A Lesser God

Yesterday, while waiting for the Churchgate fast local to arrive at Dadar station, I noticed a man pouring white-ink (generally used for correcting/covering written mistakes) into handkerchiefs of about four boys no older than 10 years of age, in exchange of money.

This correction fluid contains Toluene, which contains benzodiazepines and other substances that are listed as psychotropic substances in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985.

The peddler and the boys hopped in the handicapped compartment. Once in the train I called the police from my cellular phone and told the man who answered about the incident and asked him if anything could be done at the next station, which was yet about four minutes away. He said he’d see if anything could be done. I knew what that meant: nothing.

It was really young kids there, kids who are supposed to receive free and compulsory education from the Government from the age of six through fourteen years. And they were picking rags and buying psychotropic substances. So, many people saw what was happening and conveniently chose to look away as if it was none of their concern. So, I got off my first class compartment and caught hold of the peddler by his collar and three kids (one managed to run away) and called the police, which took its sweet time to arrive (well, at least they did). Meanwhile a crowd had gathered around us and it became easier to hold on to them.

Well, the peddler was arrested, and the kids were sent for a medical check-up.


Right to Education is a fundamental right every individual from six through fourteen years of age have. And this right is not what one would generally associate with –it cannot be renounced; it is an obligation. Actually, let me just quote Article 21A of the Constitution of India.

“The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the state may by law determine”

So, if we look at it logically, the education that the Nation thus guarantees (forget the implementation), is until a child attains the age of fourteen (which is also the age beyond which a person can be legally employed), must enable the child with skills and ability to sustain himself and his family with a respectable standard of living. If we look at the education provided to children between six and fourteen, we realize, is nothing except building a foundation for higher studies, which is not guaranteed!

If you’re Indian, you definitely know that children are produced so that they can help feed the family, two extra palms to earn by putting them forward, before air-conditioned car windows and crowded trains. Why is it that their producers would send them to schools?

This, unfortunately, is not the end of the irony. Add to all of the above, reservations and quotas to “Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC)”.

Who exactly comes under the umbrella of “backward classes”? The lower castes of an era immemorial. So, a rich student who falls, by virtue of birth, in one the above-mentioned categories, belongs to a backward class, whereas a Brahmin living in a shanty in Dharavi, without two square meals to eat is not!

The two hypotheses of enabling children of a lesser God to lead a respectable life by providing free and compulsory education on one hand and providing for quotas on a basis illogical on the other, seem to be outrageously at disparity, to say the least.


Well, the peddler was arrested, and the kids were sent for a medical check-up. Will they be sent to school? Even if they are, will it help? There are tens of thousands such children in Mumbai itself.

Actually, there is every probability that these kids are sent to an inhumanly overcrowded remand home where they might just be subjected to further abuse. Or maybe a social service organization might take up their welfare.

I shall pray. However, we can do more.