Drishti does it again for Child Rights week!

Kofi Annan always manages
to hit gold with his strong words. “There is no trust more sacred
than the one the world holds with children,” he has said. “There
is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected,
that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear
and want and that they can grow up in peace.”

It’s often very easy
to grow oblivious to the needs of children less fortunate than us, especially
when we’re armed with the trendiest clothes, the finest education
and wonderful homes. So with July 8^th to 12^th
rolling around, CSA determined to uphold child rights week by holding
a number of activities in honour of the child. Among these many and
varied activities was a performance put up by Drishti, the street
theatre team, which sought to tell spectators that millions of children
all over the world are being denied their rights.

The multilingual street
play, which was performed at different locations of the college including
the main auditorium and the kiosk, focused on all the rights that many
children don’t enjoy today. Among these was the right to education,
denied to children who are forced to work as bonded labourers and yet
are paid less than adults. The play also tried to instill a consciousness
in spectators about issues like child abuse and forced beggary, and
children’s lack of freedom to express their feelings and thoughts
about their lives. The play ended with a call to contribute to the child
sponsorship programme which the college takes up every year, helping
over 2000 children to receive an education they otherwise would have
no access to.

Vishal Mathew, a first
year Journalism student who was part of the performance, said while
talking about this experience, “I am really glad that I could contribute
to making a difference, big or small. I believe that every child deserves
the best, and I hope that there will now be more people who will come
to think the same way through this play.” Akhil, another participant,
added that it really gets to him to see children working and begging;
he wondered how, especially in a happening city like Bangalore, people
could be so blind to the situations some children find themselves in.

With the ‘week that
was’ behind us now, we are left to ponder over several questions-Will
we ever learn to empathise with those little ones who come to us begging
for loose change? When will the world wake up and realise that though
little hands work cheaper, the price we pay later is higher, and so
take up the cause to love and care for these children?

Drishti’s
play was just one reminder in many that children have the all-important
right of being protected against abuse and the denial of their rights.
In the words of Carol Bellamy, the executive director of UNICEF, “in
serving the best interests of children, we serve the best interests
of all humanity.”

By Georgina Elizabeth Paul, Sampreetha and Bhavana