June 09, 2005
Kindergarten CopNews
Honestly, you just have to ask yourself one question. Do you feel lucky punk? SM tipster Sabeena alerts us to this story at the BBC.
At a time when most children prepare to go to school, Saurabh Nagvanshi is off to the office.
Saurabh works at a police station in Raipur, the capital of India’s central state of Chhattisgarh. He is five years old.
He is part of an Indian system that allows a family member to take the post of a government employee who dies while in service.
There is no age limit and many families have no alternative but to send young children to work to make ends meet.
Saurabh has to feed a family of five and so his mother, Ishwari Devi Nagvanshi, holds his hand and takes him the 110km (68 miles) from Bilaspur, where they live, to Raipur.
Rest assured, Saurabh has been known to strike fear into the dark hearts of criminals:
He is quiet. If you try to talk to him he will either run away or hide behind his mother.
All joking aside this is a story that tugs at the heartstrings. There are a number of children in predicaments similar to that of Saurabh’s who are covered in the article. The money they bring in is a necessity for their poor families, but it comes at the expense of their childhood. Some human rights groups are raising objections to the system:
Subhash Mahapatra, president of a human rights organisation called Forum for Fact-finding, Documentation and Advocacy, goes further.
According to the Geneva Convention, he says, employing children as police officials and making them work at such a young age is against Indian and international laws.
“It is very similar to the definition of child soldiers as outlined by the United Nations,” he says.
abhi on June 9, 2005 12:26 PM in News · T·r·a·c·k·b·a·c·k address · Direct link · Email post
Can't the police department like just give the family some sort of stipend instead of making the kid work? Like I doubt the kid can do much useful work anyway.
I think they considered this and found it entirely too sensible.
I think we will put this kid incharge of our won Operation Meth Merchant project !!!
Whatever happened to the kid's right to education.
I wonder if this is not just a mistake by the journalist. Actually, I wish that it is.
Please tell me this is an April fool's day joke showing up 3 months late. :-/
So sad. . .I could see how possibly the police department couldn't afford to provide a proper pension to widows and orphans, but the other officers should be ashamed of themselves for getting their tea served to them by destitute orphans. That's just ridiculous.
And he has the most paavum smile too :(
Finally someone who is upto the task of tackling the really tough cases like this and this.
paavum?! Is it just me or are there more mallus around here these days?
Why can't the mother take the position instead?
Yeah, this sounds like no one wins. The public gets one less capable police officer, the other police have to pick up the slack, and the child misses out on his education/normal life.
I have doubts about this story. Normally dependents are eligible to take the job, in place of the employee, when they turn 18 or 21.
Friends,
Why u dont send your comments to ALOK, contributer BBC ? his Address is avl on many site. I got his id- alokputul@rediffmail.com
Thanks mr ghosh.