Poetic Voices on Child Rights

Poetry for tomorrow

Name of the book: Poetic Voices on Child Rights

Edited by: Noel Manuel

Publisher: Dimensions Publishing

Pages: 67

As you sow, so you reap. A society that teaches its future generation to be responsible and sensitive is bound to reap its benefits.

The 4th Northeast Poetry Festival on Child Rights organised by the United Tribal Society this year is a commendable effort towards creating awareness in society — among parents, educators, social workers, public leaders and children themselves — on child rights.

The festival also encourages poetic expressions while making children aware of their rights and that of those around them — to education, nutrition, health & care, survival, development, recreation, name and nationality, expression and information, and protection from exploitation, abuse and neglect. These have been compiled in a book, Poetic Voices on Child Rights.

The maturity of the children as they observe their environment, perceive the plight of underprivileged children and their choice of words as they express themselves is amazing.

They feel the pain of children who toil in places other than school, whose haversacks are filled with garbage instead of books, from whom rainbows and fairy tales have been snatched in lieu of a penny.

They feel the loneliness and helplessness of a childhood lost in dark bylanes and an adult world, the death of dreams under the burden of poverty as frail shoulders take on responsibilities beyond their capacity.

The little poets speak for a child’s right to a decent life full of love, support, opportunities and hope and even of a foetus waiting to be born.

They protest injustices like child trafficking and inequalities of class, opportunities and gender despite every child being born free.

They question the yawning gap between legislation and reality.

They reflect upon the role of a mother and a teacher in a child’s life and ponder upon how we can help deprived children in “our own little ways”.

Adult voices call for providing rights to less privileged children as one would to one’s own. They speak of protection and promotion of children’s right and denounce exploitation and abuse of “god’s precious creations”. They ask parents and teachers to be sensitive to a child’s world.

Indeed, if children can grow up with the sensitivity they express and if adults support the building blocks of society, every child in our country would surely have his/her rights for mere legislation cannot ensure children’s happiness. It lies in others’ feelings and a sense of justice, in the will to take that one step which could bring a smile to a child’s lips and a twinkle to his/her eyes.

Noel Manuel, director of Dimensions — School of Poetry, a project of the United Tribal Society, and editor of Poetic Voices on Child Rights, puts it aptly:

Let our hearts sing for children’s needs

Let our tears water these neglected seeds

For today is ours but tomorrow is theirs

Let us do our bit even if no one cares.

SWATI AGARWAL