Are we really growing?
Are We Really Independent?
Women today - are we really considered equal?
Sach ka Samna: are we really prepared?
Can We Really Afford New States?
Do we really care for our elders?
It is really an irony of sorts. A stone throw away from the hustle and bustle of the financial capital of India, Mumbai, where thousands of crores of wealth change hands everyday, a poverty-stricken 28-year old mother sells her baby boy for a paltry Rs 400!.
It should be an eye opener for financial wizards who day in and day out speak about the emergence of India as a powerful state. The World Bank has recently announced that it foresees a 9.7 per cent GDP growth for the country in this year. And the prediction of the government and the economic experts are also on the same lines.
But, the baby selling incident, that too just under the nose of the financial capital of the country, has prompted me to think about the utter futility of such a growth. What is the futility of even double digit GDP growth, if the wealth is not percolated into the real needy people?.
What has prompted the mother to sell the new born baby? Read the full story:
The epicentre of the story is Chondipada, a poverty-stricken tribal village in Maharashtra, nearly 150-km north of Mumbai and three hours’ drive from the city’s high-rises, malls and multiplexes. The 28-year old mother is so poor that she wanted to get rid of the child as she had no source of income and the baby would have died of hunger with her. And she made no secret of it. Everybody in the village knew about the sale. They did not object, otherwise the boy would have been died of hunger.
In 1993, 43 children died of illnesses brought on by malnutrition in Chondipada. Last month, 20 children, who were malnourished going by new World Health Organisation standards, died of various ailments — pneumonia was the main killer.
Are we really growing?
