A Little Glass Girl
A literary piece against child labour and abuse
By Anoushka, XI A
Introduction
A little glass girl
Sat in my window,
She was truly brilliant once,
Her clear glass surface
Split tiny sun rays into the most vibrant of hues,
Her little frail wings,
Blessed pretty wings!
Were the whole wide worlds envy,
It's true!
And her daintiest part,
Was her diamond heart,
Its beats as swift and as brave,
As a Nutcracker's sure-footed march,
She was brilliant once...
Until a tempest came and broke one wing,
She suffered in silence,
Hoping the righteous'd win.
The tempest waged war,
It took her shine,
It left her skin scratched and full of dirt,
Of Grime.
She screamed and she yelled,
Kicked and flailed as she fell,
Into a world so hungry and cruel.
She called us did she not?
Her pleading eyes,
And calloused hands,
Why couldn't we see it before?
Her heart though
It remained like an ethereal moon,
Till her only hope,(You and I)
Spat dark and gore,
And broke the diamond in two.
This little glass girl is the embodiment of a child's innocence, their ability to love and dream with abandon and an imagination untouched by the sordid horrors of a materialistic world. A child's carefree manner and light laughter coupled with the gift of boundless dream are his/her wings. But then a raging violent storm, symbolising cruel, heartless and greedy human beings who take advantage of their innocence and economic circumstances steal their flight.
But children are as resilient as they are optimistic. So the child fights on, holding on to hope. Waiting for someone, someone with a good heart to save them not knowing that very often we remain blind to their pain. The child is put through back-breaking hard labour, food is scarce and comfort non-existent but hope? Hope is abundant. Until the very saviours, they had prayed for didn't turn up at all. And that light that makes children so endearing? Our ignorance took it away.
Almost 60% of all working children of the ages of 5-14 years in India are located in five states. This is 60% of 10.1 million children in India alone. A hundred and fifty million children around the world are victims of child labour and as a result, abuse.
These are not mere words or statistics. This is an invocation to people everywhere to help organisations like the Kailash Satyarthi's Children's Foundation to battle child sexual abuse and child labour. It is a plea for help and it is a call to arms so that little glass girls and little glass boys all around this world can keep their wings and their beautiful smiles
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