Tag: Children

Children: Our Tomorrow

The wealth of a nation lies not so much in its economical and natural resources but it lies more decidedly in its children and youth. It is they who will be the creators and shapers of a nation’s tomorrow. The children of today will be adult citizens of tomorrow. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers, leaders and activists. Their quality and personality will determine the kind of destiny that beckons the nation. Nelson Mandela has aptly said:

“Children are our greatest treasure. They are our future.”

It therefore becomes mandatory for every nation and every society to nurture a strong, healthy and intellectual childhood. The children have a boundless store of energy, will, capability, zeal and enthusiasm, and have the power to mould the destiny of the nation. And particularly in India, this store is available in abundance. The Indian population has this major advantage over the population of China or the rest of the world. So, this advantage has to be properly moulded and needs to be given appropriate direction. Development and upliftment of children is an important step, especially for poor and low income children. Investing in them in their early years will provide a foundation for future success with lifelong benefits for them, and economic and social benefits for our entire nation. Government of India has acknowledged this fact and has started with reforms to bring a change. It has been seen that not only non-poor, but poor children too perform well if they are provided with the right support.

There are so many examples around us, which show that it is not that only children of rich families help in the development of nation. There are many famous riches who had poor and gloomy childhood. Yet, today they are famous billionaires.

Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks was born in a government housing and his father was a truck driver. Sam Walton, founder of Walmart helped his family out by milking the cow and delivering newspaper. Famous Media person Oprah Winfrey was born into abject poverty but now is a well-known face. Dhirubhai Ambani, US President Barack Obama are all examples of such people who were born poor but found their way to the top of the world.

Right kind of education is the first step towards the upliftment of children. The education provided should be progressive, in keeping with the needs of the society and should not only create great professionals, but also great human beings. Academics should be taken care of along with adequate emphasis on sports, technical areas and other fields as per the interest of the students.

The ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’ (Education for All) is one such wonderful step taken by the government to brighten the future of poor and village children. Some NGO’s like CRY, Smile, Asha too are doing great work by providing education, rights, meals to poor children and their families. Social evils like child labour, drug addiction, child marriage, beggary, child abuse etc., also hamper the proper development of children. These rampant evils, if remain unchecked, will jeopardise and endanger the future of the country.

The government should take strict measures to ensure that children are enrolled in primary and secondary schools and should try to reduce the drop-out percentage. Child labour too should be strictly prohibited.

Children today are very smart and enlightened right from their early age. They are capable of many feats and accomplishments. All they need is proper channelisation of abilities, right guidance and training, and a desired environment. Given this, the posterity is sure to lead the nation to greater heights and newer worlds. We all are human beings and share the same planet.

Just as it is our responsibility to care for the environment for generations to come, we must also take responsibility for those children who were born into a world without the care and support what every child deserves. God has given us two hands, so we must use both of them to help these children. And let’s use our mouths too to advocate for their rights. Let us give them a better future and in turn give the world a better future.

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BOOKS FOR CHILDREN PART 2

Hi! If you have missed part 1 here is the link. CHECK IT OUT!

TIME TRAVELLING WITH A HAMSTER
BY ROSS WELFORD.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2016.
  • Genre – Science fiction.
  • Pages – 400.
  • Age – 10+
  • BUY NOW!

The concept of time travel is fascinating in itself. Right from the beginning, the novel hooks us up with the plot. On Al Chaudhury’s birthday, he receives a letter from his grandfather. The letter is from his late father. It has a mission to travel back to 1984 in a secret time machine to save his father’s life. The story uncovers the meaning of friendship and emotion. It is an unputdownable book.

REAL FRIENDS BY SHANNON HALE
AND LEUYEN PHAM.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2017
  • Genre – Memoir
  • Pages – 224
  • Age – 9+
  • BUY NOW!

Real friends is a middle-grade graphic novel about making friends. It is a memoir, following Shannon’s life from Kindergarten to Fifth grade. It is a roller coaster of emotions. The struggle of trying to stay in “the group” was portrayed without a filter. Who are real friends? Are they worth the journey? Do we need real friends? The book will answer such questions.

THE GIRL WHO DRANK THE MOON
BY KELLY BARNHILL.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2017
  • Genre – Fantasy fiction
  • Pages – 416
  • Age – 9+
  • BUY NOW!

To forget about reality, this book is perfect for children and adults too. The people of the town leave a baby in the forest, as an offering to the witches. But the witch is a good one, who lives with a swamp monster. Luna is the baby, due to an accident she gets extraordinary magic. The Multiple points of view make the story intriguing. Children who love magic and witches must read this book. The cover looks so pretty, we can give it a read just for the cover.

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN
BY KATHERINE APPLEGATE.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2015
  • Genre – Children’s Literature
  • Pages – 256
  • Age – 8+
  • BUY NOW!

A beautifully written story about Ivan, a gorilla. He has spent his life in Exit 8 shopping mall. He rarely thinks about his life in the forest until Ruby, a baby elephant arrives which changes his perspective. A book that deals with kindness, friendship, freedom and humour. This book must be on your children’s bookshelf. The characters will stay in our heart.

THE WILD ROBOT BY PETER BROWN.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2018
  • Genre – Fiction, Adventure
  • Pages – 288
  • Age – 9+
  • BUY NOW!

Roz the robot finds itself on an isolated island. She has zero ideas about her purpose. To survive, she must adapt to her new environment. It is a unique, surprising read for young readers. The language is simple and easy to follow. A touching book with interesting plot.

THE INDIAN IN THE CUPBOARD
BY LYNNE REID BANKS.

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2016
  • Genre – Adventure, Fantasy, Fiction
  • Pages – 240
  • Age – 8+
  • BUY NOW!

If your child likes Toy story movie, this is a must-read. The American-Indian toy in the cupboard gets life. It is a dream for Omri, he feels excited. He faces a life-changing decision. It is a gripping tale of a toy that has a life. As a kid, we all imagined a toy being alive and what it would be like?

Hope this helps, Thank you!

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN PART 1

Hey, y’all! Do you read books? If so, do you recommend books to your niece and nephew? Here are few books for 11 children.

I started to read pretty late in life. I do regret not getting into the world of books early but better late than never right!? The books for kids and children are adventurous, colourful, exciting and thrilling.

WHY SHOULD CHILDREN READ?

  • Books are our best friends.
  • To improve their imagination.
  • Enhance communication skills.
  • Learn new words and phrases.
  • A better understanding of the world.
  • Language development.
  • Cognitive skills.
CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY BY ROALD DAHL

PRODUCT DETAILS:

  • Published – 1979.
  • Genres – Children’s fiction, humour, fantasy.
  • Pages – 176 pages.
  • Age – 10+
  • BUY NOW!

Roald Dahl is a fabulous author whose books are fun to read. The writing style is easy, understandable and simple. Who doesn’t like chocolate!? The book gives us a joyous experience. The children would fall in love with Willy Wonka’s Factory. The characters are vivid and we kids can imagine the story completely.

THE GOPI DIARIES BY SUDHA MURTY

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2019 & 2021.
  • Genres – Children’s Fiction.
  • Pages – 104 & 136.
  • Age – 6+
  • BUY NOW!

