Tale of a slum kid

Photo: WAHID ADNAN/ DRIKNEWS

The other day at Farmgate I came across a boy selling newspaper to a man who was sitting in his car. The man handed him a ten taka note and the boy did not have change. So, the man started to scold the boy and at one point he got out of the car and beat up the poor boy. Nobody said anything or came forward to save the boy. As I was shocked at how cruel people have become to the underprivileged children, I stood beside him and asked him his whereabouts. He was an eight-year-old boy named Shujon. I also enquired about his parents and he said, “My father had left us and married another woman. My mother is sick and doesn't do anything.” Shujon is second among his five siblings; he lives in a slum at Mohammadpur. Whatever insignificant profits he makes out of selling newspapers, he gives it to his mother so that she can run the family. Although he had always wanted to go to school, he never had the chance to attend one. Shujon and children like him struggle for survival every single day. Theirs is an insurmountable battle, beginning from the very day they are born. If we are really unable to help them, we can still love them and show them sympathy.