Children of Ganga

Anjum, Munna, Pintu, Hassan, Bimla, Kartik, Tamu… some rarely see their parents…some live with them, these children don’t share the same roof…but interestingly they share one common thread intimately related to their life … The River Ganga.

On either side of the river, children living by the ghats try to fill their life with some laughter in the games they play. Jumping into the river’s lap is their favorite sport. As a side activity, to earn some foods, they sell mud and the holy water, sometimes looks after the clothes and almost inexpensive slippers and draws out old and washed out structures of the waned idols immersed after the celebrations. Some picks up old plastic bags for further recycle and interestingly, some dives deep in search of  coins offered to the holy river by passing devotees. They are easily available and that’s why they are favorite to the group of miscreants. The reprobates often hire them for a little money and forcefully engage them for begging on the streets or uses them for sexual exploitation.

This obviously creates stress on these tender minds and to get a little relief, they often succumb to poisonous intoxication like sniffing petrol or toxic glues. Slowly and gradually when they grow up… if at all they can…