Sudha Murthy is one of the best authors for children. Her stories are simple yet unique and absorbing. This book has a remarkable character Gopi – a dog, the story is said from his perspective. We can see the world through his eyes which is amusing. Children will learn kindness, compassion for animals through this. They also understand the dog’s needs. The illustrations are super cute.

THE 1000 YEAR OLD BOY BY ROSS WELFORD

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2018.
  • Genre – Fiction, Adventure.
  • Pages – 400.
  • Age – 12+
  • BUY NOW!

The cover is pretty isn’t it? An adventurous story about a boy who is fated to live forever. Alfie Monk can tell us what it is like to live forever. This is a child-friendly novel that would make the child think. The children can imagine and be spellbound by this beauty. You will never guess what’s coming in this one.

THE LITTLE PRINCE BY ANTOINE DE SAINT – EXUPERY

PRODUCT DETAILS

  • Published – 2016.
  • Genre –
  • Pages – 144.
  • Age – 6+
  • BUY NOW!

“All grown ups were once children…

But only few of them remember it.”

– Antoine De Saint-Exupery.

The Little Prince is not just for children but also adults. The story deals with friendship, loss, loneliness, and childhood. The illustrations are charming and one can’t put this book down. It teaches philosophy in simple words. We can learn a few things from this beautiful book. Every child should read it.

THE WIZARD OF OZ BY L. FRANK BAUM
  • Published – Hardcover(2019) Original(1900)
  • Genre – Fantasy, fiction.
  • Pages – 208.
  • Age – 9+
  • BUY NOW!

The edition is stunning! The story is pure fantasy and Dorothy stays with us every after the adventure ends. She feels like she is lost but she embraces the situation to take a thrilling journey. The magical land of Oz is mesmerizing.

Do you know that “The Wizard of Oz” was banned from libraries? It was, as it provides no values. I think books are not always meant to teach us something. Books are different so are we. It can be a reason to smile, live, dance, and it can also teach us values.

Thank you!

Teacher’s Day

When and Why teacher’s Day is celebrated?

Teacher’s day is celebrated on 5th September every year, because of the Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, who was the former president of India and he was born on this day.So to honour the memory of India’s first President and to commemorate the importance of teachers in our lives this day is celebrated every year.

About Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan

He was born on 5th September 1888. He was a great person, having many qualities in him ,he was a philosopher, educationalist, humanist as well as a religious thinker. He also wrote some of the books and out of them many were written on religion and philosophy topics .He is remarked as one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century ,and he is also remembered for introducing western philosophies into the Indian society,he was also appointed as a Spalding professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at the University of Oxford which is a great achievement,not only this he was nominated 16 times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and another 11 times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Importance of teachers

“If a country is to be corruption free and become a nation of beautiful minds, I strongly feel there are three key societal members who can make a difference. They are the father, the mother and the teacher.” – Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.With this wonderfully written quote we can see that teachers hold the same position as our parents have. We learn many a things from teachers not only about studies but also moral values, social etiquettes and what not , they are the most important building block of our personality .In success of every person’s life teacher play a very important role.

How do children celebrate this day?

Children in schools organise numerous of activities on this day ,to thank their teacher for playing such an important role in their life effortlessly. They thank them by giving Thankyou cards, by organising music and dance competitions,also giving speeches in order to make teacher’s feel special .

Conclusion

Therefore ,the teachers day is celebrated to convey a message that every teacher is important, and without them we cannot attain anything in our life.So this day work as a realisation day for every student or person who neglect their teacher’s opinion or efforts to make them feel how relentlessly a teacher do his or her job.

Learning Disability (LD)

A child with a learning disability finds difficulty in reading, listening, speaking, understanding mathematical concepts, and with general comprehension. It is a neurological condition that affects the brain’s ability for sending, receiving, and processing information. It is important to make a note that LD is not a cause of physical or mental illness, economic or cultural background. Neither indicates that the child is weak or lazy. Some children that begin with slow learners but cope with their studies in the future don’t fall under LD. Children’s approach to a specific type of learning is not LD but a child’s interest. 

Causes of Learning Disability

There is no specific cause of LD. However, there are certain factors that can lead to learning disabilities.

  1. Heredity: It is seen that the child with parents who had LD is likely to grow the same as well. 
  2. Illness during pregnancy or after birth: If a child had injuries during or after birth is likely to grow LD. Other causes such as drug or alcohol consumption during pregnancy, physical trauma, poor growth in the uterus, low birth weight, and premature or prolonged labor also result in LD. 
  3. Stress as an infant: If an infant had a stressful incident after birth such as high fever, head injury, or poor nutrition, then the child can grow LD. 
  4. Environment: Excessive exposure to toxins such as lead can be a cause of LD.
  5. Comorbidity: Children with LD have higher chances of attention problems or disruptive behavior problems. 25% of children with reading disabilities also have ADHD. Similarly, 15 to 30% of children with ADHD have a learning disability.

During regular physiological development, children acquire basic sets of basic cognition and motor skills. If the child has any delay or gap in this development then it can be a sign of LD.

Sings and symptoms

Dealing with children with learning disability - myRepublica - The New York Times Partner, Latest news of Nepal in English, Latest News Articles

To diagnose this condition a series of well-researched and proven tests and assessments have to be conducted. Generally, 5% of school children have LD. A child with a learning disability might also have ADHD as well. The symptoms of LD may vary from person to person during every stage of childhood. Commons signs of LD are listed as,

  1. Problems with reading and or writing
  2. Difficulty with mathematics
  3. Weak memory
  4. Difficulty in being attentive
  5. Trouble to follow directions
  6. clumsy behavior
  7. Unable to understand and tell time
  8. Unorganized

A child with LD will also have one or more of the following symptoms.

  1. The child might make impulsive decisions
  2. Isolate themselves
  3. Get easily distracted
  4. Unable to say a word correctly or express 
  5. Poor performance in school
  6. Unable to speak properly or complete sentences
  7. Lack of concentration
  8. Unable to go with changes in schedules or situations
  9. Difficulty in understanding words or concepts

Treatment

LD is diagnosed after multiple tests conducted by a group of specialists. They include child psychologists, special educators, pediatricians, or child psychiatrists. A clinical psychologist will conduct special intelligence tests that determine whether the child’s intellectual functioning is normal or not. Special educator assesses the child’s academic achievements with the help of standard education tests. These tests assess the areas of reading, spelling, written language, and mathematics. The counselor focuses on the behavioral issues that a child might have. When LD is detected, a pediatrician will enquire about the child’s performance in school and provide guidance to parents to get their child’s psycho-educational assessment done. Child psychiatrist checks whether there exist any symptoms of ADHD as there are higher chances of its coexistence. All of these, together contribute to treating children with learning disabilities.

Last words

A child with a learning disability is no different than any other child. It is just a neurological problem that can be treated with professionals help. It is important to give attention to this problem as it might be a big problem when the child is grown up. A number of medical and professional treatments are available to cope up with this issue. We should not ignore this matter and treat the issue as soon as possible. Because if it is left untreated then the children may lose the ability to cope up with the disability when they grow old.

