Today, when every news channel in the country was playing
out their breaking news, “Nobel peace prize for Kailash Satyarthi, Malala ” , I
was just wondering who this Kailash Satyarthi was! The name sounded Indian and the following reports confirmed it. But this man was a total
stranger to my brain! And I was feeling a bit ashamed of my ignorance. But very
soon, I realized that it was not my mistake ;) He is not a film star, not a politician, not a
cricket player and not even a criminal. So, he was never ‘eligible’ to be in the news
according to Indian media for 30 years, I guess!
‘Bachpan Bachao
Andolan’ or Save the Childhood movement was found by this man in 1980. And I
was born 9 years after this. Internet sources say that about 80,000 child slaves were saved by this remarkable movement till date. Two of BBA's activists have even
been killed in the past during their fight for child rights. One was shot and another beaten to death for raiding
and preventing employers from exploiting innocent children. The man himself, Kailash Satyarthi was attacked several times. All these sacrifices for our future generation and I don't even know this man. Ashamed. :(
You think our country is on the right path? I think it’s going down. Simply because our priorities are upside down! There was a time when our national heroes, poets, and social reformers filled our papers…What about now? The information that is fed into our minds by media have very little sense and a heavy dose of sensationalism. When ‘sensation’ wins this battle of sense Vs sensation, it is we, who lose eventually. Our independence was just defined as the freedom from British rule. But since the day of independence, we are fighting new wars within our country. And people like Kailash Satyarthi are leading those fights. In every nook and corner of this country…there are many such heroes, who are striving day and night for liberating thousands of chained souls.
Are we not responsible to
support them? What social media
revolution are we boasting about, if we are not even aware of our own Andolans? Why does the media fail to enlighten us? How come our government failed to recognize a man like Kailash Satyarthi for 3
decades?
I hope
that one day, I will wake up and read reports about all these brave warriors in
the front page. I hope that one day we will all join these andolans and fight
for the liberation of our country from social evils. We don't need 'cleavage' journalism..we need a clean age journalism. :)
"Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody "
