Child Who Works In a Hotel

Today’s story is about a boy who works in a hotel .Yesterday, it was his birthday and he turned 17.His name is Vishal*. He failed in standard 10^th. His dad works as a washer man and his mother is a housewife in his hometown. He came from other state to Mumbai. He has been here for 1.5 years. Now he lives in hotel where he works. He works Every day from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. He only gets 2 hours for rest.

We asked him “Did you come here voluntarily or your parents force you to?” He replied “No! I forced my parents to let me go.” He was able to answer that who is prime minister of India. But he was not able to answer, what are child rights and human rights? Then Akash asked him “Do you know what your rights are?” He answered, “I have no rights, but I’ll make my own rights.” He also said he came here (Mumbai) because he felt that there were financial problem in his house. He has 2 younger brothers. He thinks responsibility means for him is to take care of his family. We asked him, “don’t you think it is your parent’s responsibility to take care of you?” He said, “Sometimes parents face problems (financial) but are not comfortable asking their children to leave their education and start working.”

At the beginning of our interview we asked him “do you go to school?” He said, “No I don’t go to school I left my school when I failed in 10^th standard. But I want to go because my aim is to become a businessman.” He craves to study further but because of his job he can’t study. 

After this talk we had some questions in our mind: Why are people giving chance to their children so that they force them to let them work? Why can’t our friends, teacher etc. think about friends or students?  Like this child who had low confidence when he failed,

why could his friend or teachers not motivate him in a positive way? Isn’t it is our responsibility?

* The name of the child is changed to maintain privacy.

Image source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071127/hry3.jpg