Tips for safe internet banking

All through the year, banks and financial institution are taking up innovative measures to protect its customers from such banking frauds. But sometimes it’s our very own negligence that makes us fall prey to such thefts. Whilst, both the banks and financial institutions are doing their part, we should too adopt a cautious attitude to protect ourselves. So, to help you out in this process, we have a gathered a list of some tips for safe internet banking that you can consider doing.

Digital advancements have made our lives much easier, we can now order food or purchase things in the comfort of our homes. These rapidly evolving advancements are also transforming the banking and financial sector in India. Whether someone is transferring funds, paying a bill or applying for such loans such technologies are enabling customers to do it in a more efficient and effective way. The number of users opting for internet banking is expected to double by 2020, making India an important hub for financial innovation. However, internet banking, just like like any other medium if not done with utmost precaution can prove to be risky. There are scams like phishing( fraudulent means for attaining confidential information) associated with internet banking which enables a third-party to access and misuse your personal information.

Banking online has made managing money a lot more convenient than it used to be. We don’t have to visit the bank to transfer our funds, or wait for the next paper statement to know what the balance is. All that information is at our fingertips. But while online banking has made things easier for us, it’s also made things easier for thieves.

Criminals don’t need to plan a heist to rob someone’s bank account anymore. All they need to do is wait for you to let your guard down and expose your personal information, or send out a virus that will collect the information. The only way to avoid becoming a thief’s next victim is to carefully guard your personal information and always practice these online banking safety tips. 

1. Don’t access your bank accounts on public Wi-Fi

When you’re on public Wi-Fi, hackers can more easily access your computer and steal personal information from it. You should never access your bank’s website through a computer, tablet, or mobile phone unless you’re on a secure Wi-Fi network with a password, or using your own cell phone data connection. This is much more difficult for thieves to hack, so it keeps your information safer.

2. Avoid saving your login information

Some websites give you the option to save your login information for future use, but if someone uses your computer or mobile device after you, they could gain access to your bank accounts. To at least help prevent this from happening, many banking sites now time out after a certain number of minutes of inactivity, and do not save your information.

3. Use strong passwords and change them often

Strong passwords have a mix of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Many banks now require your online accounts to carry a password meeting these requirements. You should also change your password every couple of months, and use different passwords for all of your online accounts so that hackers will have a more difficult time gaining access to your information.

4. Use two-factor authentication whenever possible

Two-factor authentication is the next level of security that many banks are now offering. Usually, you give your bank your phone number, and it texts a code when you log in online. Some banks also enable you to request a code via email or a phone call. You must enter this code in addition to your password to log in. This way, even if someone has stolen your password, they cannot access your accounts. It’s another hoop to jump through, but it could help keep your money safe, so set it up if your bank offers it.

What Is the Best Time to Post a Blog and How to Test it?

Are you wondering when should you publish blog posts? Do you want to hit that sweet spot where you get the most traffic, social shares, and comments?

If you’ve just written a great blog post and want it to go viral, then publishing time can play an important role.

In this article, we’ll show you what is the best time to post a blog by going through key facts. We’ll also show you how you can test the best time to take your blogs live.

Let’s kick things off with a look at…

Best Time of Day to Post a Blog for More Pageviews

As you start blogging, you’ll have many questions like what time of day should you publish a post. Or which days are best for getting the most traffic.

To answers such queries, different studies have been done where agencies and websites have gone through tons of data.

And among them is a study conducted by Shareaholic in 2011 that shows the best time to publish a blog post is early morning between 7 AM to 1 PM EST on weekdays.

The peak is between 9 AM and 10 AM, which shows when you can schedule or publish your posts.

Building upon the same point,

shows that 70% of users read blogs in the morning (during the AM hours).

&It makes sense as people starting their day would be going through emails, planning their week, and reading up on the latest news.

That said, people do read blogs throughout the day, so you can publish posts in the later hours as well. Now let’s see which days you should take your blogs live.

Best Days to Publish a Blog Post for Traffic

Along with time, different studies show that posting blogs on certain days can help generate more traffic. And which days are we talking about?

Shareaholic suggested that the best day to post a blog is Monday if you want more pageviews. Similarly, Kissmetrics also says that Monday is the best to publish a post and generate traffic.

What’s the Best Time to Post a Blog for Social Shares?

When it comes to engaging people on social media, you’d want to push your blog post when your users are active.

And to give you an idea of what’s the best day for getting social shares, consider a study by TrackMaven. They analyzed 65,000+ blogs and suggested that blogs published on a Sunday get

A possible reason for this could be that on the weekend’s people have more time to read through your content and then come up with a reply.

So, if you have a topic that wants user opinion or start a conversation, then this is the best time to post a blog.

But what if these times don’t work for your website? How can you find the best publishing day and hour for your content pieces? Let’s find out.

How to Test the Best Time to Post a Blog?

The researches we’ve shown you in our article provide a benchmark but in reality, there’s no best time to publish blogs.

That’s because these studies use their own samples of websites to provide a generalized conclusion. And most of them are very old, going back to 2011.

A better way to find the best time to post a blog is by doing your own testing. By monitoring which days and time you get most visitors and engagement, you’ll know the optimal time of publishing.

And the best tool to help you out is MonsterInsights. It’s the leading WordPress plugin for Google Analytics and makes decision making easy by providing insights about your site’s performance with detailed reports inside your dashboard.

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to set up custom dimensions on your website and start tracking custom data of your choice in Google Analytics.

With the help of its Custom Dimensions Addon, you can exactly see what’s the best time to post a blog. Not only that, you can set up custom tracking of individual authors, post types, category and more.

You can follow our complete guide to custom dimensions in Google Analytics for configuring tracking of best publishing times.

Friends meaning

WHAT IS FRIENDSHIP?

The defining characteristic of friendship is a preference for a particular person. However, different people may have distinct definitions of and requirements for friendship. For example, very young children may refer to someone as their “best friend” two minutes after meeting, while very shy people or individuals from reserved cultures may report having only a handful of friends during their entire lives.

There’s no absolute definition of what does or does not constitute a friendship. However, some common traits of friendship include:

  • Some degree of commitment, both to the friendship and to the other person’s well-being.
  • A desire for “regular” contact with the other person. “Regular” contact could occur once every two days or once every two years.
  • Mutual trust, concern, and compassion.
  • Shared interests, opinions, beliefs, or hobbies.
  • Shared knowledge about one another’s lives, emotions, fears, or interests.
  • Feelings of love, respect, admiration, or appreciation.

Anthropologist Robin Dunbar theorized there was a limit to how many friendships an individual can have. In general, most humans have up to 150 friends, 50 good friends, 15 close friends, and 5 intimate friends. These numbers have shown to be consistent across time, from hunter-gather societies to the age of social media.

FRIENDSHIP AND GENDER

Culture strongly affects people’s understanding of friendship. In the United States and many other industrialized wealthy nations, women tend to have more friendships than men and to invest more energy in those friendships. Romantic relationships are, for many men, a sole or primary source of friendship. So as children grow into adolescents and adolescents become adults, boys may have fewer and fewer friendships.

