The Life Of Poor Destitute, Orphaned Children

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Life can be cruel many a times to young children. The most comforting and safe place which is the parents are not there for them as either they are destitute or are orphans. They have nowhere to go or no place where they stay which they can call a home.  There are many reasons why children end up in these unfortunate situation. Either the parents of the child would have passed away due to some accident or they would have been dumped by the parents due to their sex and gender. One more reason the parents who are alive do this is because the child may be unwell and they have exhausted all the resources to take care of the child’s health issue and the household.

This makes them wash off their hands as they consider the child as difficult to manage financially. So here it is a case of hopelessness, poverty, health, financial problems and mental tensions a combination of all of these and others. This is a very complicated situation which many families and children undergo and children are the worst sufferers. Let us study different situations as to why such a thing takes place in the first place and how in some cases things have ended in  a fairy tale way and in most cases it is a road of life filled with thorns for the child.

In some cases when the mother of a child passes away the father would marry again and would get a new family in these cases the step mother treats the children whose mother is no more as a sort of a burden and while she takes care of her children either from the present marriage or the earlier one well these children are ill treated and mercilessly beaten. Unable to endure this torture the children whose mother has passed away runaway from the home and start living on the streets of cities and railway platforms.

The risk involved are they may come into contact with gangs who are involved in child trafficking. Once they are stuck in these people’s hands life becomes virtual hell for the children as they are told to beg, given less food, sometimes their hands and legs are broken or their eyes damaged so that they can earn more due to their appearance. They end up in this hell hole all through their life and can never escape the eyes and watch of their keepers who are ruthless. There is nothing called a ray of hope in the lives of these children.

In some cases the destitute, orphaned or runaway children are lucky enough not to fall into the hands of these child traffickers. But they end up rummaging the garbage dumps and collect the garbage like plastics, paper and metals etc. and sell the same in the evening to the wholesaler who will give them a fixed price for their daily collection. Such children stay near places like railway stations, huts, sleep opposite the shops on the pavements in the night and are again back to work in the morning with their bag.

Whenever some child welfare department people of the government approach and try to help them they run away as they are happy with their life and do not want to lose their freedom and their daily earnings which they earn. The age group of these children can be between 4 to 14 years some have to even take care of their brothers and sisters. Luckily there are some homes run by social welfare groups which allow these children to sleep in a safe place, give them food and clothes and the children do not want to stay there even if told they would be taken care off. The reason when asked is they like roaming around collecting garbage as they can see places and it fetches them money which can be used by them. Some of them are used to smoking too. These children are slowly tried to be weaned away from these habits.

In some other cases where the orphaned children are taken care of by distant relatives who themselves are not of a strong financial background. Due to the greed for money these people end up selling these agencies to placement agencies when they reach the age of around 12 to 16  sometimes even less than that. These placement agencies play a hefty price for those children to their relatives. The children are given false information that they are being taken to the city to be admitted in a very nice school where they can pursue their studies and become big in life.

Once they reach the city they are contracted to people who would want maids or servants by the placement agencies for a hefty annual price. Their they are made to do things which even elders find it difficult to do. The food served is very less and the punishment by the owners if something goes wrong is severe many a times their hands are broken and they are burnt too with hot rods. The most disgusting part is all these people who employ them have their own children and behave in this manner. They are aware of the laws and the consequences but still would do such illegal things.

These children’s life gets snuffed there itself as they will is broken and they resign themselves to such a fate for which they are in now way responsible.  In some cases things prove to be lucky as neighbors or others who see this inform the police and child welfare department and they are saved in the nick of the time. But many remain stuck in the quagmire for their entire life. Nowadays many citizens are reporting these cases and the perpetrators of the crime are getting caught and jailed which is a welcome change.

In some cases the child when still an infant lands in the house of a person due to fate and by circumstance when left alone or when roaming on the roads. At that time this person mostly  who  happens to be a woman picks her up and takes very good care of the child and feeds them well all there requirements are fulfilled  and they find there are similar other children in that place and they are in a happy mood. So the child reposes full trust on the woman and listens to what she tell them to do.

But one thing is observed that they are never sent to school to study and are taught fine arts like singing, dance and other crafts etc. Which they learn happily. Once they mature into young girls they are taken to parties where they are displayed and people who are the age of the child’s father or grand father are the ones who come seeking for such children. They too are introduced as some distant relative of the woman taking care of her and are taken to different places on tour which they thoroughly enjoy. Once their confidence is gained these people make the children who are mature to indulge in unwanted and despicable acts for which they are rewarded with materialistic things.

These children end up thinking that this is the life which one should live. What else is required we are getting good food, visiting good places, going on tours, being given expensive gifts and what not. What else would one want from life when life is so beautiful and colorful. Little do they know that they are being abused and what is being done to them is a crime. They feel they are on the right path as every who is with the woman is doing the same thing. These people do not have contact with the outside world and are always under the watchful eyes of the people appointed by the woman who takes care of them. It is a ironic and difficult things where instead of become ashamed on feels happy for what happens. As they have been taught things from their childhood that way. This is not limited to the girl child only but even boys are subject to this sort of treatment. This is a big worldwide industry which disgusting to say the least. The sooner the world cracks down on these cartels and syndicates the better it is for the whole world.

In a few other cases these children land up in the hands of  industries like cracker manufacturing, textile, garment, diamond polishing, woman’s accessories, bangles, brick kilns and other related industries. These industries are not the standard big companies but the ones in the rural villages and sometimes in the cities too which are not seen to exist in the registers of the labour department. Basically they are illegal fly by night operators. Here these young children are made to work for more than 16 to 18 hours a day in hazardous conditions. Food and facilities served to them are limited. They are used as bonded labour and shifted from one place to another to evade the eyes of the law. They face a very tough time till someone in the labour welfare department or some government official or some citizen who works for this cause comes to their rescue. The reason they are used is their hands are small and tiny compared to elders and are suitable for such a work. The amount to be paid to them is also less as wages. Whereas elderly people have to be paid as per law and they can defend and protect themselves compared to children.

There are a few lot of these poor destitute and orphaned children who land at the right place and at the time. As someone from the social welfare departments spots them or a member of child welfare stumbles upon them on the streets or the police, some government officials or some well meaning citizen of the country, NGO comes across them and takes them to a child rescue home where all food, education, accommodation and other skills are imparted to these children and they grow up into a good citizen and a human resource for the nation and are very proud to be serving the motherland in their jobs.

Many of these children work for the cause of saving their own kind who have not seen prosperity and are in the clutches of bad and crooked characters. They make it a mission of their life to work for this noble cause and change the lives of many like them for the better. Many such children are in very high ranking posts due to their capability, hard work, dedication. How nice would it be if we were able to track all these destitute and orphaned children before they get stuck in problems.