where the socially conscious, bright kids were the boring losers and the ones who got all the attention were not, well, deep. If you can’t speak out about what you would like to do, you will never find other people like you. If you don’t think you can bring up such serious topics confidently in conversations, write about it. Put Facebook to some good use and spread the noble message. Start a blog, if you wish. But no matter what you do, remember that you’re not alone. Who knows? Perhaps the next person you see looking forlornly out of the glass windows of a fancy shoe store is someone who shares your interests.