Childhood forced to jump into the water for money

While traveling by bus and train, passing over a bridge of a small or large river, we often see some elderly people or those who believe in old traditions taking out money and throwing it into the river. This tradition of putting a coin along with some rice and sugar grains into the river while crossing it is just a practice of our remaining old beliefs, where people offer tribute to the water, or you could say, pay a toll, to get from one side to the other, based on traditions and beliefs. Although this tradition is now almost extinct, a few people can often be seen observing the tradition of stopping their vehicles on bridges over rivers passing through big cities and metropolises and releasing puja materials along with a few coins into the water. But have you ever thought that these few coins thrown into the water could be a means of livelihood for someone? That someone could risk their life to retrieve these few coins from the bottom of the water? If you think about it normally, perhaps not...!! Because they are just a few coins, not some ancient treasure for which one would risk their life...!! But for innocent and helpless children looking for a way to deal with financial hardship, a helpless life, small needs, and one meal a day, these few coins are indeed no less than a treasure. Because to get them, they don't have to do anything objectionable like stealing or begging; rather, it takes their hard work to do it with self-respect.

The Wazirabad Bridge in Delhi, the I.T.O. Bridge, the Ganga Ji Bridge in Kanpur, the bridge in Banaras—all these are bridges built over religious rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna. Under and around these bridges, you often see small children jumping and diving into the water, and you might assume that the children are just playing in the water. But you would never even imagine how these children are learning to measure the depths of life in the struggle for survival by holding their breath and collecting a few coins lying at the bottom of the water.

Lalla, Bittan, Ganesh, Hafiz, and Abdullah are such innocent children, aged 8 to 12, who, beyond caste and religion, form their own group and sit around the Wazirabad Bridge in Delhi, watching and counting how many people have thrown something into the water...!! As soon as 3-4 people gather, they immediately jump into the water, and when they come out with a few coins held in their mouths, there is sometimes joy and sometimes disappointment on their faces. When asked how much money they find daily, Lalla says that most people throw only one or two-rupee coins into the water, so each of us gets about 15 to 20 rupees a day. But sometimes, some "good people" also throw five or ten-rupee coins, and the day someone gets a five or ten-rupee coin in one go, it's like winning a lottery. During festivals, more people come to put money and other things in the water, and on those days, sometimes they make 50 or even 100 rupees.

For you and me, this might seem like a children's spectacle, nothing new! But for these small and innocent children, it is a job that runs their homes, and to find it, they have to take a long jump into the water every day. Whether it's winter, summer, or monsoon, their search neither stops nor lessens. Sometimes, when there is more water due to rain, there is also a fear of drowning. Ten-year-old Nasim once got caught in a strong whirlpool and never came out. Bablu held his breath underwater for too long and his lungs filled with water when he came up. Shiva made a wrong jump, hit a stone, and broke his hip; he still walks with a limp. Dinesh got blisters all over his body from the polluted water of the Yamuna, and he is still undergoing treatment. But despite this, these innocent children are not afraid to jump into the water every day... Why!! To find the answer, I looked at the children, and they all gave their answers in a very simple, innocent, and naive manner. Hafiz said he has no parents, only an old grandmother in the name of a family, who sells green datun (twig for brushing teeth) on the bridge in the evening. She doesn't earn enough money from this to even have two meals a day in peace, so he sits here every day eagerly waiting for people to throw a few coins into the water. Almost all the children had a similar story, the gist of which was that all these children are helping their parents in their livelihood by arranging for two meals a day for themselves.

Today, no matter how many Children's Days and Labor Days we celebrate and talk about banning child labor, will we ever be able to stop these children from searching for their livelihood by jumping into the water in search of a few coins due to their daily small needs and the compulsion to fill their stomachs.....??