Oct
21
I wish a Happy Diwali-New Year to all my readers. Please take a moment and ponder over the aspects of bursting crackers. Diwali is a celebration; what are we really celebrating? Does the generation in schools know why they are bursting crackers?
My major concerns about crackers:
- Our kids in schools get a vacation during Diwali, whereas the poor children who make crackers in the factories of Sivakasi have to work overtime during/before Diwali. They have to work under tyrant employers, who don’t provide any safety equipment or gloves. If we keep on purchasing crackers, the factories stay in business and these poor kids continue getting exploited.
- Households are cleaned and painted (or wall-papered) to have a pristine atmosphere during Diwali days. However, the crackers that are burst simply add to the litter on the streets.
- Diwali is a festival of lights (lights, lamps, lanterns, rangoli, etc.). However it has become a festival of sound and air pollution. The toxic fumes of the crackers and the really loud noises of the “bombs” burst on the streets are in no way related to Diwali. Its an unreasonable nuisance that we have to put up with every single year. Already, vegetation is scarce in urban areas, and we add the smoke from crackers as if the polluting vehicles weren’t enough.
- The amount of money simply blown off in smoke on account of crackers could probably be put to a more meaningful cause (your favourite charity or feed the hungry, help sponsor somebody’s school education, etc.)
- If we don’t care about fellow human beings, how the hell can we bothered to care for the animal kingdom? Simply go up to your building terrace in the evening around sunset time and notice what happens to the birds with every single cracker that is burst. They are terrified for their lives. The flock of birds who would have normally flown across in a beautiful formation are now panic-struck and fly in random directions under sheer chaos. What about the other animals? How does your pet feel? Animals also have life. Even they are sensitive to loud noises. Why have we forgotten such a basic thing.
Happy Diwali, I am not asking you to change somebody else, at least do what you feel is human and right. Educate your kids about the absurdness of wasting money on crackers.
Some kinds of crackers maybe appropriate for certain celebrations, however crackers as a whole do much more harm than anything positive.
Comments
7 Responses to “Diwali: Festival of Child Labour, Pollution and Insensitivity”
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hmm..Diwali, if i remember correctly, was a celebration…it was one which marked the end of a dark period in our history..and celebrated the return of Ram. It symbolised the dispelling of darkness which meant injustice, inequality, despair…
but today diwali can be seen on a cardpaper box with a shapely female endorsing a loud bang…we have lost our true purpose of celebrating this festival..if it does feel so important to us this should be a time when we all should pledge to rid our country of the evils which are plaguing the land…a time when ew should stop child labour, not promote it…a time when we promise our future generations a blue ky…not a grey one…
its high time we educated ourselves and the kids about what diwali truly means..
Hey Pranav.. thanks I couldn’t have put down my own thoughts better than that!
I’ve been opposed to Diwali crackers for as long as I can remember now… maybe since I was in the 5th or 6th standard when I first heard the appaling stories about kids who work in these factories.
Although every year papers run these stories about schools students’ pledging not to burst crackers, I havent noticed any difference in the noise levels or anything. Its really sad… and I wish there was more we could we could do to take them off it.
Hi Pranav. Your thoughts are inspiring and are appreciated. I wish you success in your efforts. Needless to say I am supporting your views wholeheartedly.
Happy Diwali !
so true… was a thought provoking read. i persoanlly feel that the media can have a big role to paly in this… if we encourage teh right kind of values…a nd shift focus fm crackers being the only source of enjoyment in diwali… but it will be a gradual change.
Dear Pranav
A thought provoking wish. However much you try to bring about change it is difficult to do so because just when you have convinced one segment there is another segment which strongly believes that it should burst crackers and then the segment which has refrained all along loses its cool and goes and bursts all the pent up crackers at one go
If we do want the crackers to stop we need do the education program from Makar sankranthi when is the time the Manufacturing activity kind of begins
We need to create a campaign in on the net where people will pledge they would not burst crackers and not allow their children to do so and vice versa. The manufacturers should see the dread and feel that the business is not going to be worth while and look at other avenues for business
When they see the shift then we would be sucessful in bringing about change. How many of us who when we have kids will be able to stop him or her from bursting crackers especially when the whole neighbourhood is going bonkers bursting crackers. We might say by age 7 he will stop but then every child till age seven is going to burst and that is enogh to keep th market alive
The answer is not so simple . We need to work for atleast three to four years before we can bring change in the society on this matter of crackers
Anyways wishing you a happy and prosperous new Year
Ofcourse Happiness and Prosperity you need to define it yourself
All the best
I agree its a major change which people simply will not be willing to make. Also peer pressure would get the best of school kids who would want to burst crackers for fun.
However, no decision in life is simple. The more noble the cause, the more difficult the choices. I don’t intend to urge you all to change the world. We are outnumbered already. But at least we can be the change that we desire to see. For example: We know that people will continue littering in the trains and on the streets, does that mean even we should litter?
When the seven year old grows up to a 16-year old, most of his friends would be trying out their 1st drag of smoke or their 1st sip of alcohol and when he is in senior college (18-year old adult), his peers could be onto hashish or acids… what wud we do then?
I do understand that a few posts on the internet and a few articles in the print media or even Public service announcements on TV channels will not change things even by 1%. However the most influential medium is WORD OF MOUTH.
This post is being read by approx. 30-35 people I know, who will connect with what I have to say and some more people whom I don’t know would also share the same thoughts. So if I can reach out to them I think I have done my part. Indeed that would translate to contentment and define my happiness.