WHAT IS HER FUTURE?

Seema (the girl in pink) has tied a swing onto a tree. She plays on this stretch of the road everyday with her brothers. When asked why she plays on the road, which is dangerous, she says there is no other place for them.

She doesn’t go to school and eats roti, just twice a day. She helps her parents who are rag pickers. With no roof on her head, she stays with her family near a garbage dumping site, on a road which leads to some of the poshest localities of the city. Like scores of children who are among the poorest of the poor, Seema is in tattered clothes and uncombed hair.

Is her family counted in the government’s data of BPL (Below Poverty Line) families? Is the government’s promise of food security ever going to reach her family? Is her dream going to become the dream of Rahul Gandhi? Does Narendra Modi have any development model for children like her? Isn’t she going to end up as another rag picker?

Her parents do not have any hope for the future. But, when one looks into her eyes, one can realize that she’s got hope, all in her innocence.