Prakash needs a light !

Long Description

I had set out to meet Prakash (name changed). Prakash has been a resident in Neyyatinkara, a suburb in Trivandrum. He is a mason by profession and has a family of four living in a hut without any electricity. Behind his makeshift hut stands his dream, a concrete house.  However the construction work of the same has been stopped. “We have a lot of debts to clear,” claimed Prakash. “That’s why I haven’t been able get (electricity) connection for this house as well. Someday I’ll finish the construction.’ He stared at the house under construction with a heavy heart. Every brick in that house probably reeks of blood and sweat that Prakash and his family had put in. The irony, when a mason is incapable of building his own house. Prakash lives in a small hut, probably the size of a living room. The hut had been partitioned for a small kitchen and the remaining area was where the family of four lived. Amidst the bright lights that add beauty to the city, there are such blotches of darkness. The earlier reference of the metaphorical darkness holds true here. Prakash has two kids, one studying in 6^th grade and the other in 4^th grade. It is customary to make a remark about great men like Abraham Lincoln in such situations. However, not every kid who grew up without light in his house rose up to become an Abraham Lincoln. His opportunities get crushed with the setting sun. The story is no different here. When just about every kid is given an opportunity to study and progress, these kids are forced to share the dim light from the flickering kerosene lamp to do their homework. Perhaps just the right to education isn’t sufficient. Another thing that affects them is the ever-increasing price of kerosene. Available at a subsidized rate at the local ration shop, the quantity of kerosene available to the family is mostly insufficient. This forces the family to buy more kerosene in ‘black’, which is naturally overpriced. In times of utter desperation, they have resorted to the usage of diesel for lighting. They use wood for cooking and have no fans at home. To put the idea of not having electricity into perspective, when this article is being read at a place with an air conditioner or fan or any device to kill the heat, Prakash’s family faces the heat without any such facilities. All they can do is helplessly complain about it. Another house that I had visited in the same locality had a similar story to narrate. The clichéd theory of the vicious cycle of poverty necessitating poverty is a hard-hitting reality. A break in the chain is imminent.  Many of us have selfishly advocated that such irregularities exist all over the world. But as human beings, isn’t it their basic right to strive for a better life. Does the mere luck of being born into a different stratum of the society or geographic area discount our empathy for them? Are they in a position to progress? Doesn’t the popular notion of development encompass their well being too? Or have we conveniently forgotten the hands that built our homes and grew our food? Perhaps in situations alike these, it is necessary that we as the educated and able youth of the nation decide to become a WAVe of change.