Cultural norms suggest that women are “better” at friendship, more communicative, or more in need of intimacy from friends. This can create a self-fulfilling prophecy in which women are more likely to have friends. Women also spend more time investing in their friendships. A man might only talk to his closest friend once every few months, while on average, women in the U.S. tend to talk longer and more frequently to their friends.

Among people in long-term relationships, women tend to do more work to sustain friendships and other close relationships. This might include sending Christmas cards, remembering birthdays, making phone calls, and updating friends on major life events.

Researchers are increasingly sounding alarm bells about an epidemic of loneliness. Loneliness can shorten a person’s life and erode their health. It may even pose greater public health risks than smoking. This suggests that gender norms about friendships may actually harm men’s health. As marriage rates decline, men without friendships may feel progressively more isolated.

Gender may also affect whom one chooses as a friend. A 2018 study found that gender discrimination can decrease the likelihood that a person will form friendships with members of a different gender. Cross-gender friendships can foster empathy, break down gender barriers, and undermine gender stereotypes. Gender norms that undermine these friendships may therefore perpetuate gender stereotypes and misogyny.

FRIENDSHIP ACROSS A LIFESPAN

Lifelong friendships can be immensely rewarding. People may draw inspiration from talking to those who knew them when they were young. Lifelong friends connect people to their history, offer insight on how a person has changed and evolved, and are often deeply connected to one another’s families. These friendships offer a sense of permanency and consistency that can be deeply reassuring at times of ambivalence, loss, or anxiety.

Sustaining a friendship across a lifespan, however, can be difficult. People’s interests and lifestyles change as they age. In childhood, a friendship might be based upon geographic closeness or a single shared interest. So a move or a change of interests can affect even long-term friendships.

Some barriers to sustaining lifelong friendships include:

  • Changes in lifestyle. For example, if one friend has a child and a marriage and the other does not, the two may struggle to relate to one another.
  • Geographic distance. Childhood friends often walk next door or hitch a ride from a parent to see one another. When time together requires a plane or long car ride, the friendship is harder to nurture.
  • Time constraints. People’s lives tend to become more demanding as they get married, have children, become caregivers for aging parents, embark on challenging careers, and accrue more financial obligations. Finding time for friends can be difficult in adulthood, especially when friends have very different lifestyles or do not live near one another.
  • Cultural values surrounding friendship. In the U.S. and in many other countries, romantic relationships are treated as the primary and most important relationship. This can cause some people to value their friendships less as they enter adult romantic relationships.
  • Shifting understandings of friendship. There’s no “right” way to have a friendship. One of the challenges of sustaining a friendship is finding a shared understanding of what the friendship should look like—how frequently to talk, what to talk about, how openly to discuss disagreements, etc. As childhood friends grow up, their desires for their friendships may change. This can leave one friend feeling like the friendship doesn’t offer enough, while the other friend feels the friendship demands too much.

True friends

“Good friends care for each other…close friends understand each other, but TRUE FRIENDS stay forever…beyond words, beyond distance, beyond time…!”

Many of us have friends in our lives over the years. Some friends we make as children and then lose contact as we grow older. Other friends we make as adults and stay in touch with as long as we are in close proximity to and it is convenient to keep in touch but then over time one moves away or busy schedules slowly pull us apart and we start to lose touch.  Those friendships fall into the “good friends” or “close friends” as the opening quote cites. But then there is that last group of friends – those we call true friends – they are those we have a mutual caring about, and we understand each other’s hearts, and where bonds are formed between us that span any distance in proximity and where the bonds run so deep that no amount of time apart or lack of words will change the way we feel about that friend. These are our true friends, and when one comes into your life cherish it!

As a child our family moved often and so I was constantly making new friends each place we moved. Often the contact was lost with friends in past locations, although my memories of them were treasured. As an adult it is often harder to find the time to form those deep friendships outside your immediate family members because we are all trying to juggle a million balls in the air with work and church and service and community all while trying to give our greatest attention to our own children and spouses  where it rightfully belongs. And as a single mother for many years of my life it was even more difficult to make time for friends because playing the role of two parents by yourself while also being the sole support of your family was overwhelming to say the least.

But even during those challenging years there were individuals during that time who came into my life that I consider my truest of friends. They are individuals who saw me through tough times and who always saw the best in me despite any of my shortcomings. They picked me up at times I was down. They stood by me when I felt alone. They taught me things about life and about myself with patience and understanding. They lifted my children’s spirits and made them laugh when they were going through tough times of their own. They forgave at times when I was grumpy or obstinate. They loved me without judgment and without expectations. They gave me hugs, even at times that I may not have deserved one.  These true friends were individuals who were there for me…maybe not always in person or in word every time, but always in heart…and knowing that helped me through incredible challenges throughout the years.

True friends just do that – they help us grow and change for the better.  They support us in good times and bad. They can make us laugh when all we want to do is cry. And no matter how far apart time and distance may cause us to grow from one another, and even if death takes one of them from this world to the next, we always have the comfort of knowing that these true friends are still there for us, even if only in spirit, cheering us on and wishing us the best, because that is what true friends do for each other.

“A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation, doesn’t always need togetherness as long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends will never part…”

When someone is genuinely your true friend they leave an impression on your heart that will never go away…not with time and not with distance. True friends secure a place in your heart forever.  I am forever grateful for the true friends in my life, both those who are alive and those who have passed away, thank you so much for being my true friends!

Standing With The Children

The Supreme Court of India, on May 28, gave direction to the government about protection of children orphaned in the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic days have passed by without children getting food. We cannot know the exact number of children impacted in this time period. There has always been a high risk of orphaned children falling through the cracks of society. However, this problem has been majorly overlooked and during the Covid crisis, we have been given an opportunity to go back and revisit this question.

The first problem arises due to the caste and family structure of the child. After the death of the parents, there are many instances where the relatives do not take responsibility for the child. Even if the child does have a family, due to financial obstacles, they sometimes cannot provide for the education and the well being of the child. In situations like these, the child may not receive assistance and guidance in life.

If a child enters an institute and finds a place to stay at the hostel, he/she may not have someone to help them with their problems. For an orphaned child with no other family support, hostel could be the first and the last resort. Unfortunately many state governments do not allow the child to stay in a hostel beyond 18 years of age. Hence after completing school or college they have no home to return to. Many students even face problems with government documents, from Aadhar cards to Pan cards.

In this state of helplessness students often take the wrong path, and these wrong choices can land them into adverse situations. The major hand of help can come via the respective state governments since the government is legally bound by the Constitution to ensure the welfare of children. Recently, the Maharashtra government has changed the rule and allowed orphaned children to stay in hostels till the age of 23. However, steps need to be taken to ensure all the future generations are not faced with the same problems. Some steps that the government can take in this regard are: A yearly survey of orphan children at district and block levels to be initiated. The information about the child’s family should be registered by the respective authorities.

No child should have their identity compromised, and hence government documents should be supplied on time. Many governments schemes and programs should be set up which run parallel to the principles of freedom, equality and social justice. A permanent fund should be set up by government and if possible, local-level NGO’s so that the child does not face any financial issues.

