Children are probably most blessed beings in the world. Should I use 'are' or 'were'? With the ever growing civilization, the 'childhood' is getting shorter day by day. Now the question arises that who should be called a 'child'.
According to chronological aspect and government's child development scenario, a human being aged between 5-11 years is a child. But is the chronological information enough about a 'child'? Probably not. A child should be defined as a human being with no pressure of future, a human being who is the leader of his/her own reign of imagination, a human being not haunted by daily chaos and threats of grown-up's world and moreover a child is bouned by utter most security of parents and other family members. And this state in a person's life is called 'childhood'.
Everyone must be thinking that threats to childhood is related to only child labour. No, it is not all about child labour. Here we will talk about a different kind of threat that is still not considered to be a dangerous one. Though the childhood in general is in danger across the whole world, it is mostly affected in third world countries. The growing economy of developing countries requires a lot of skillful person. In a country like India with such a huge population always creates a tough competition for grabbing and holding the creamy layer position in society. Parents of middle class or upper class, who are successful or unsuccessful (it doesn't matter) in their own life, want their offsprings to be successful at every aspect of life.
God knows what is important in being class topper in first or second standard. But nearly every Indian parents do want their children to become first always. Every parents put their children in the race. They set a goal from the very beginning of school life. They never know how much the goal haunts the child in nightmare, what immense pressure it creates on the soft hearts. Can we imagine that the thoughts of getting IIT or medical are being planted in the brain of a 9-10 years old boy/girl! The characteristics of 'childhood' just get destroyed. That is the threat to present day childhood.
The outer reference of fresh air for children varies time to time, era to era, person to person and place to place. But the inner value of fresh air is always same. Fresh air for a child is nothing but anything which makes the spare time of the child mesmerizing, joyful and works as a painkiller of all the pains of homework, coaching stuff etc. They can breathe as they want.
In earlier times, when a child grew up in a large connected family they get their fresh air from their story telling grandmother or grandfather. They did not have high priced gifts to play with but they had a lot space of imagination with their cheap clay toys. They went to playground with their friends and cultivated their childish imagination through idiotic (!) conversations.
Time changed. Comics and TV cartoons started to create another world of imagination for the children. The universe of Chhota Bheem, Sinchan, Doraemon, Tom and Jerry, Oggy and in another hand Harry Potter, Spider Man, and regional comics made their childhood full of joy and happiness.
Then the smart phone era starts. Busy scheduled parents with a lots of hope on their children give smartphones to their sons and daughters. They just take away all other forms of childhood refreshment. Children started to play Mobile games with a small area of imagination and it is not any wonder that those bored children with unlimited data connection on their phones easily get access to the forbidden garden of adult industry.
No doubt the last pin is stabbed on the coffin of childhood.
Hence, the childhood losses all its innocence joy, all the aspects of its wonderful world. Better to say the childhood dies.
So, the FRESH AIR needs to be kept fresh by parents and the society. Otherwise, childhood suffocates.
It's a request to all the parents and the guardians of this society, please keep Fresh Air for your little children. It will make their later life more joyful.