Plight of school children on the streets

News stories on the aforementioned subject that appeared in the media recently generated bitter criticism at home. Children were taken to the streets to greet the newly appointed ministers on their maiden visit to their constituencies. Forcing the children out of their classrooms is a sheer wastage of time. Keeping them in long wait, bitten by chilly weather and hunger, makes no sense to demonstrate the popularity of the ministers. The entire exercise is at the expense of the sufferings of the children. One wonders how such an idea -- crude and medieval in spirit - could flourish in the brains of the local elites, including the administration, as a tool to show their allegiance to the leaders.
This takes me back to my school days, back in mid-sixties of the bygone century. I discovered myself in a similar line-up on a road near the circuit house in the city of Khulna. I was a school boy then and we were taken to the street in the morning to greet President Field Marshal Ayub Khan. It was a long, perilous waiting without any knowledge when the President would come. It was a summer day and the sun was blazing mercilessly overhead.
Hours passed by, there was no sign of the President's coming, and no end of our waiting. As for myself, I felt a kind of thrill hoping to be able to see the President. But no one could tell when he would come. At midday, the sun got hotter and many of the children were too tired to stand the scorching heat. One of my friends was trying to take shelter under the umbrella of a teacher escorting us, but the teacher instead of accommodating him, angrily drove him away expressing utter annoyance.
 Finally, quite sometime after mid-day, there appeared a kind of alertness, as a number of police vans passed by blowing whistles. We became alert too, thinking the moment has come for us to be lucky to see the President. But what we saw was a fleet of cars driving past very fast; we could not have a glimpse of the President. We were only told the President had left.
It is thus a long drawn practice, dating back to pre-partition days. Small children lining up to welcome political leaders or VIPs, without at all knowing who they were waiting to greet. No one ever questioned the stupidity of keeping the children out of their classrooms and cause them the sufferings, keeping them lined up for hours.
Thanks to our media, it has picked up the insanity of a practice that we should have parted with long back. The news stories have been well received by the readers and common citizens. It is heartening to see that the government has also reacted positively. In a circular, issued following the publishing of the news stories, the government has admitted that this practice hinders academic activities and leaves a negative impact on the mindset of the students. The government has put restrictions on the school authorities from lining up the students on streets to greet political leaders. The circular also warns of legal actions against the violators. One only hopes good sense will prevail on our leaders and also their cronies who are seemingly at ease to cash in on populism at the expense of others, no matter whether the victims are adults or minors.
Much damage has been caused to our children due to the recent political turmoil. They should now be spared.
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