Every child has the right to education and leading a fulfilling life. Loss of parents and loved ones can seriously impact the child. The child’s mental health can also be affected since they have no one to talk to and share their grievances with. Counsellors should be available for call or one-to-one sessions for all children, with whom they can openly share their feelings with.

They say children are the future of the country. Well, how can we build a promising future if 30% of children are below poverty line. It’s high time these issues get addressed and resolved so that all children get equal opportunities to lead a quality life and participate in society.

Good and Bad effects of competition in Life

Winner Winner Confidence booster!

Get set go!! What do you make of that? If you think its competition, you are absolutely right! In Today’s fast moving life,this phrase makes sense most of the time in every field. Yes, competition,the act of trying tobwin or gain something by defeating others, is the policy we bear in mind in completing any task how much ever minute it may be.

One of the main advantages of competition is, it provides purpose and firmness to the mind. It gives us an impetus to pursue our goal, despite the difficulties that comes along the way. Here, ego also plays a major part as losing means one is inferior to the other. This might help in increasing confidence level. If its a challenge, why not gain the pleasure by surmounting it?

Even for a trifle task, one thinks that he must be the first one to finish it, thereby forcing each one to give their level best into it, yielding a better result altogether. This trait can be observed in children too. They try to compete in any task given to them and feel very good about themselves once they finish it. This simple instance shows the infuence of competition.

Now-a-days, children are very witty, which increases the level of competition.With numerous opportunities and resources come greater competition. This can be observed in various competitive exams. The cut off marks are such that, by a point difference people lose.This induces more stress in people which might be positive or negative, depending on each individual and circumtances.

Competition provides the opportunity to select the best among the bests. It is the best way to analyze ourselves and keep a track of where we stand among our peers. It also gives us chance to improve ourselves and achieve better when the next opportunity knocks our doors.

The monthly or annual exams students face is a trailor to the future competitions we might encounter. Many children as well as adults bear the opinion that exams are unnecessary and irrelevant. On the contrary, without a definite reason, it is highly unlikely that people learn what is to be learnt.

The importance of competition is such that we must always engage in improving ourselves to be on par with the bustling world. Only when we compare and compete with people, our areas of strength and weakness is revealed to us. This is help in finding direction to move forward in life.

Coming to the disadvantages, it depends on one’s mentality and view point. If one is pessimistic, the idea of competition might be discouraging to him. Whereas, if he is optimistic and ready to take on challenges, it might actually help in pushing oneself to improvise on all levels. The reality stands that competition is everywhere. One can either moan about or make the best out of it.

In conclusion, one musy always try to have healty competition in mind. Especially in this competitive world, competition is a must and the one conpeting with full determination will be the winner of the competition called life.

CHILD LABOUR

Childhood is the best and happiest time of everyone’s life, when they learn the fundamentals of life from their parents, loved ones, and environment.

Child labour is any service performed by children during their childhood in any sector. This is due to a lack of resources for survival, the parents’ irresponsibility, or the owner’s lack of resources to boost their earnings on low-risk investments. Childhood is the birthright of everyone, which he should live under the love and care of his parents, but this illegal act of child labour forces a child to live life like a grown-up.

Child labour interferes with the proper growth and development of children in all aspects, mentally, physically, socially and intellectually. Child labour keeps a child away from all the benefits of childhood, the happiest and memorable period of all life is spent working. This interferes with the ability to attend regular school which makes them socially dangerous and harmful citizens of the country. Child labour has become one of the biggest social issues in India that need to be resolved frequently.

Child labour is very common in many developing countries due to the high level of poverty and the existence of schooling opportunities for children. The main causes of child labour worldwide are poverty, parents, society, low wages, unemployment, poor living standards and understanding, social injustice, lack of schools, backwardness, ineffective laws which are directly affecting the development of the country.

Child labour is contaminating the lives of many precious children every day. It is a high level of illegal act for which one should be punished but this is happening side by side due to ineffective rules and regulations.

Children are the power of any nation, Protecting children from child labour is the responsibility of every citizen living in the country.

Children create a prosperous future for any developing country, therefore, they are the major responsibility of all adult citizens and should not be used in negative ways.

They should get a fair chance to grow and develop within the happy atmosphere of family and school.

GAMING – good or bad?

“You know what’s really exciting about video games is you don’t just interact with the game physically—you’re not just moving your hand on a joystick, but you’re asked to interact with the game psychologically and emotionally as well. You’re not just watching the characters on screen; you’re becoming those characters.” – Nina Huntemann, Game Over

When most people think of video games they see little use for them besides being a source of entertainment or as a waste of time.

But most young kids see video games as a social activity, rather than an isolating one, and they believe video games are a great way to spend time with their peers or even make new friends.

Although it is true that there are negative effects associated with playing video games, with proper guidance there is so much that can be gained from the positive effects of playing video games.

Some psychologists suggest that video games can actually have many benefits, especially bearing in mind that the nature of these games has changed dramatically and now they are more complex and realistic .

So, in order to understand the impact video games have on children’s development, we need to look at both the positive and the negative effects of these games.

Some pros are- problem solving and logic , Hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills, Planning, resource management and logistics, Multitasking, simultaneous tracking of many shifting variables and managing multiple objectives, Strategy and anticipation and memory..

Some negative effects are- Aggression in Children, Gaming Addiction and Poor academic performance..

So as we can see gaming can be both good and bad ..all it really depends on is how children use it and the guidance they get.

Educate The Underprivileged Children

“The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of it’s youth.”

– Erasmus

Education is a necessary tool as it plays a vital role in one’s life. It provides us with the skillset to survive and thrive in this world. It shapes our ideas and brains so we can have critical thinking skills; and enables us to differentiate ourselves mindless sheep. Education is essential as it constitutes a means to eradicate the various social evils that prevail and plague our society like poverty, racism, gender discrimination, differentiation based on colour, caste, creed, religion. It’s quintessential in leading a good and healthy life, enabling us to learn and practice rules & regulations while making us responsible citizens of the nation. It is rightly said that education is the foundation upon which we build our future.

Children are inherently valuable as the pillars of the nation, and, therefore its extremely important that they’re encouraged and provided with resources to study & attain good education.

However, as unfortunate as it is, our global culture has stolen the rightful priority of children and placed it squarely on the wants of the adults. Our laws, our media, our investments; all favour the desires of adults first, second, third, and fourth, before ever considering youth. Our adult-centric society takes bets and loans against children, leveraging their future without consent. Thus, it’s essential that we realize that every child should be educated because each child is precious. Even though people have started realizing this gradually, the path of educating the underprivileged and enabling them a means to build a secure future still remains rocky nevertheless.

Awareness still remains an issue as the underprivileged communities are not well aware about education or importance of it, thus, they don’t understand or realize the need to send their children to schools. There’s a severe lack of role models modelling good learning practices and sharing the understanding that schools are indispensable in providing a space where skills are obtained and that the more skills obtained the greater chance at future successes. The next major hindrance is the accessibility to the education institutions. For some, obtaining the inexpensive education resources such as books, copies, pens, etc. too might appear a distant dream. The next impediment lies in the feedback received from those who are educated, yet unemployed or under-employed. This is partly because many educated are, in fact unemployable and others struggle to get a job even when they are employable. In the eyes of parents, therefore, education is either luxury or a palliative. The poor parents cannot afford luxury. The expected value of education, at least from their perspective, remains low.

