Children’s day letters: November 14, 2014

Future leaders

Today is celebrated as Children’s Day in India and on this day, through Gulf News letters section, I would like to emphasise the importance of welfare, education, and a safe and happy childhood for children globally. Children have a right to education, to enjoy their childhood playing, studying and eating - not working as child labourers. We should abstain from hiring children or minors as labourers of any kind. Parents also should try to be friendly with their children to understand their needs and respond to them in the best way. Having said that, I would also like to say that even children hold the responsibility to learn moral values from their parents, learn sincerely from their schools and to develop communicative, social and other personality skills by involving in various social, humanitarian and environmental events and campaigns. After all, children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. The future of our nations is in our hands, so we the children and youth should utilise our childhoods to emerge as great leaders. Happy Children’s Day to all!

From Mr Arushi Madan

Sharjah

Promoting togetherness

Today is celebrated as Children’s Day in India, and it is followed by the Universal Children’s Day celebrated on November 20th to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide. Hence, a few of us decided to surprise our children by giving them a party at Zabeel Park recently. We organised for some games and snacks and also gave each child a helium balloon wherein they could write a message and send it heavenwards.

From Ms Vishakha Sanghavi

Dubai

Every child’s right

SynergY, a group of inspiring children and youth will be taking action today and making a difference in Dubai. We are gathering nearly a hundred students from different schools having a common thought that brings them together: “A healthy environment is every child’s right.”

Some of the participants are barely six years old, but they are eager to participate and they don’t like people making the parks dirty. The older children understand and strongly stress on raising awareness about the environmental issues that matter to their generation as the first call they need to make. Climate change is happening, humans are causing it and this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us. It’s all of our responsibility to leave this planet in better shape for the future generations.

Creating a world that is truly fit for children does not imply simply the absence of war or giving them a place to live and grow up. It means having the confidence that our children would have a healthy and safe environment. It means having access to clean water and proper sanitation. It means having primary schools nearby that educate children, free of charge. It means giving every girl child the right to remain a girl and not be forced to be a bride. It means changing the world with children, safeguarding their right to participate and that their views are heard and considered. It means structuring a world fit for children, where every child can grow into adulthood in health, peace and dignity.

From Ms Simran Vedvyas

Dubai

Tackling child labour

Despite India’s boasts of economic progress, poverty ridden post-independent India is yet to see respite for its burgeoning child labour problem. Ever since the country decoupled from colonialism, the programs and policies drafted by the successive governments to rehabilitate the children born in an economically fragile society has been in vain. The country’s stakeholders, who are often driven by the appetite of the affluent, are indifferent to the needs of hapless people, except on occasions of exercising their franchise. Harbouring them in abject poverty is seemingly a boon for high-end society to run their factories or redeem their domestic chores by luring the ill-fated children for a meagre price that rips them of their basic rights and entitlements.

Should anyone volunteer to empower these unfortunate groups to embrace a better life, the corporate lobby wields their invisible power on the bureaucrats to check such practice in order to protect the cheap and hassle-free labour source. Whatever enactments that have been legislated by the government to benefit the toiling children is not going to reap benefits unless there is a strong willed drive to engage such enactments into a reality.

From Mr Salim Panthodi

Abu Dhabi

Giving children their rights

This is a very sensitive, broadly misunderstood, vast and important subject to discuss. Like everyone, children have rights. It is not their choice to be born in any environment that they are born into. Though the list is big, I would like to list out few simple examples. Children have the right to speak out, but do we let them? Elders have experience and hence, we ask the child to listen to what they are told. Children have the right to eat what they want, but do we let them? Elders know what food is good and what is bad, despite ingesting unhealthy food ourselves. Children have the right to play and not work, but in under-developed countries, elders are unable to provide for their children and hence we get child labour. Children have the right to live. Many organisations strive to provide for such children.

From Mr Ramaprasad Macharlu Srinivasamurthy

UAE

Creating something special

The UAE is a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural extravaganza of skyscrapers, high-rise buildings, shopping malls and man-made islands! It is a rapidly developing economy and one of the most desired tourist destinations. It is the one and only UAE - my home away from home.

Half a century ago, Dubai was only a focal point where a few thousand people lived their life collecting dates, diving for pearls or sailing in wooden dhows to trade with port nations. After 1971, Dubai emerged as one of the seven semi-autonomous states within the UAE and turned out to be a rising force in the Middle East. The city has emerged from a fishing village to the fastest growing city in the world.

Today, it is a trading, business and financial hub in the Middle East. It is one of the rare places where one can witness the harmonious existence of tradition and modernity together. It is a place filled with a million opportunities. Dubai is a thriving ambitious hub that sees itself in the most positive of lights: a city that has succeeded in bringing people together from all over the globe to be a part of history regardless of nationality, ethnicity and background.

I have always been very patriotic about the UAE. It might not be my motherland, but it is home to me. The UAE National Day is in just over two weeks. I express my complete gratitude to all the leaders of the UAE for their great efforts in developing the country and preserving the diversity and culture of the nation.

From Ms Fidha Palamthalakkal

Dubai

Passing corruptions

Kerala is the top literate state in India, but unfortunately this state is the target of corrupt people or we can say that the corruption in Kerala is more exposed than any other state in India because of the excessive number of television channels (‘Where is the evidence in bribery allegation, asks Chandy,’ Gulf News, November 9). The sad part of this story is that Kerala’s corruption remains only ‘breaking news’ for television channels. The culprits, who are mainly politicians, are seemingly never being punished. The once much publicised solar scam is fading from the news channels with the latest news about bar bribery allegation against Kerala’s finance minister. The importance of this news will remain for few days until the media gets a new scandal!

From Mr V.H. Unnikrishnan

Dubai

A common spider

The spider featured in this article looks much like a common garden spider that hang around by the dozens in the UK gardens between the months of September and November (‘Woman dies after bite from false widow spider,’ Gulf News, November 10)! However they are not aggressive or poisonous spiders, and they certainly won’t come into the house, as they do their best to avoid people and pets. They can give you quite a nip if you touch them with your hands, so it is always good to avoid them if you have allergies or other skin sensitivities!

From Ms Sarah Louise

Sharjah

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