[Reader-list] The Cry for a call: Helpless city

[Syed Yunus]

Nithari event has been shown on national media and the because of the
complexities involved it is creating a lot of pressure on various
groups.. and creating a lot of opportunities for various( welfare
organisations) groups to show their presssure and presense. for
example the less known child rights organisations are creating public
awareness and demanding justice, the well know orgaisations are
designing new projects  to protect children from trafickers and organ
trade, the 'ill known organisations' are looking at it to gain their
lost image, and mental health professionals are giving their
justificatification and theories and lobbyng for their space in varous
deparments.. in short like 'ME' everybody has something to say.
And  I  sometimes look at this city as helpless and try to draw
certain pattern. for example in last on week I met represetatives of
three different organisation working with children. Drawing from all
the confusion I gathered from them I came to know that everybody is in
pressure. The CBI has a task to perfom, the Ministry for women and
children  has announced anganwadi and creches for Nithari and suddenly
Delhi has been decorated with helpline  boards of  'childline 1098'
the DTC buses has been painted with its AD, a campaign has been
launched by the child rights organisation for two minute silent
condolence on 25 january, so on and so forth.
Similar announcements were made By Minister Renuka chaudhry after the
amendment in child labour regulation and abolition act oj 10 october,
when the question of  rescue and rehabilitation of child labours was
raised by the'civil society'. she said that "we have the 1098
childline to take care of rescued children". the answer was good
enough to reslease the pressure mounted on state.
Following my gut feeling I went to the childline office and came to
know that pretty soon a childline will be set up in NOIDA. a friend
said that " It has nothing to do with the investigation of Nithari but
we are going to visit and search some good organisations tommorrow''.
these cues only make my belief more strong that helplines are used  by
the state as  'safety valve' . you might remember that similar crises
helpline was set up nationally to console farmers affected from the
agrarian crises, that time numerous sucides by the farmers in vardha &
other areas created a similar panic . However the onus was put on the
farmers as individuals with 'less stress coping skills' and the
exploitative agricultural policies were given a clean chit.
It is assumed that just by openeing a helpline for a particular issue
all the help required  will be provided to the needy. so at every time
of crises dont cry for help! but CRY for  a CALL.


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Change is the only constant in life !