And thus, due to the aforementioned reasons, the underprivileged communities remain perpetuated in the vicious cycles of poverty and misery for generations altogether. The only way for them to escape from repeating the cycle is acquiring an education and building a safe, secure and stable future on the basis of it.

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“If we nurture the dreams of children, the world will be blessed. If we destroy them, the world is doomed!”

CHILD RIGHTS

CHILD – The insignificant sound of this word can assist us with conjuring a picture of a fun loving minimal person who can easily look for bliss by blending with his/her relatives or companion gathering. A youngster is somebody whose psychological and physical advancement is to a great extent subject to the social and familial condition they live in. Youth is a weak stage wherein scholastic interest, great physical movement (read playing with companions) and sufficient social collaboration in a safe domain can add to the child’s physical and mental well – being. After each of the, a glad adolescence can guarantee a brilliant future. In this way, the word youngster work is an unmistakable logical inconsistency of everything that make for a perfect youth. To put it clearly, it’s the work of youngsters in any work that denies offspring of their adolescence, meddles with their capacity to go to customary school, and that is intellectually, truly, socially or ethically perilous and destructive. An exploitative practice however in any case widespread in the Indian Mechanical space.

India’s 2011 statistics demonstrated that there were more than 10.2 million “monetarily dynamic” kids in the age gathering of five to 14 years – 5.6 million young men and 4.5 million young ladies, 8 million kids were working in provincial territories, and 2 million in urban zones. Despite the fact that in provincial settings the quantity of kid laborers diminished from 11 million to 8 million between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, over a similar period, the quantity of youngsters working in urban settings rose from 1.3 million to 2 million. 1 in each 11 kids in India attempts to procure a living, as indicated by insights by Activity Help India. Absence of training, destitution and lacking mindfulness are a portion of the variables that have added to this wretched development of kid work in India. A few examiners accept that a comprehensive training framework and a severe law against this misbehavior can shorten the development of youngster work in our nation.

Despite the fact that these measures can introduce positive outcomes, history has instructed us that kid work laws/approaches have stayed insufficient in battling this hazard. The need of great importance is to address the financial states of our general public which forces a kid to work at a weak age, regularly in regrettable conditions. Ventures particularly exploit this small workforce as they are not in a situation to contend for better wages or favorable work conditions. Frequently guardians of these children push them to work because of miserable neediness. For a creating nation like India, it’s fairly disgraceful to have an equal economy of incompetent and unregulated workforce of kids who are continually being misused by their representatives, in this way impeding their turn of events and the fate of our nation. Is there a light toward the finish of this dim passage? one may ponder.

There unquestionably is.

Other than comprehensive training, tough utilization of kid work laws/administrative structures, social reviews can assume a significant job in checking kid work across different businesses. Be it a little scope industry or an enormous one, each association should give a record of its corporate social presentation as far as giving word related well being and security, work to minorities, ecological contamination and so on. In the expressions of some prominent scholars’ “social inspecting is characterized as a methodical endeavor to distinguish, investigate, measure (if conceivable), assess, and screen the impact of an association’s procedure on society (that is, explicit social gatherings) and on the open prosperity.” Social Review, in this manner, isn’t simply a stock of social projects completed by the organization yet a successful technique to recognize and decide the social obligations that ought to have been released.

As we have learnt, there are numerous pernicious elements that have added to the development of youngster work in our nation. Be that as it may, the opportunity has arrived to change the monetary texture of our general public for a superior and more promising time to come. A small advance towards this objective can presumably be social reviews alongside settling on educated choices and spreading mindfulness.

These are worldwide principles which request to not control lone youngster work yet in addition to give not too bad living to all representatives of the associations. These principles help the makers to keep up great workplace in the production lines. It gives the certainty to the general public that the producers regard the privileges of the workers.

Child Sexual Abuse

Child Sexual Abuse is one of the most heinous evils rampant in our society today. It is an issue that needs to be acknowledged in our houses and our systems if it is to be fought properly. Child sexual abuse refers to situations where a child is exploited sexually, tricked into involvement in sexual activities. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) as “the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he or she does not fully comprehend, is unable to give informed consent to, or for which the child is not developmentally prepared and cannot give consent, or that violates the laws or social taboos of society…”. The perpetrator is usually someone who the child knows well and has been around the child in places considered safe. The dynamics involved in such situations are very different from similar abusive cases involving adults and thus need to be treated differently.

Child sexual abuse includes both physical and non-physical activities between two individuals one of whom is a minor for the sexual gratification of the other person who is older than the minor. Rape, penetrative sexual activities, touching of breasts or genitals, forcing the child to watch porn or engage in harmful sexual activities, taking pictures and videos of the child, etc all come under child sexual abuse. It is not usually a one-time event but a continuous process that usually becomes more invasive and destructive with time. Child sexual abuse is a crime inflicted on a minor who is unable to give consent or process what is done to them. It leaves lasting effects that stay with them as they grow up and even cripples their ability to engage in everyday activities. It destroys them mentally, emotionally, and physically making many of them struggle with their experiences as adults. Self-doubt, fear, and repulsion of their own bodies is a common byproduct, as are PTSD, suicidal thoughts, and depression. Child sexual abuse leads to the devastation of entire families and individuals precisely because of its particular nature and the vulnerability of children.

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Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Child sex trafficking rings and kidnappings are large scale industries which profit from sexually abusing children, but we need to be aware that this does not happen only in such spaces but inside our own homes as well. It thrives because the child is often unable to fully articulate or communicate what is being done to them. Even when they know or feel that something is wrong, they tend to not voice it, particularly when the perpetrator is someone they trust. This delay in identifying abuse also lends itself to aiding the abuse to continue for extended periods of time, even years. Another reason is the lack of awareness on the part of parents or guardians who miss the signs of abuse or take the expressions of the child as silly when they try to say that they don’t feel safe or comfortable with certain people. Indian cultural standards that often attribute respect to elders and never dare to question them becomes an ally to such practices since parents are more likely to scold than listen to their children when they say that someone in their own family makes them uncomfortable. Listening to the child and not invalidating what they are saying can greatly aid in identifying instances of abuse faster. Increased anxiety, health disorders, physical signs of abuse, or use of force are all pointers to the fact that something may be wrong. Being a watchful adult and being a friend to the child will often allow them to open up to us.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) recorded that in 2018, at least 109 children were victims of sexual abuse every day in 2018. One has to keep in mind that this statistic is solely based on cases that were reported. The number of cases increases every year and particularly now with a pandemic and everyone being forced to be shut inside their own homes, the cases have severely spiked. The urgency of the issue has to be understood and addressed not just by the law but the common citizen since she is the one who is most likely to be able to identify, intervene and stop it in the least amount of time.

For help: CHILDLINE – Call 1098 (Ministry of Women and Child Development)

CHILD TRAFFICKING

Children….in our country there is a saying that “BACCHE BHAGWAAN KA ROOP HOTE HAIN”….. but there are some people who thought that making money and more money is the only thing in this world they just don’t think about humanity, love, affection, respect, care…. they just compare everything to money, they can do anything for money there are several crimes like murder, human trafficking, rape, robbery, assault and the list is too long…..

                       As we know that there is no connection between the criminal and the feelings they just do crime either it is with old, young, woman, man, child. But there are some hilarious crimes which takes place with children like CHILD ABUSE, CHILD TRAFFICKING (the part of human trafficking), KIDNAPPING and many more….

According to a report by the National Human Rights Commission of India, 40,000 children are abducted each year, leaving 11,000 untraced.

NGO’s estimate that between 12,000 and 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the country annually from neighboring nations as a part of the sex trade.

Every year, 44,000 children fall into the clutches of gangs. Though most of the trafficking occurs within the country, there is also a significant number of children trafficked from Nepal and Bangladesh. There are many different causes that lead to child trafficking, with the primary reasons being poverty, weak law enforcement, and a lack of good quality public education. The traffickers that take advantage of children can be from another area in India, or could even know the child personally. Children who return home after being trafficked often faces shame in their communities, rather than being welcomed home.

There are several crimes are increasing so government of India has taken legal actions against it and many missions are also going on to save the children.

ACTION TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT OF INDIA-

  • India has ratified the SAARC Convention on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Women and Children for Prostitution as well as United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime (UNCTOC) which has as one of its Protocols Prevention, Suppression and Punishment of Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children.
  • Recently Ministry of women and child development unveils first ever anti-human trafficking law and also for the first time, the National Crime Record Bureau’s Crime in India report included data on trafficking investigations, prosecutions, and convictions. Government also providing fund for rehabilitation and other issues of the victims of human trafficking.
  • A MOU was signed was between India and Bangladesh for Prevention of Human Trafficking in Women and Children, Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation and Re-integration of Victims of Trafficking
  • In 2003, India enforced the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which includes three protocols, specifically the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
  • On a national level, Article 23 of the Constitution of India explicitly bans human trafficking. The Government of India has also passed other acts and amended the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to address the challenge of child trafficking. The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1986 (ITPA) is an amended version of The Suppression of Immoral Traffic in Women and Girls Act, 1956 (SITA). SITA made human trafficking for prostitution illegal and outlined legal action against people involved in human trafficking in any capacity. ITPA made laws friendlier towards the victim. ITPA also created a system to rehabilitate victims of trafficking and prevent them from bring trafficked again. In 2013, the IPC was amended to create new provisions to address human trafficking in India that are more in line with the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children.
  • CRY is a critically acclaimed and internationally recognized NGO. It is a genuine and transparent organization which fights for children’s rights and protect them. CRY is the best medium one can get to the grass root level and uplift children. CRY is by far most trusted NGO in India.

By the action taken by government of India against the child trafficking we hope that the number of crimes decrease day by day…..

ANOTHER POINT….

I just want to ask why it is happening in our society… and why these crimes with children are going on…there are a lot of schemes , lot of plans , for better education, for better living, for better life.. Which are organized by government of India but the sad reality is… don’t know how many from us just don’t know about these plans & schemes!!!!!!! For this we can assign work to NGOs and other organizations which can just better execute this work by increasing their network in those areas where the reachability is less and get aware them about everything, and also help them to connect with all…….  

CHILD SOLDIERS

Currently, 46 countries still recruit and train children under 18 years old. Children as young as 8 years old fight are the front lines act as spies, or supply weapons or lookouts or messengers or as suicide bombers or sexually exploited by the armies or non-state armed groups. Some of these children are either kidnapped or are forced to join these armed forces. Many are forced to join them because of financial constraints and social reasons; many are recruited by offering children with money or drugs.  Many girls are kidnapped and kept as sex slaves by the male fighters. These children are trained in weaponry to fight and are exposed to violent crimes that affect them mentally. Underage girls are recruited as sex slaves by male fighters. Currently, there are an estimated 250000 child soldiers in the world.

WHY CHILDREN ARE RECRUITED AS SOLDIERS –

Despite the many drawbacks that children have they are more mouldable and can be indoctrinated easily. There are also many other reasons that children join the armed forces. Many join due to their financial backgrounds as they have to provide or make a contribution to their family, some join as their belief that the armed forces can keep them safe, lack of employment opportunities and poverty leads them to become child soldiers. Other children may be threatened or deceived into joining them by bribing the children with the hope of new friends or drugs. While others join on their own accord. Children who join on their own will join due to avenge their families or honor of fighting.

Effects on the children–

Children who join these armed forces and groups are involved in violent initiation traditions where they kill their family members or friends to show loyalty to the group. Such kind of violent acts strains the relationship they have with their community and scar them mentally. Many of these children are trained to fight along the front lines or given secondary roles such as spies or cooks or messengers. Regardless of their job prescription, children are mentally affected. Many children have zero access to education and safe living conditions. Many children have psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, higher risk of violent behavior, high risk of suicide, and anti-social behavior. Girls are made into sex slaves and are violently assaulted and raped. They suffer from pre and post-pregnancy difficulties from rape. Rape affects girls mentally and physically. Due to unhygienic living conditions where there are no menstrual products and rape, they are more prone to getting UTIs or STDs. All these factors make rehabilitation a difficult process for children.

CASES OF CHILD SOLDIERS–

AFRICA-

Many African countries still recruit child soldiers even though most African countries have agreed and ratified the African Charter of Rights and Welfare of The Child in 1990 which forbids the recruitment of children below the age of 18. The Democratic Republic of Congo has the highest number of child soldiers in the world. This is due to the first and second civil war in Congo which the army used by led by Thomas Lubanga Dyilo was 30 percent of children. A 2017 UN report on child soldiers in Africa said that the members of the terrorist military group in Somalia were 50 percent under the age of 18 and recruitment of child soldiers was also done by the Somali National Army.

MIDDLE EAST-

The Iranian government has started to recruit child soldiers from Iran and Afghanistan to participate in the Syrian civil war in 2018. Palestinian group Hamas which controls the Gaza strip still recruits children into its militia. The people’s Protection Units which is a militant Kurdish party in Iraq has abducted more than 200 children to enlist them into the Syrian civil war in 2018. Many non-state actors in the Syrian civil war have recruited child soldiers to participate in the war. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have recruited children from Sudan to fight in the Yemini Civil war and the British SAS were allegedly involved in training these soldiers.

ASIA-

In Afghanistan, many child soldiers are recruited by the Taliban. In Myanmar, the government army recruits children from the young age of 11 years old were recruited in 2002 as reported by a UN report. The Moro Islamic Liberation Front and government-linked paramilitary forces were recruiting child soldiers, in 2016 this was discontinued but according to a UN report in 2017 other armed groups were still recruiting children.

EUROPE –

All European nations have agreed and ratified the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, so the use of child soldiers isn’t in practice.

The ratification of the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict has significantly curbed the use of children in war as currently, 126 countries have ratified it. The treaty bans the recruitment of children under the age of 16 and also forbids non-state actors from recruiting children for any cause. The main struggle of child soldiers is their reintegration into society. Many of them have resentment and feel guilty about their community. It’s a very long process for them. They need to be given a safe environment, create a sense of forgiveness from the family. Most importantly need given access to education and support.   The use of children in armed conflict is a desperate human rights issue that needs to be resolved. This is a desperate human rights issue. The rights of these children must be protected. Government and non-state actors must make efforts to safeguard the rights of these children.

How does ‘parental divorce’ affects the mental health of their children?

What do you mean by a divorce?

Divorce, well a divorce happens after a husband and wife agrees to seperate their ways through legally. A divorce happens when the husband and wife decides that they do not longer want to live together anymore. Divorce takes place when both the partners fight over everything since several years and realise that they are not happy with each other. Divorce also takes place when there is a lot of physical abuse and mental torture. At times, it is a mutual agreement of divorce where the husband and wife mutually agrees to seperate their ways. But at certain times, this is not the case. A divorce can also happen when either one of the partner is cheating or having an extra marrital affair and wishes to end their marriage, then the other partner willingly or unwillingly has to accept the divorce without any other choice.Divorce grants permission to get free from the marriages and also access to marry whomsoever they want to.

At present, divorces are very common. Most of the marriages do not work due to some or the other issues. Some divorces are bitter, some divorces are on mutual basis, some divorces ruins the families. Every one has their different reasons for divorces.

Divorces is not just between two persons i.e a wife and a husband. The people associated with them are also affected be it their childrens if any, elders of the family, wife’s family, etc. It is hard for everyone.

How divorce affects the mental health of kids?

The most affected by the divorces are the kids. If the divorce is mutual and the kids are happy about it too, then there isn’t any issue about it. But, what if the divorce isn’t mutual? What if the marriage ended on bad terms? What if the kids weren’t ready about it? What if the kids never expected that one day their parents would get divorced? What if they were always kept in a happy family zone? What if they never knew that their parents were never happy with each other?

The kids when in their teenagers or are at the age when they have the ability to understand things are affected mentally because of their parents divorce. The marriage that ends on bad terms affects the mental health of not only the husband and his wife but also their kids.The whole family suffers due to the divorce between two people. It breaks the reality of their ‘complete happy family’ which they will never get again. Their mind is full of thoughts and confusion at the stage when they get to know that their parents would soon be seperated and they have to choose one of them.

They have to choose and stay with one person. If the kids are below 18 years of age, the legal custody of them is decided by the parents as per their convenience. And if above 18, then they are free to live as per their wishes.

The most difficult task for the kids is to choose between their parents, they never thought that such situation would ever arise in front of them. They face a dilemma whether to choose their dad or mom.

Its really hard to choose one. Still, they have to. Their mind keeps on thinking that they have to stay with one person from now onwards; either mom or either dad. One person would leave the house and they would never get to spend time again with their mom and dad together. This is the one scenario where only one parent has the sole custody of the kids. Another scenario can be where both the partners decide to take up the joint custody of their kids. And the third scenario could be where the grandparents or somebody other than the parents take the custody of the kids.

The kids get affected by all these. Not only kids below 18 years of age but also adult children i.e above 18 years of age; who experience the seperation of their parents. They get devastated, broken and hurt. They get depressed due to this. The divorce of their parents damages them from internally which they never heal resulting into trust issues.

Some hide their pain and sadness from their parents and act normal that they are ‘okay’ with them being divorced. But, the truth is that they are not okay. The pain, it stays with them for a longer time. They do not get over it. They find it difficult to accept the fact that their family would never be the same. They get lost and get detached from their parents.

They feel lost and take wrong steps and start indulging in wrong things. They feel there is no one to understand them now. They feel that they would never get a complete family now. The pain is there. The pain of not having a complete family ever.

Some kids start failing in their exams, some get silent, some get depressed, some become rude. Many kids or adult children start dating in search of love and gets ended up with wrong persons. Many indulges in smokings, drugs or alcohols. They feel this is the best solution to overcome this. But no. Nothing fills that pain or void in their hearts.

They always see other’s happy families and get sad because they can’t have ever one like them. They feel that their mom dad would never love them the same the way they did earlier. Their happy family gets broken.

Believe it or not, kids do get affected and start harming themselves. And the sad part is that they never heal from this. It remains with them till forever.

Before anyone else, they get hurt by their families. They think it is their fault that something like this happened with them.

The divorce of the parents directly or indirectly do affects the relationships of their children with others. They develop trust issues, fear of getting hurt by anyone, fear of getting close to anyone because eventually they would leave them. They start hiding their pain as they think no one can understand the pain they are dealing with. They feel lonely. Sometimes, even sucidial thoughts do come in their mind. They need love and support but they never find it. They fear of getting attached to anyone.

It is a lifelong grief or sadness that doesn’t goes out of their minds or hearts completely. The divorce changes them mentally so much that they change into a completely different person that they weren’t.

Parental ‘divorce’ can never be ‘over’ for the child. It stays forever. Lucky are those who have a complete family. Parental divorce ruins everything for the children.

How does education impact the poor?

Education is the best investment one can ever make in life. For a developing nation like India, every child should receive a quality education. It can not only change the health and livelihood of people, but also contribute to long term economic growth and social stability.

However, despite great progress in last few years, lakhs of children are still denied education. The lack of education is a big reason that transmits poverty from generation to generation. The society still doesn’t realize that right to education is a vital human right granted to every citizen.

Although it is true that not every individual without an education is living in extreme poverty, but most of the poor lack education. The ones living below poverty line keep their children out of school, which means their children will also have a greater chance to live in poverty.

Education is considered as a great equalizer which can open door to jobs, skills and resources that a family needs to thrive and survive. Access to good quality education and supporting child well being has been recognized as a solution to poverty. Not just this, it helps the communities to solve other issues that keeps them vulnerable. Not just this, it helps these communities to solve other issues as well that can keep them vulnerable.

Education is directly related to may solutions in terms of poverty, like:

  • Reduce income inequality
  • Economic growth
  • Reduce infant and maternal deaths
  • Reduce vulnerability to HIV & AIDS
  • Reduce stunting
  • Reduce violence at home and society

According to UNESCO, if all children in low-income nation just get basic reading skills, an estimated 171 million people could come out of poverty. And if all adults receive secondary education, the global poverty could be cut by more than half.

Children are the future of any nation.The children who receive quality education are empowered to grow into mature and skilled adults who are capable of picking employment. Education is the key under which several issues related to health, unemployment, population control and human rights can be solved.

Educated individuals are more likely to escape all troubles of life like ecconomic and social despair. On a larger scale, the rewards of individuals getting education also flow into the society, motivating other, thus can have an impact on the entire country. An educated country always flourishes and always progress far better as they can achieve better healthcare and economic independence. It will make people more independent.

There are many solutions to improve the situation between poverty and education.  Teachers should be provided incentives for teaching in low-income zones. Better resources and funding should be provided in school for poor.

All this sums up enabling communities to come out from the state of poverty.